Greene King posts record sales over Christmas, but still plans to close 100 pubs

Pub and brewing company Greene King is still planning to implement cost cutting measures across its nearly 3,000 site estate despite posting record sales over the Christmas period.

Pub company Greene King is planning to close up to 110 sites this year amid cost-cutting measures.

Greene King’s share price rose by more than 4% when trading opened this morning as Rooney Anand, the group’s CEO, said the business experienced “positive” trading over the 36 weeks to 6 January, with “particularly strong Pub Company trading over the important Christmas and New Year period.”

Sales at the pub company, which has around 2,900 sites in the UK, rose by 3.6% over the second half of the year. Like-for-like sales in the last two weeks of the financial year were up 10.9%, while Christmas day trading hit a record £7.7 million.

Anand said the results were “underpinned by our continued investment in value, service and quality, alongside a number of innovative festive offers, we reported record sales on Christmas Day and a strong performance from our drink-led Greene King local pubs.”

Pub Partners LFL net profit, meanwhile, fell by around 1%. The British beer giant said it is on-track to limit cost inflation to £10 million – £20 million this financial year, and will close between 100 and 110 pubs in a bid to cut costs. It will also open an additional nine sites around the UK.

“We remain focused on our strategic priorities of driving profitable sales growth, developing a more streamlined and efficient organisation, and further strengthening and improving the flexibility of our capital structure to deliver long-term value for our shareholders,” the company said.

“While the ongoing uncertainty around Brexit may still have an impact on consumer confidence and spending during the year, we remain confident of our outlook for the financial year.”