Punch Tavern profits ‘in line with expectations’

UK pub company Punch Taverns has said its overall profit performance for the year ending 17 August was in line with management expectations and that it would post a pre-tax and deductions profit of between £210m and £220m.

Fourth quarter trading for the group was strong, with like-for-like net income in its core estate up 0.4%. The group reported that this is its third consecutive quarter of improving like-for-like trends. This has helped return average net income per pub to growth for the full year across its entire estate.

Stephen Billingham, executive chairman of Punch Taverns, said: “We have made excellent progress in implementing operational changes that we expect will deliver further improvements in the underlying performance of the business.

“Our profit performance for the year has been in line with management expectations. We are encouraged by our first quarter of net income growth since demerger, and we reiterate our previous expectations of net income growth in the core estate for the years ahead.”

In reporting its annual figures Punch Taverns also said that it expects net income growth of 1% for the next financial year and between 1% and 2% for the 2015 financial year.

Punch, which sold 433 pubs over the last year, now has 2,990 pubs in its core division and 1,106 pubs in its non-core division.