PERFORMANCE HIGHLIGHTS
Retail like-for-like sales up 3.5%; Retail margin increased ten basis points to 20.5%.
Average EBITDA per pub up 5.2% in Pub Partners; core like-for-like EBITDA up 1.7%.
Brewing & Brands core own-brewed volume up 1.7%.
Strong cash flow; earnings & dividend growth.
Further improvement in ROCE, up ten basis points since the year-end to 9.0%.
Current trading strong; Retail like-for-like sales up 3.5% after 30 weeks.
STRATEGIC PROGRESS
Strong growth from key sales categories; food now 41% of Retail sales.
1,008 Retail sites with 22 added; targeting further 90 sites over next 18 months.
59 disposals in Pub Partners; trading estate now 1,218 sites, down 28% from peak.
Further balance sheet strengthening; net debt to EBITDA has fallen to 4.6x.
Rooney Anand, Greene King chief executive officer, comments:
"This is a very pleasing set of figures and we have made great progress in the first half of this financial year. Growth has once again been led by our retail business, which grew profits by 8% over last year, helped by a combination of organic growth and further strategic acquisitions. The tenanted and brewing businesses also performed well, helping the overall business to deliver healthy earnings, dividend growth and further improvement in our return on capital employed.
While trading through the first half of the year and since the period-end has been strong, and the economic outlook looks to be improving, customers remain careful with their money, particularly outside London and the South East. We believe that our strategy, tailored for these conditions, will continue to deliver growth and further value to our shareholders across the rest of this year and beyond."
