A week after completing its £775 million takeover of rival pubs chain Spirit, Greene King cheered investors with 7% rise in pre-tax profits from its ongoing business.
But chief executive Rooney Anand said the chain, which will now be made up of more than 3100 pubs, had seen customer spending slow as they spent their increased disposable income on “big-ticket” items.
“People who put off things during the downturn are now spending it on doing up their houses, buying furniture, white goods and cars and on going on holiday,” he told the Standard.
“These are things they cancelled or deferred. But with consumer confidence at an all-time high we are pretty sure this is a cyclical thing and spending will return to the leisure market.”
Greene King’s sales rose 3% to £1.3 billion in the year to May 3 with profits, adjusted for an extra week’s trading and the sale of 314 less-profitable pubs, up 6.9% at £167 million.
That was at the top end of City forecasts and the shares gained 7.5p to 852p. The dividend for the year rises 5% to 29.75p.
