West Midlands brewer Marston's returns to annual profit

The £163.4 million profit compared to a loss of £171.1m in 2020-2021, which was badly hit by the Covid pandemic.

The Wolverhampton-based group, which operates 1,468 pubs, saw revenue improve from £401.7m to £799.6m and included a period of disrupted trading in December and January due to the re-emergence of Covid-19 in the form of the Omicron variant.

Full year like-for-like sales were 99 per cent of 2018-2019 despite the disrupted Christmas trading period.

Drink sales continued to outperform food sales demonstrating the trading resilience of the group’s predominantly community pub estate.

Marston's was also helped by an improved share of joint venture Carlsberg Marston's Brewing Company's profits at £3.3m.

The group has set a “Back to a Billion” sales targets for 2026.

There has been positive trading since the financial year end, with like-for-like sales in the last eight weeks up 6.8 per cent on last year.

For the first two England World Cup games, like-for-like drink sales were around 50 per cent up on 2021.

Chief executive Andrew Andrea said: "I am pleased to report a strong performance over the last 12 months evidenced by a doubling of revenue growth, a return to profit and steady progress with our debt reduction strategy.

"We have a clear and focused strategy which provides a strong platform for future growth, and it is encouraging to see the actions and initiatives which we have undertaken in 2022 beginning to deliver positive results."

Mr Andrea said that demand for Marston's predominantly community-based pubs continued to be encouraging despite ongoing macro uncertainty.

"Our estate is well-placed to benefit from changing patterns in consumer behaviour. We are managing cost inflation well and remain confident that our commitment to continue to reduce the gGroup’s debt and return sales to back to £1 billion will drive net asset value and shareholder value.

"Current trading to the end of November has been positive with encouraging levels of Christmas bookings as we look forward to the first restriction free festive period in three years.

"Additionally, the World Cup has benefited trading, delivering like for like drink sales of circa plus 50 per cent for the home team games. Whilst uncertainty remains, Marston’s remains well-financed and in great shape to weather the challenges ahead with the right formula, the right strategy and the right team to continue to make progress and deliver shareholder value," he added.