Fuller Smith & Turner insisted the company’s aim was to double its pub estate through acquisitions despite the difficulty in security new sites. Michael Turner, chief executive, said the company was looking to make "some sizeable acquisitions" but only if they were right. The company is buying the Texaco petrol station next to its Chiswick brewery for about £1.1m. It announced full-year group pre-tax profits before exceptionals up 3% to £16.9m on turnover up 2% to £140.3m. It said it was seeing "promising signs" of a recovery in trading at its City of London pubs. The shares climbed 10p to 640p. The Times 29/05/04 page 50, page 55 (Need to know, Results in brief) Financial Times (Money & Business) 29/05/04 page 4 The Daily Telegraph 29/05/04 page 32