Adnams, the Suffolk based brewer and pub operator, has seen a quieter start to 2015 than the previous due to depressed sales to national pub groups but said underlying trends remain good with growth in key products such as Ghost Ship, Dry Hopped Lager and its spirits range.
In a statement from its AGM, which was hosted yesterday, the company said: “Trade with our directly delivered customers has been strong, though competition in London in particular has been more intense. Sales to large National pub groups have seen a slightly quieter start to 2015 than we saw in 2014, but we expect some improvements later in the year. We sold six pubs during 2014 and have sold two more since the start of 2015. Our continuing estate has traded well.
“Our shops and online retail also traded well in 2014 and has continued to make progress in 2015. As we reported in our 2014 accounts, we are looking for new retail sites within East Anglia.
“We have been running the Swan and Crown hotels in Southwold for many years, and we are now moving other outlets under our own management to create a larger group of managed inns. The White Horse at Blakeney and the Ship at Levington have been brought into this group and are trading well, though we incurred extra costs at the start of this year whilst we closed the Swan and the White Horse for refurbishments.
“For a third year it was encouraging to see a further small cut in beer duty in the last budget, which has gone some way towards reversing the very substantial increases that we saw in the four previous years. The proximity of the UK general election and its very uncertain result mean that we have to be cautious in our assessment of the economic outlook, but Adnams is proud of its commitment to the long term and we are continuing with the project that we discussed in our 2014 accounts to invest £7.5m in our brewery and distillery to create capacity and flexibility to produce the drinks that consumers are demanding.”
