North east brewer and pub operator Camerons has confirmed it saw EBITDA rise from £4.9m to £5.5m in the year to 3 May 2015 after telling M&C that the figure is expected to exceed £6m this year.
Last week, finance director John Foots told M&C the company was on track for the current financial year – in which it secured £30m of funding for growth.
The company recorded pre-tax profit of £1.5m for the year ending 3 May 2015, compared with a loss of £571,322 the year before. Turnover rose slightly to £6o,9m, compared with £60.5m the previous year.
The company said: “The objectives of our five-year business plan, investing in our core business pillars of brewing, brands and pub retail continue to be followed and real progress has been made during the year and beyond.
“We have continued to invest in quality managed leasehold assets during the year with four new outlets acquired bringing the total number of outlets in our expanding managed division to 14 at the year end. We have significantly invested in our core estate, spending £0.8m whilst maintaining the strategy of disposing of underperforming non-core assets.
“There were 71 outlets at the year end following disposal of five outlets and four acquisitions. Since the year end we have acquired one outlet, signed heads of terms on another five managed outlets and sold our last remaining three non-core outlets. The disposals have resulted in impairments and losses on sale of £0.6m. The contract brewing business is very robust as we continue to attract new customers and we are delighted to have recently completed an investment of £1.5m on a new bottling facility, which was fully operational from November 2015, thus giving the business the ability to provide a one-stop shop brewing and bottling service to its existing and new customer base.”
