Ralph Findlay, chief executive of Marston’s, has told M&C the company plans to open a further three to four Generous George sites over the next year and has acquired its first new Pitcher & Piano site for several years.
Findlay said the company was also keen to work with more multiple franchisees as it seeks to convert 100 to 200 sites over the next year to 18 months.
Findlay spoke to M&C on the back of this morning’s results for the year to 3 October, which showed like-for-like sales up 1.8% in the managed business, 2% in Taverns and like-for-like profits rising 4% in the leased estate.
Findlay said he was pleased with the performance, adding: “Trading over the year has been fairly consistent but the weather this summer was disappointing. It picked up at the back end of September, which helped. Overall I was pretty pleased with the year.
“We have been consistently performing above the Peach Tracker and that shows that growth isn’t confined to within the M25.”
On the focus for 2016, Findlay said: “We are continuing to develop within the pub-restaurant category what we are doing with rotisserie, pizza and carvery.
“Generous George has been working really well for us in the sites we have trialled it in. That will be a focus for us going forward and we will probably add another three to four units in the coming financial year.”
He said these could include conversions of the two pubs bought from Greene King earlier in the year.
“The continuing development of the Pitcher & Piano and Revere business is also really pleasing. We have two major projects underway in the Revere estate and we have bought our first Pitcher & Piano site for a number of years, in Sheffield.”
On the evolution of the franchised model, Findlay said: “It has moved on a long way over the last six years in terms of the support we offer. What we have seen in the last year is more interest from multiple franchisees, which is a relatively new thing. We now have our first multiple franchisees and I think that will be interesting to watch.
“I think we have got the potential to see a further 100- 200 sites operating as franchises over the next 18 months to two years.”
Findlay said Marston’s had “substantially completed our disposal programme of smaller wet-led pubs”, there would be ongoing disposal activity – somewhere up to £20m disposal proceeds per year.
He said he saw ongoing potential for 20-25 new builds per year for the foreseeable future and said the company would look at any area with a population of 10,000 or more.
Marston’s like-for-like sales have seen a balanced performance across wet and dry sales.
Findlay said: “We have seen a lot of positive development on the drink side and that’s partly down to constant improvement of the range – not just in beer but also in wines, spirits and non-alcoholic drinks. I also think some of the formats we have been working on have been somewhat more high energy, where the drinks sales form a great component of the whole.
“The Scottish beer market has been discussed a lot in terms of the impact from the change to drink-driving laws. We have not been impacted at all and the business maintains its momentum. I think that’s largely because of the type of operations who have in Scotland – family pub-restaurants where the driver of sales is not the drinking occasion.”
On the potential for AB InBev’s proposed takeover of SABMiller to affect Marston’s brewing operations, he said: “The UK market is a pinprick in terms of what is happening between those two giants. Generally I am very happy when two competitors are tying each other up trying to buy each other out because it takes their eye off the ball. But it’s such a mega deal, it’s hard to see how much impact it has on us.”
Asked what the company’s policy on tipping was, Findlay said: “It was a disgrace that people who were supposed to get the tips didn’t get all of it. Tips in our business have always gone straight to the staff directly without any deductions or amendments. It’s been a surprise to us that this is how quite a bit of the market works.”
