Northern brewer and retailer Daniel Thwaites’ 200-year-anniversary celebrations have helped the group report a 9.5% growth in profit before tax to around £12.7m for the year ending March 31st 2007, writes Paul Charity.
The increase came after pre-tax profits dropped to £11.6m in 2006 from £12.4m the year before after a £2.5m increase in costs for the year as a result of rising utility bills, the new licensing legislation and staff restructuring.
The rise in profit for the latest year has been achieved against a “challenging” trading environment and an on-trade marketplace that continues to contract.
Highlights of this performance include the contribution of Thwaites’ 420-strong estate of managed, tenanted and leased pubs, which recorded a like for like increase of 3.8%.
The northern brewer also continued its strategy to invest in cask ales, and new introductions such as its commemorative Double Century, along with the flagship Lancaster Bomber
Ale helped the family firm to significantly outperform the market and register growth in that area for the third successive year.
These latest results from the Lancashire brewer are even more impressive given that they are comparative to a 53-week period the previous year.
Managing director Brian Hickman believes they are a glowing endorsement of the company’s long-term commitment to invest in people, pubs and brands.
He said: “It is fantastic to see our biggest investment areas producing real success. We have spent over £3.5m across two years on investment programmes at our pubs ahead of the smoking ban, and we have also made 10 significant acquisitions, recently adding flagship sites such as the Listers Arms in Yorkshire one of our targeted development areas.
“Last year we also announced some restructuring of our estate which allows us to offer a really flexible package of managed, tenanted or leased options to suit both the pub and the potential retailers.
“This obviously came at a cost but has proved a real success and the work will be continued with a pub categorization project that will allow us to further develop the total quality offering at every pub to really suit the customer.”
Hickman believes the figures are even more striking when put into the context of the beer market.
He said: “The on-trade beer market has been continuing to decline by around 4% per annum, but we have managed to buck that trend due to investment in product innovation.
“Our take home performance has also been very strong and with a number of new national listings announced recently we are expecting that to be a real growth area for us next year as well.”
