Wadworth, the Wiltshire brewer and pub operator, has announced that Charles Bartholomew is to stand down from his role of managing director and chairman in 2015 to become non-executive chairman.
The company said it would be appointing a recruitment company to start the process of looking for a successor this year.
It comes as Wadworth reports a 16% rise in pre-tax profits to £4m in the year to 30 September 2013 on turnover up 1.6% to £56.1m. Operating profit from on-going operations grew 1.5% to £6.6m.
Wadworth sold seven pubs in the year and bought one, leaving the estate at 235 at the year end, of which 190 were tenanted or leased.
In the managed estate, sales were down 17.2% in a “poor” H1, while H2 was “much better”, ending up “just slightly behind 2012”. The company said a number of management changes and some targeted investment helped contribute to the profit growth in the second half.
Coffee sales in the managed estate grew 14% in the year, with Wadworth highlighting a greater focus on coffee sales with increased training and coffee delivery. The other two key areas of focus have been a project designed to help managers and teams deliver a great customer experience in the pubs, and the segmentation of the managed estate..
Contribution from the tenanted estate grew by 1.3% in the year, mainly due to “having a stable estate with fewer changes and some excellent appointments”. “Sales of our own beers have held up well together with cider, which benefited from the good summer weather.”
Rental income grew by more than 2% following investments totalling £1.5m on nine major schemes. There has been a “higher than normal” focus on outside decorations and this year’s spend will be £150,000 more than last year’s.
In May the tenanted operations team was restructured with an additional business development manager appointed and the number of pubs in each area reduced to below 40.
In the Brewing and Brands arm, 150 new accounts were opened.
Bartholomew said: “Investments we made at the end of last year and during the early part of this year have given good returns in both managed and tenanted estates.
“The Wadworth pub estate is predominantly country destination food-led and as such is very weather dependent. To reduce this reliance, a large proportion of the pub investment planned for next year is to create more internal covers plus the upgrade and addition of letting rooms. The three pubs we purchased last year, The Hedley Bowling Green near Worcester (managed), the Fish Inn at Ringwood (tenanted) and the Green Dragon at Brook in the New Forest (tenanted) have all traded well and are ahead of expectations.
“Beer sales remain challenging but we continue to outperform the market. As planned, our distribution agreement with KNDL, which started in November 2012, has provided substantial savings in costs and overheads and given us the ability to extend our free trade base into London and across the whole of the south of England.”
He added: “This has been a year of consolidation and with improved trade we have increased our investment in our core estate. We have a further five tenanted pubs for sale and two more to transfer from management to tenancy. Our aim is to have a smaller tenanted estate of better quality pubs.”
