Young’s chief executive Stephen Goodyear has told M&C the company is keen to look outside of London for further growth.
He also said accommodation will continue to be a key focus going forward with individual hotel acquisitions and the scope for a further 100 rooms to be added to the existing estate.
He said that while like-for-like sales in the Geronimo estate were down 1.4% in H1 (compared to a 5.5% rise for the Young’s managed houses), in the six weeks since 28 September they were up 5%.
Goodyear said the Rugby World Cup had proved a huge success across the state, despite England’s early exit with the top-end rugby pubs showing sales growth of 40%.
He said: “We made our own luck – putting fan zones into pubs. Burger Shack came into its own. There was a big marketing push for months beforehand and it paid dividends.
“England’s exit did take a bit of froth of the beer but we’re quite resilient aren’t we? We’re not used to winning.”
On growth outside of London he said: “We did go a bit off piste and bought a hotel in Stow-on-the-Wold last year and that has proved really successful. We will probably look outside London a bit more than we have in the past.
“We want to keep moving the business forward so availability of sites is a big factor. If we can find pubs in London then we’re keen to grow our presence there even more but there are certain places we’d like to be. We trade in Oxford, Bristol, Exeter, Chichester but there are a lot of major towns and cities in the south where we don’t have a presence.
On the Geronimo estate, he said: “It’s back in a good place. Every now and again you need to reorganise something to get the best out of it and the like-for-likes we’ve seen in the six weeks since H1 – of over 5% - show we’re doing something right.
“It’s a change of directional approach. It’s just about refocussing on the portfolio, food, pricing, people and training and all sorts of different areas.
“Rupert and Ed did a great job for us. We are still thrilled to have it in the portfolio and it just needed a bit of a boost.
“We’re pressing ahead. The Trafalgar, at Tooting, which was the last one to open is doing well. We’re opening the Guardhouse in Woolwich. The Leman Street Tavern will also be a Geronimo, as intended. Those that were going to be Geronimo will be Geronimo and we’re committed to that brand.”
On accommodation he said: “Over the H1 we have seen more growth and momentum in our hotels business. Revpar was up nearly 6% in first half and that’s almost 20% over past three years. We now have 475 bedrooms across 22 hotels.
“We want to get more rooms. We are putting rooms into the Hand and Spear in Weybridge this year and we will be looking at other sites as well.
“We think there is potential for another 100 bedrooms over time in our existing estate.”
On Burger Shack he said: “We will continue to roll those out. We’re up to nine now and we bought a second airstream. We have a target of 20 and we think that’s very much achievable in the next 12 to 18 months.”
The company said the cost of implementing the National Living wage next year would be c£2m.
Goodyear said: “We’re supportive of the National Living Wage. We firmly believe that people should see the pub industry as a place to build a really strong career. At Young’s we have some lovely pubs and hotels and if you’re going to attract the right people you have to be fair and remunerate people. We had already been reviewing our overall pay structures – we always do and we have decided not to limit the NLW just to the over-25 because we think that barrier is illogical.
“We have invested a huge amount of time and effort into increasing our training resource and increasing our offer to young people. We are also looking at apprenticeships and trying to get that started.”
