Mitchells & Butlers (M&B) has reported a 3.2% increase in like-for-like sales for the 50 weeks to 15 September, with drink and food sales up 2.5% and 5.3% respectively.
However, the company has seen a slowdown in sales growth over the last 18 weeks of the period with like-for-likes up 2.6%, impacted by the poor weather, the introduction of the smoking ban and strong comparatives with July to September last year.
For the 11 weeks since the introduction of the ban, it reported a 2.2% rise in like-for-like sales excluding those sites previously converted to non-smoking, driven by a 5.8% increase in food sales. Drink sales during the period rose slightly up 0.9%.
It reported a 3.9% rise in sales in its Scottish estate over the last 18 weeks, and said it believed that the long-term impact of the ban would be beneficial to its business.
For the 50 weeks the group said that like-for-like sales for it Residential outlets increased by 3.4%, driven by a strong performance by its Local pubs and food sales.
Like-for-like sales through its High Street outlets climbed 3.1% during the 50 weeks, with a further improvement in the last 18 weeks, helped by the evolution of its formats and the buoyancy of trading in central London.
However, it reported that pressure on mid market consumers continued to impact on sales through its pub restaurants.
Total retail sales for the 50 weeks were up 9.1% on the previous year, while average weekly sales per managed pub climbed 6% to £18,500.
M&B said that the integration of the 239 pub restaurants it acquired from Whitbread in August 2006 had progressed well, with 163 of these sites converted to its formats. It said it expected to convert the remainder during the first half of next year.
The group said that to date the average weekly sales uplift on the converted sites was 20% above the levels at which they were acquired.
It said that despite the poor weather it still expected the acquired sites to deliver uplifts of 30% in average weekly sales in the year 2008/9.
The company, which postponed its proposed £4.5bn property joint venture with Robert Tchenguiz earlier this month, said that it still believed that substantial value could be released to shareholders through the creation of a dedicated property company.
It said that discussions were still on going over the proposed deal, with current post-tax deficit on the hedges taken out against the planned transaction standing remaining £140m.
M&B said that despite the uncertain outlook for consumer spending, it was well placed to make further market share gains in the year ahead.
It said it “anticipated another resilient performance amidst more challenging market conditions”.
