 announced record-breaking sales at its pubs on Christmas Day, despite slower trading as a whole over the first 37 weeks of the financial year. ){kind=link}
Greene King (LON:GNK) announced record-breaking sales at its pubs on Christmas Day, despite slower trading as a whole over the first 37 weeks of the financial year.
The group reported sales growth of 1.6 percent for the two weeks covering Christmas and New Year’s Eve, with record sales of £7.6 million, up 2.6 percent on last year, on Christmas day.
However for the period as a whole sales fell, down 1.4 percent in the 37 weeks to the 14th January 2018. Drink and room like-for-like sales were ahead of last year, but food like-for-like sales remained slower.
The group confirmed that it remained on track to deliver targeted cost savings of £40-45 million over 2018, and that its brand optimisation programme continued to deliver attractive returns of 25 percent.
“Both our new build and disposal programmes are also on track with six new sites opened and 40 disposals completed in the year-to-date. Our additional investment to enhance the customer experience, including being more competitive on price, having more team members available at key trading times and strengthening local marketing activity, will help to improve our competitiveness and relative trading performance”, the company said.
“Greene King has industry-leading brands, a strong and flexible balance sheet, and a sustainable dividend, leaving us well placed given the challenging market conditions.”
Greene King shares are currently trading down 0.84 percent at 522.40 (0909GMT).