Youngs profit bucks pubco trend

Young’s has announced a pre-tax profit increase of 7.2%, as the pub group’s preliminary year end results showed a boost from its £60 million acquisition of Geronimo Inns last December.

Revenues saw an 11.8% increase to £142.6m as the group reported a “good performance across all areas of the business”.

This momentum looks set to continue, with the company’s sales in its managed estates during the first seven weeks of the current year up by 8.8% on a like-for-like basis and 34.2% in total with Geronimo included.

Looking to the future, Stephen Goodyear, chief executive of Young’s, said: “Our strategy is focused on developing our existing sites to their full potential, whether as a Young’s or Geronimo pub, and on continuing to grow our managed estate. We are very excited about the potential for both brands.”

Describing the group as being “cautiously optimistic about the outlook for the current year as a whole”, Goodyear added: “Overall, we believe that the quality and growth potential of our estate will help us to mitigate the effect of what remains a very fragile economic recovery”.

Young’s has also announced the retirement of its non-executive chairman, Chris Sandland, who will step down following the company’s annual general meeting on 12 July. He will be succeeded by Nick Bryan, who joined Young’s in 2006 as a non-executive director.

Gabriel Savage, 31.05.2011