SA Brain profits falter amid sluggish recovery

27 May 2011 by
SA Brain profits falter amid sluggish recovery

Welsh brewer and pub company SA Brain has blamed poor summer weather last year and a slower than expected economic recovery for a decline in profits.

Profits before interest and taxation for the year to 25 September 2010 fell to £4.5m, from £13.3m the year before, although last year saw the company benefit from the sale of its free trade division to Heineken.

Turnover at the firm was also slightly down, from £103m in 2009 to just over £99m last year.

In his review of the year, chief executive Scott Waddington said: "We were encouraged by our performance up until the end of June, but the combination of poor summer weather and the slower-than-expected recovery of the economy resulted in a slowdown in trading during the final quarter, leaving our year-end outcome slightly behind our target."

SA Brain said it believed the total beer and ale markets in Wales fell at least 10% during the year, while sales of its own ales fell 13% due to challenges in the free trade sector and the smooth ale market in general.

Like-for-like sales at its managed houses were up 1.5% for the full year, with overall sales growth of around £400,000. The company redeveloped 16 sites over the period.

Meanwhile the tenated and leased market continued to suffer a slowdown in consumer spending, and sales volumes fell. Rental income also fell by around 5% as the company supported tenants with a range of measures including discounts.

SA Brain raises pre-tax profit on reduced turnover >>

SA Brain investing £5m in upgrade to 22 pubs >>

By Neil Gerrard

E-mail your comments to Neil Gerrard here.

If you have something to say on this story or anything else join the debate at Table Talk - Caterer's new networking forum. Go to www.caterersearch.com/tabletalk

Caterersearch.com jobs

Looking for a new job? Find your next job here with Caterersearch.com jobs

[Newsletters For the latest hospitality news, sign up for our e-mail newsletters.
The Caterer Breakfast Briefing Email

Start the working day with The Caterer’s free breakfast briefing email

Sign Up and manage your preferences below

Check mark icon
Thank you

You have successfully signed up for the Caterer Breakfast Briefing Email and will hear from us soon!

Jacobs Media is honoured to be the recipient of the 2020 Queen's Award for Enterprise.

The highest official awards for UK businesses since being established by royal warrant in 1965. Read more.

close

Ad Blocker detected

We have noticed you are using an adblocker and – although we support freedom of choice – we would like to ask you to enable ads on our site. They are an important revenue source which supports free access of our website's content, especially during the COVID-19 crisis.

trade tracker pixel tracking