Mitchells and Butlers focuses on five key market areas as turnover and profits rise
Mitchells and Butlers has revealed plans to focus on five key market areas, as it delivered improved turnover and profit figures for the first half of 2013.
The company, which has around 1,600 managed restaurants, pubs and bars under a range of brand names including All Bar One, O'Neills and Harvester, saw total revenue climb 2% to £991m compared to the first half of 2012.
Like-for-like sales were up just 0.3%, while adjusted operating profit climbed 5% to £145m.
Mitchells and Butlers said it had now delivered the cost savings from its restructuring in full, and had interviewed 8,000 consimers about 14,000 "leisure occasions" they had recently experienced to help refocus its brand positioning.
The company said the five market spaces on which it wanted to focus, accounting for around half of the £75b eating-out market were:
• Upmarket social (value: £8b) - relaxed but refined environments in urban and suburban venues. M&B brands in this space include: All Bar One, Castle, Nicholson's and Alex, according to the firm.
• Special (value: £22b) - A space covering special occasional dining from established branded offernig reliable and high quality food, to destination brands. M&B said its brands in this space were: Miller & Carter, Vintage Inns, Village Pub & Kitchen, Premium Country Dining Group and Browns.
• Family (value: £5bn) - Brands in this space include Harvester and Toby Carvery.
• Everyday social (value: £2bn) - this space encompasses brands which play a community role and provide casual, comfortable environments that bring people together. Our brands and formats in this space are Ember Inns and O'Neill's.
• Heartland (value: £4bn) - Value market where guests enjoy regular and familiar experiences - for a drink with friends or a quick meal. Brands and formats in this space are Sizzling Pubs, Crown Carveries and Oak Tree Pubs.
The company said upmarket social, special and family were the three areas currently benefitting from the most attractive consumer trends and it would invest in its brands in these spaces where possible.
In the everyday social space it said it would "optimise and invest" in brands to grow like-for-like sales and profits. And in the Heartland space, it would protect its cash generative formats by competing on value.
Alistair Darby, chief executive, said: "These results demonstrate the progress we are making through our business change programme. We are growing sales and profit in a tough market by building on the firm foundations of our excellent estate, strong brands, dedicated people and substantial scale.
"Having now delivered our restructuring cost savings in full, we have identified specific market segments where we can grow successfully and we have outlined clear operational priorities."
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