Marston's PLC (LON: MARS) share price climbed 4.42% after releasing its trading update for the 42 weeks to 22 July 2023. The pub operator noted that like-for-like sales over the 42 weeks were up 10.7% compared to a similar period last year.
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The company reported that both drink and food sales were strong during the period under review, demonstrating the trading resilience of our predominantly community pub estate. Like-for-like sales for the 16 weeks to 22 July 2023 were up 10.9% compared to the 2022 financial year.
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The higher sales were driven primarily by the warm weather in the UK in June this year, which allowed the pub chain to maximise its return on investment in the outdoor trading areas as the summer approached.
Marston’s total retail sales for the Group’s managed and franchised pubs for the 42 weeks were up 12.0% compared to last year. The company noted that consumer demand remains robust, evidenced by guests' great experience at the company’s pubs, which continues to drive demand.
As the company outlined in its interim results, it ran a trial of rolling out the franchise-style model in 13 food-led managed pubs to complement the 717 wet-led pubs currently operating under the same model. The trial results impressed the pub chain since sales growth exceeded the broader food business.
As a result, Marston’s is expected to increase food-led partnerships to over 50 pubs in the 2024 financial year.
Andrew Andrea, Marston’s CEO, commented: “Marston's has delivered another strong trading performance, validating the strategy we are implementing and demonstrating the appeal of our pubs. We are making good progress and are beginning to see the benefits of the actions we have taken in H1, simplifying our trading formats and repositioning our pub portfolio, as well as the investments we have made in our pub gardens and outside trading areas. In addition, we are encouraged by the success of the trial extending the partnership model into our food-led pubs. The trial has been positive, and we will extend this model to over 50 food-led pubs in FY2024.”
*This is not investment advice.
Marston’s (MARS) share price.
Marston’s share price increased 4.42% to trade at 33.34p, from Tuesday’s closing price of 31.93p.
YOUR CAPITAL IS AT RISK. 76% OF RETAIL CFD ACCOUNTS LOSE MONEY.