Pub retailer Greene King Plc (GNK.L) Monday reported 2.2 percent growth in retail like-for-like or LFL, sales for the 51 weeks ended April 21, reflecting a very strong first half and a slower second half. The firm also expects to meet market expectations for the full year. The company sees retail margin to be around 70 basis points higher than last year.
According to the firm, the second half was negatively impacted by a combination of tough comparatives and unusually poor weather.
In a pre-close trading update, the firm said all sales categories achieved LFL sales growth, with food LFL sales up 2.7 percent from last year, and room LFL sales increasing 3.1 percent for the year, except March.
Core brand own-brewed volumes improved 0.8 percent compared to the prior year.
Rooney Anand, chief executive officer of the company said, "Alongside strong underlying growth, we have made further strategic progress, adding an expected 33 new Retail sites during the year, taking the retail estate to 987 sites by the year-end, and reducing the size of the Pub Partners' estate by 108 sites to 1272 sites."
Further, the company said its strategy to reduce size and improve quality of the Pub Partners' estate continues. It expects to reduce its trading estate by 108 sites to 1272 sites through non-core disposals and reverse-transfers in the year.
Greene King is scheduled to announce its preliminary results for the 52 weeks to April 28, on June 27.
GNK.L is currently trading at 720.5 pence, up 0.84 percent, on a volume of 76,035 shares.
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