Greene King sold half a million extra pints during England’s World Cup thrashing of Panama, and the team’s progress to the knockout stages is likely to provide an unexpected boost to the bottom line of Britain’s biggest pub and brewing company.
Rooney Anand, the chief executive of the Suffolk-based business, said warm weather and the World Cup had brought more people to its pubs.
“Let’s hope Harry Kane has got his shooting boots on tonight,” he said. “His hat-trick on Sunday helped us sell nearly half a million [more] pints during the game. It remains true that when the sun shines or sport is on, people do want to go to the pub.”
He said the company had budgeted for only three England matches, so the team’s presence in the last 16 would be a bonus. “A lot of beer is being drunk, a lot of cider and gin. Gin sales are up 50% year on year,” Anand said.
In the past, World Cups mainly increased lager consumption. But Anand said fans are now drinking craft beer, gin and wine. In many of Greene King’s pubs, this is raising sales by 50%-100% on England match days.
The company has invested in better TV screens and rolled out its season ticket app in 750 pubs. In the run-up to the World Cup, about 100,000 customers signed up to the app, which allows them to find forthcoming sports fixtures and features personalised offers and loyalty points at participating pubs.
Anand dismissed suggestions that pubs could run out of beer due to a Europe-wide shortage of food-grade carbon dioxide, despite supplies running low of John Smith’s and Strongbow at some JD Wetherspoon pubs and elsewhere.
Booker, the UK’s biggest wholesaler, which supplies convenience stores and restaurant chains, has begun rationing beer, cider and soft drinks. Anand said Greene King had experienced “a little bit of disruption” to supplies.
Greene King, which runs more than 3,000 pubs, restaurants and hotels, and owns Hungry Horse, Chef & Brewer and Farmhouse Inns, posted an 11% fall in annual profit to £243m, but said trading had improved in recent weeks. Like-for-like sales are up 2.2% in the past two months.
The company was negatively affected by heavy snow in February and March, and faces higher costs related to increases in the national minimum wage and business rates, and the weaker pound. It said cost increases had not been passed on to customers.
Russ Mould, the investment director at the stockbroker AJ Bell, said rivals had performed far better. “Greene King can’t rely on a few good weeks to revive earnings growth. They need to think longer term and focus on core strengths,” he said.
