London pubs group Young’s on Thursday lamented the lack of rugby internationals this month which typically prop up sales at the bar.
Boss Patrick Dardis said the recent Rugby World Cup lifted sales. However when the event takes place every four years it means the autumn rugby internationals at Twickenham Stadium do not happen.
Dardis said: “The internationals normally bring four solid weekends of fully packed pubs in our south-west London heartland.”
His comments came as Young’s, which runs 269 pubs, reported results for the 26 weeks to September 30.
Revenue was up 7.3% to £168.2 million, with comparable sales up 1.1%. Young’s said it was pleased with this given the comparison is with last year when England were in the football World Cup and there was a hot summer.
Pre-tax profits decreased 6.4% to £24.3 million.
Full-year targets remain unchanged and Young’s upped its interim dividend by 6% to 10.6p.
It added that trading in the last 13 weeks has been “strong”.
