Hospitality giant Mitchells & Butlers has toasted higher sales in recent months amid stronger spending from pubgoers, while the firm braces for a swathe of increased costs including wages and meat prices.
The company, which owns brands including Toby Carvery, Harvester, and All Bar One, said its total sales were £1.5 billion over the 28 weeks to April 12.
This was 4.3% higher than the same period a year ago, compared like-for-like, with a larger lift coming from drink sales than food.
Chief executive Phil Urban said the performance was “broad based”, adding: “Whilst we’ll always have brands that are doing better than others, all our brands are doing well.
“It’s been the case for the last two or three years that Nicholson’s has led the way, closely followed by Sizzling Pubs, Vintage Inns, and Castle Pubs,” he told the PA news agency.
“Miller & Carter has had a solid six months so it’s good to see that doing well.”
But he said its Irish pub and bar chain O’Neill’s was “probably having the toughest time” due to challenges facing the late-night market.
Mitchells’s pre-tax profits jumped to £134 million from £108 million last year, it revealed.
But the company is bracing for its costs to rise by about 5%, or £100 million, across the year – although it warned this could rise to as much as £130 million over the next financial year.
This is set to be driven by a surge in labour costs caused by a higher national living wage and an increase to the rate of employer national insurance from April.
It is also seeing food costs rise, especially meat, which meant it was forecasting a higher rate of overall inflation next year.
“But we are hard at work to mitigate that,” Mr Urban told PA. “Steak is a big driver of those costs – we’ve got a steak brand so we’re not going to compromise on quality.”
Cost-saving efforts include shaking up menus at other brands and more efficient staff scheduling.
The chief executive added: “We and the sector will raise prices every year, I don’t think there’s any shame in that.
“Our pricing in recent years has ranged between about 3% and 5%.
“We base our pricing decisions on the market, looking at what our competitors are doing… but I would imagine that every operator in the sector with employer national insurance, before you even think about food costs, are having to think about prices again.
“Living wage has moved way ahead of inflation in the past three to four years, therefore some of that will be coming back into the sector.
“Today, a lot of our consumers have got more money in the pocket than they had before.”
