Marston's shares first results post-CMBC sale
Marston’s has shared its preliminary results for the 52 weeks ended 28 September 2024.
Following the sale of its 40% stake in the Carlsberg Marston's Brewing Company (CMBC), the now sole pub operator Marston's has shared its preliminary results for the 52 weeks ended 28 September 2024.
With an estate of 1,339 pubs across the UK, revenues at Marston's were up 3% to £898.6m, and like-for-like sales up 4.8%.
Underlying pub operating profit was up 17.9% to £147.2m (2023: £124.8m), with topline performance and operational efficiencies delivering improvement in underlying profitability.
As previously reported by Pub & Bar, net debt in the group was cut by £301.7m to £883m, driven by proceeds from sale of stake in CMBC and various disposals from the pub estate.
"2024 has been a defining year for Marston’s, as we began an exciting new chapter as a leading pure-play hospitality business," says Justin Platt, CEO of Marston’s. "The sale of our stake in CMBC has been transformational, enabling us to significantly reduce debt, increase our flexibility and focus on what we do best: running great local pubs.
"This single-minded focus, combined with our rejuvenated strategy, is already showing in strong financial results. We’ve delivered like-for-like sales growth ahead of the market, significant margin improvements and robust cash flow, while current trading is encouraging with Christmas bookings already ahead of last year."
The new-look Marston's business
At its Capital Markets Day (CMD) in October 2024, Marston's management presented the group’s refreshed strategy as a 'leading pure-play hospitality business'.
The strategy is focused on building a high-margin, highly cash-generative local pub company based on five differentiated formats.
Delivery of the strategy will be helped by various targeted areas, including digital transformation, the expansion of managed and partnership models, and leveraging Marston’s synergies in targeted M&A.
Like-for-like sales in the first six weeks since the activation grew by 3.9%. The business says that the autumn Budget on 30 October has put some "additional pressure on costs", but the overall package of measures is considered manageable in the context of the group’s CMD targets.
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