Cheers to Greene King as brewer grew five per cent last year
GREENE King survived a hangover from a lower Scottish drink-drive limit and consumers preferring to splash out on big-ticket purchases to toast annual retail revenue of over £1billion for the first time.
Greene King cheered investors with a 6.9 per cent rise in profits
The Suffolk brewer and pubs group, which has just completed a £774million takeover of smaller rival Spirit, cheered investors with a 6.9 per cent rise in profits from its ongoing business to £167million.
Group revenue was up 5 per cent to £1.31billion leading chief executive Rooney Anand to say it had delivered good growth “in a challenging environment” and should benefit from improving consumer confidence and disposable income.
But he added: “The lower limit has changed consumer behaviour towards drinking out in Scotland and we expect to see continued like-for-like sales weakness, at least in the first full year following its introduction.”
Shares rose 7½p to 852p.