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Fri 28th Nov 2025 - Update: M&B and Upham Inns |
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M&B reports current like-for-likes up 3.8% after ‘another strong year ahead of the market’, anticipates cost headwinds of circa £130m: Mitchells & Butlers (M&B) – the Toby Carvery, Harvester and All Bar One operator – has said it had made a “solid” start to the current financial year, with like-for-like sales up 3.8% in the first eight weeks. The company said cost headwinds are anticipated to total £130m, representing slightly less than 6% of its cost base before mitigation, driven by annualisation of labour cost increases, plus further increases in the statutory thresholds, and increased levels of food cost inflation. M&B said this includes its preliminary assessment of the impact of the Budget, pending clarification of further detail. M&B stated: “We believe that our strong market position, together with the success of our Ignite improvement programme, should enable us to continue to outperform the sector and leave us well positioned to mitigate these cost increases.” It comes as M&B reported a 4.3% increase in like-for-like sales in the year to 27 September 2025 in “another year of strong trading ahead of the market”. The company reported total sales were up 3.9% to £2.71bn (2024: £2.61bn). M&B said that volumes of food and drink were broadly flat across the year. Profit before tax stood at £238m (2024 £199m). Adjusted operating profit grew 5.8% to £330m (2024: £312m). The company said: “We made a good start to the year with like-for-like sales growth of 4.0% over the first seven weeks. Performance over the important three-week festive period was particularly strong with like-for-like sales growth of 10.4%. Across the first quarter as a whole, like-for-like sales remained well ahead of the market, growing by 3.9% despite the notable adverse, albeit temporary, impact of very cold and stormy weather over the last couple of weeks. Sales remained resilient through the second quarter aided by good weather in late March, and with a particularly strong performance on Mother's Day. Across the quarter, we recorded like-for-like sales growth of 4.7%. Third quarter growth remained strong and benefitted from the movement of Easter into the second half, with like-for-like sales growth of 5.0%. Fourth quarter like-for-like sales growth of 3.2% reflected robust performances in mid-market pub and pub restaurants balanced against slightly weaker sales in London within the M25 and in more premium businesses.” During the year, the company invested £181m and completed 216 investment projects comprising 199 remodels, 13 conversions and four acquisitions. The company expects capital expenditure to increase further in the current financial year, to circa £210m, with additional potential for new site acquisitions. Chief executive Phil Urban said: “We are pleased to report another year of strong performance. Like-for-like sales continued to outperform the market across all segments, reinforcing the strength of our strategy and market positioning. Combined with disciplined operational execution, this delivered robust profit growth mitigating sector-wide cost headwinds. As we look to the year ahead, we anticipate increased cost pressures across the sector. However, we remain confident in our ability to manage these challenges through our established Ignite improvement programme and disciplined capital investment strategy. Our market-leading estate and diversified guest propositions provide a strong foundation for resilience and growth, enabling us to capture incremental market share and deliver continued long-term outperformance.”
Premium Club subscribers to receive updated Multi-Site Database with 3,488 operators and 15 new companies today: Premium Club subscribers are to receive the updated Multi-Site Database today (Friday, 28 November). The next Propel Multi-Site Database provides details of 3,488 multi-site operators and is searchable in seven main segments. The database features 1,010 (29%) operators from the casual dining sector, 799 (23%) pub and bar operators, 611 (18%) cafe bakery operators, 492 (14%) quick service restaurant operators, 287 (8%) hotel operators, 234 (7%) experiential leisure operators and 54 (2%) fine dining operators. The database is updated each month, and this edition includes 15 new companies. The database includes new companies in the experiential leisure sector such as Academy Music, part owned by music behemoth Live Nation and operating 18 venues across the UK, and East Midlands soft play operator Rascal Ranch. Premium Club subscribers also receive access to five additional databases: the New Openings Database, the Turnover & Profits Blue Book, the UK Food and Beverage Franchisor Database, the UK Food and Beverage Franchisee Databaseand the Who's Who of UK Hospitality. All Premium Club subscribers will be offered a 20% discount on tickets to Propel paid-for events and discounts on specialist sector reports. Operators that are Premium Club subscribers are also able to send up to four members of staff to each of our four Multi-Club Conferences for free. Premium Club subscribers receive their daily Propel Info newsletter 11 hours earlier than standard subscribers, at 7pm the evening before. They also receive videos of presentations at eight Propel conference events two weeks after they are held. This represents around 100 videos of industry insight over the course of the year. Premium Club subscribers also receive exclusive opinion columns every Friday at 5pm, which include the thoughts of Propel group editor Mark Wingett and a host of industry leaders from across the sector. In this week’s Propel Premium, Wingett looks back at the Budget, a key milestone for Popeyes UK, and other significant news stories of the week, while Simon Anderson, food hall consultant at Ideas Food Consultancy, and ex-chief operating officer at Market Halls, examines the rise of Wonder – the $7bn company you may never have heard about. A Premium Club subscription costs an annual sum of £495 plus VAT for operators and £595 plus VAT for suppliers. Companies can now have an unlimited number of people receive access to Premium Club for a year for £995 plus VAT – whether they are an operator or supplier. Email kai.kirkman@propelinfo.com today to sign up.
Upham Inns – sales and profit performance continues to grow, Oakman portfolio fully-integrated: Upham Inns, the southern England premium pubs operator, which acquired the bulk of the remaining Oakman Inns business for £8.1m this summer, has reported a 7.5% increase in like-for-like sales across its core estate, as it told Propel it has completed the integration of the Oakman business. In July, the business acquired 14 pubs from Oakman Inns & Restaurants after the business went into administration. The deal included the freehold of The Three Locks in the Buckinghamshire village of Stoke Hammond and 13 leasehold pubs including The Beech House sites in Amersham and Beaconsfield, and doubled Upham’s existing business. For the year to 31 March 2025, Upham said that its existing 14-strong estate saw revenue climb 2.5% to £19.8m (2024: £19.3m). The group swung to a pre-tax profit in the year of £191,000 (2024: loss of £311,000). The group said: “All but one of our pubs was in positive sales growth – the exception was significantly impacted by local road closures, outside of our control. The Swan at Chiddingfold was sold in August 2024 which distorts year on year total sales comparison – including the Swan with only part opening this year versus full trading last year. Overall, the improved sales have generated gross margin growth of £418,000 (2.8%). Pub overheads have been well controlled, helped by stabilising energy prices. The cost of labour with the impact of minimum wage as well as staff retention has seen our pub labour cost increase by circa 3.8%. Overall total overhead in the company including labour decreased by 1%. The improved margin performance and cost control has resulted in an operating profit before depreciation and amortisation in 2024-25 of £2.27m versus £1.72m in the prior year achieving a 32% year-on-year improvement. Our sales and profit performance continued to grow, despite the well-publicised industry challenges. Our like-for-like sales on core pubs grew by 7.5%, reflecting the quality of the estate (primarily country inns with bedrooms) and the efforts of all the team to drive growth. Year to date, we remain in positive sales growth cumulatively in the Upham Inns core estate.” Kevin Todd, executive chairman of Upham Inns, told Propel: “We are delighted with the quality of the pubs and team that we acquired from Oakman Inns. Within three months we have fully integrated the teams and all the systems and support processes. This now provides us with a great platform of high-performing premium pubs with rooms across southern and central England, and we are confident in our ability to continue to outperform the market with the quality of our offer and our teams. There has been excellent collaboration between the two parts of the company as we merged together, with significant learning from both parts. Together we are now a strengthened and unified team with quality locations, and look forward to the future with renewed optimism and purpose.”
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