Record sales; retained business growth of 5.3%.
· Retail like-for-like sales +0.8%; Pub Partners like-for-like net income +3.7%; Brewing & Brands own-brewed volume +5.9%.
· Retained business adjusted earnings per share growth of 5.3% with strong cash flow, lower leverage & dividend growth.
· Return on capital employed up 20 basis points on first half last year to 9.2%.
· Further strategic progress:
o Added 11 sites to Retail, taking estate to 1,040.
o Pub Partners estate now 864 sites; average EBITDA per site up 13.8%.
· Recommended proposal to acquire Spirit Pub Company, post period-end.
· After 30 weeks, Retail LFL sales were +0.8% and +1.5% last 12 weeks.
· Bookings for Christmas across Retail are +7.2%.
H1 Dividend up from 7.6p to 7.95p (+4.6%)
Rooney Anand, Greene King chief executive officer, comments:
"We have delivered record sales and strong returns against a challenging backdrop, reflecting the inherent strength of our business model and our proven strategy. Retail, our largest business, delivered profit growth, while we maintained momentum in Pub Partners and Brewing & Brands. As a result, we improved our ROCE, lowered our leverage and increased the dividend.
"In addition, we have made further, significant strategic progress by increasing our retail estate and disposing of non-core tenanted pubs to enhance further the quality of our estate, and making a recommended offer for Spirit Pub Company.
"With real incomes struggling to grow, customers remain cautious about spending on eating and drinking out. As a result, we will continue to tailor our customer-focused strategy to ensure we deliver another year of progress, long-term growth and strong returns to our shareholders."
