Enterprise looking to World Cup lift

Enterprise Inns reported a fall in half-year earnings yesterday butsaid the rate of pub failures was declining in the face of "very challenging" conditions.

The group, which has 7,138 leased and tenanted pubs worth a combined 5.3bn, said that net income per pub fell by 3 per cent in the six months to March 31, continuing the improving trend seen following last year's drop of 8 per cent.

While underlying earnings for the period declined to 204m from 226m a year earlier, Enterprise said it was hopeful that the forthcoming World Cup will enable licensees to generate extra business.

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Enterprise said the rate of business failures was lower in the first half of the year compared with a year earlier, a trend which it expects to continue.

And the number of pubs under temporary management, where outlets are moved through a programme of refurbishment and relaunch, has reduced over the last year, declining from a peak of 218 last summer to 84 in March.

Solihull-based Enterprise, the UK's second biggest pubs group, said the half-year performance highlighted the "resilience" of the tied pub model, as well as determination of its licensees.

The Office of Fair Trading recently gave the industry the all-clear following a 'super complaint' from the Campaign for Real Ale about so-called beer ties.

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