City Pub hails 'strong' recent trading, sales up 23%

AIM-listed City Pub said on Monday that recent trading was "strong", with sales up and the company on track to meet its expectations for the year as its estate of trading pubs grew to 36 from 33.

In the first 18 weeks of the year, total sales were up 23%, making up for the snow-affected weeks in the first quarter.

During the period, the group opened a vegan pub in Parsons Green called Tell Your Friends, which is the brainchild of Made in Chelsea's Lucy and Tiffany Watson, whose father Clive Watson is chairman and co-founder of City Pub.

The company also bought The Covent Garden Pub, which is currently trading but will require a small refurbishment and completed the acquisition of a site in Summertown in Oxford which is expected to open in the third quarter after a refurbishment.

It also completed the acquisition of a large pub in Cambridge and exchanged on two trading pubs in London which should be open for trading by the end of next month.

Watson said: "We are pleased that recent trading has bounced back strongly following some tough weeks during the inclement weather earlier this year. Our pubs have strong and relevant customer offerings which is evidenced well by our continuing growth.

"We are excited by our new opening pipeline and with the development of those acquired. The strength of our balance sheet enables us to purchase development sites or trading sites, whichever delivers long-term value for the group. More pubs are currently being appraised and we envisage our pipeline expanding further this year."

City Pub added that it's well placed to meet expectations for the year.

Paul Hickman, analyst at Edison Investment Research, said: "City Pub’s 23% sales growth is refreshing compared with other consumer companies which have struggled with adverse weather in the first quarter. In City’s case it appears that more recent trading has more than made up for any setbacks.

"These are not like-for-like numbers of course (the company doesn’t believe they are helpful). With the trading estate growing from 25 to 33 between December 2017 and 2018, the sales growth would seem to be very much led by site expansion."

At 1230 BST, the shares were up 4.2% to 213p.