Mitchells & Butlers swings to loss on Covid lockdown closures

The Harvester and All Bar One owner on Thursday said losses for the period to April 11 came in at £121m, compared with a profit of £75m a year-earlier.

Revenue fell to £1.04bn from £1.19bn as the company was forced to close all its1,700 pubs, bars and restaurants when the lockdown began on March 23.

The company said its the reopening of its German Alex business in mid to late May gave it "valuable insight into the challenges and opportunities ahead", adding that sales levels had grown each week since re-opening.

"City centre sites have been the slowest to recover, but conversely some suburban businesses have generated days of year on year growth," the company said and it expected a quick recovery assisted by year-long cut in VAT to 7% from 19%.

However, It also warned it was still withholding forward guidance as "uncertainty remains over a number of important variables", including the re-opening profile of sites, social distancing measures which will need to be in place and the strength of consumer demand.

As such we do not feel it is currently meaningful to give forward guidance.