Admiral results show ‘significant progress’  

4 March, 2013

Tenanted pub group Admiral Taverns has reported strong results for the year to end-May 2012—evidence of what it calls a period of “significant progress” for the company.

Admiral said group turnover over the year was £96.2m, down by 9.8% but up by 8.7% on a turnover-per-pub basis. EBITDA per pub was up 5.9%, to a group-wide total of £28.3m. It said it beat its own budgets by 11%.

Admiral said it had trimmed its estate by 17.4% over the year, with the sale of 259 sites. It helped to cut its debt pile by 23.3% to £171m, meaning it has been cut by more than half since late 2009. Admiral invested £8m in its remaining estate—totaling 1,222 pubs—in the 12 months.

Presenting the results, executive chairman Jonathan Paveley said: “It has been another period of significant progress for the company, and one that has seen the organisation advance forward successfully.”

He added that the results showed there was plenty of life in traditional, community-led pubs, despite some negative press lately. “We believe the positive attributes of such pubs—freehold properties located in areas of large populations, habitual regular customers with low spend per visit, and strong cash generation—make attractive long-term businesses, and offer important leisure and meeting services to their local communities. These pubs, most of which are decades or even hundreds of years old, will continue to be cherished by their communities if well-run.”

Admiral said it had improved its licensee relationships and support over the year, and was optimistic about the years ahead. “Pubs continue to operate in what is a challenging trading environment, with growing competitive threats and an unhelpful economy that has served to suppress discretionary consumer spending... Nevertheless the underlying ‘leading indicators’ continue to move in the right direction, even if drink sales have been temporarily diluted by the deluge, and this gives us confidence for 2013 and beyond. The company is in a strong position to withstand the difficult economic environment affecting the UK consumer, and we are now very well capitalised to take any opportunities that may present themselves going forward.”