Greene King enjoys record Christmas trading
Pub group Greene King hailed a strong festive period this morning, as it posted record sales through Christmas and the New Year.
Over the past six weeks, like for like sales growth came in at 2.8 per cent, and Greene King said it enjoyed record Christmas Day sales of £2.7m, up 6.8 per cent year on year. Over the month, it sold a record 448,000 Christmas meals.
The pub and restaurant group, which operates the Hungry Horse, Old English Inns, Eating Inn and Loch Fyne Restaurants, said like for like retail sales were up 3.7 per cent over the 36 weeks to 6 January. Like for like food sales rose 4.1 per cent over the period.
The group, which operates around 23 pubs, restaurants and hotels across England, Wales and Scotland, said it does not expect conditions for the UK consumer to improve this year, although it said it was confident it could continue to deliver “sustainable earnings” to shareholders.