Young & Co's Brewery has posted H1 Results showing that total revenue for the period was £55.1m.
Adjusted EBITDA stood at £2.9m, and managed house EBITDA for the period was £8m.
The lengthy lockdown period of closure has had significant impact on results, with an adjusted operating loss of £14.3m, and adjusted loss before tax was £19.2m.
However, total revenue for the 10 weeks since opening on 20 July was encouragingly 84% of last year's figure. Adjusted operating profit for August and September was £5.9m with an operating margin of 12.1%. Like-for-like sales for 10 weeks trading was 81%.
The company announced in May that in view of the ongoing closure of the company’s pubs, the expected lower levels of trade when they reopened and the terms of the new £20m revolving credit facility with NatWest, the company would not be paying an interim dividend.
Despite the introduction of curfew restrictions and London’s Tier 2 status, since the period end, the trading of Young's managed house division had been encouraging at 73% of the trade in the same period last year, until all the pubs closed on 5 November.
Patrick Dardis, Chief Executive, commented, “Our business recently celebrated 189 years and the last six months has been one of the toughest periods in that incredible journey.
'The resilience of our customers has truly amazed us. The cautious approach we adopted and the safe environment we provided were key reasons why our customers flocked back in large numbers. The continued efforts of our pub staff to go above and beyond in protecting our customers in these challenging conditions is a testament to our wonderful people.
'As a business we benefitted from the Government’s Eat Out to Help Out campaign throughout August, which boosted midweek footfall with diners attracted by the headline 50% discount. We also made use of the Government’s much welcomed furlough scheme which enabled us to protect the jobs of nearly 5,000 employees.
'Despite the challenges presented to us, our rural pubs and hotels, particularly those in the South West and in coastal regions, have delivered like-for-like growth against last year benefitting from the staycations and weekend visitors. These tougher times have also demonstrated our strength in controlling our cost base in a very efficient manner.
'Whilst we were hoping that a further lockdown could have been avoided, the second lockdown with the financial support available from the Government will be considerably less damaging to our business than the potential move to Tier 3 in the areas that we operate. We remain positive at the prospect of trading in December.”