Marston’s targets £1 billion turnover as profits up nearly £110m
Pub operator Marston’s has set out its target to reach £1bn in sales as it reveals a boost in operating profits in 2022 to £115.4m.
This is up from £5.7m in the 2021 financial year.
In the business’s financial results for 2022, it was revealed that Marston’s full year like-for-like sales were 99% of pre-pandemic 2019 levels, despite a Christmas trading period hampered by the emergence of a highly contagious omicron variant.
The pub operator said its £1bn sales target could only be reached with around £200m sales growth compared to pre-pandemic levels.
However, Marston’s feels it is well poised to meet its targets. It has seen a jump in revenue of almost £400m compared to last year, and may benefit from boost in income from the Winter World Cup, which Marston’s says has led to a like-for-like jump in drinks sales of around 50%.
The company said it is well positioned to deal with challenging market conditions, with positive current trading seeing a 6.8% increase within the last eight weeks, compared to the same period last year.
It added that the shift to working-from-home for many people has benefited the out-of-town pubs, and with 90% of its pubs in suburban areas, they are well-placed to exploit this trend.
Andrew Andrea, CEO of Marston’s, said: “Demand for our predominantly community-based pubs continues to be encouraging despite ongoing macro uncertainty and our estate is well-placed to benefit from changing patterns in consumer behaviour.”