Pub operator reports strong food sales growth

- Published: 28 September, 2011

Leading pub and restaurant operator Mitchells & Butler has showed marked growth in food sales in the 51 weeks to 17 September, reporting like-for-like sales of food of 4.9% compared to 1% across its drinks offering.

The company said it continued to focus on increasing productivity and cost-effectiveness, but admitted that there had been pressure on net operating margins as a result of input cost inflation, increased promotions and the costs from brand roll-outs.

The company said: “The UK consumer environment continues to be challenging. We expect cost pressures to remain next year, especially from energy, duty and food. We continue to drive increases in productivity and cost-effectiveness and have indentified a number of initiatives to offset inflationary cost headwinds. These initiatives are in areas such as menu improvements, drinks sales initiatives, gross margin management, IT costs and organisation changes to improve efficiency and effectiveness.”

Mitchells & Butler operates Harvester, Toby Carvery, Crown Carvery and Browns. Toby Carvery recently launched trial take-away menus across 25 sites in north London and Essex after the model proved successful in Harvester restaurants.

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