Amber Taverns sales jump 20% during festive period
The group is due to open its 166th site in Cleethorpes, North East Lincolnshire, in February, which will trade as The Old Vic, following a significant investment
Amber Taverns, the owner of 170 freehold community wet-led pubs, has announced strong trading over the key Christmas and New Year festive period across its pub portfolio with like-for-like sales up 20%.
Focusing purely on drink sales enables Amber to provide value for money and a tailored wet-led offer with a pint for as little as £2.50 or less, together with sport – all Amber pubs have Sky and BT sport – and live entertainment.
In addition to this strong trading performance, all of the company’s recently opened sites performed ahead of expectations, further underpinning management’s confidence in the enduring appeal of community pubs and the robustness of Amber’s model.
The group is due to open its 166th site in Cleethorpes, North East Lincolnshire, in February, which will trade as The Old Vic, following a significant investment.
Last month, Amber also announced that it had completed another four new sites – all of which are situated in locations where the company isn’t yet represented, namely Derby and Bridgend, as well as Airdrie and Motherwell in Scotland. All four sites are undergoing extensive investment and refurbishment before reopening in the Spring of 2024.
In addition to ongoing organic investment in the existing estate, Amber continues to build a pipeline of new site opportunities in pursuit of its aim to add approximately 15 new pubs to its growing portfolio each year.
The group has consistently achieved high returns of 20% on new freehold acquisitions and has lots of target towns within its existing geography to continue to expand its geographic footprint with well invested pubs at the heart of their communities with broad appeal across the UK.
The group is targeting 185 sites by the end of 2024 as Amber continues to progress its expansion plans.
James Baer, chief executive of Amber Taverns, said: “This is an excellent performance which, once again, demonstrates the ongoing appeal of well run, wet-led community pubs, generating sustainable growth in the growing number of geographies in which we operate. Amber goes from strength to strength as we continue to see attractive opportunities in a wide variety of locations.
“Targeting a total of 15 new pubs this year, we are on track to have a portfolio of 185 high quality pubs by the end of 2024, further reinforcing our future growth plans for the current year and beyond.”