Admiral Taverns ‘well-positioned’ to weather tax increases
The company stated that its pubs trading through to January 2025 was ahead of management’s expectations, demonstrating the group’s resilience
Admiral Taverns has stated that it is “well-positioned” to weather increases in employer National Insurance contributions and business rates following strong trading.
The company revealed that its underlying operating profits rose almost 1% from £36.9m to £37.2m for the year ended 26 May 2024.
Alongside this, the company’s turnover rose nearly 7% from £182m up to £194.5m for the period.
As a result, the company revealed that its EBITDA also rose almost 7% from £55.9m up to £59.7m.
In this time Admiral Taverns embarked on a “significant investment” of £36.8m across its pub estate.
Furthermore, the company acquired 37 sites from Fuller, Smith and Turner in June 2024 and acquired 18 sites from Marston’s in September 2024.
The company stated that its pubs trading through to January 2025 was ahead of management’s expectations, demonstrating the group’s resilience.
Chris Jowsey, CEO of Admiral Taverns, said: “I’m particularly proud of the strong progress we have made against our strategic plans, delivering profitable growth across our estate as we continue to expand our footprint and cement our position as a champion of UK community pubs.
“Indeed, in these evolving macro conditions, the resilience of our model has come to bear, and we anticipate a further structural shift towards leased and tenanted pubs. The investments made across our estate with over £36m reinvested over the year in supporting our licensees to develop and improve their wet led pub offering, have clearly been fundamental to helping drive trading performance.”
He added: “However, it is perhaps the breadth of our wider support offering, from investment in energy saving initiatives to enhancements of our pub’s retail offering, that have been critical in helping our entrepreneurial licensees optimise profitable trade growth.
“As we look to the future, we remain focused on driving further improvements to enhance our support offering and will continue to look for opportunities to expand our community pub estate. Post year end, with the continued support of our investors, Proprium Capital Partners, we were delighted to announce the acquisitions of pub portfolios from both Fuller, Smith & Turner and Marston’s and we look forward to working together with our new licensees to grow these pubs as profitable small businesses and social hubs for their communities.”
