E-Malt.com News article: 2124

British brewing and pubs group Greene King's flagship ale Old Speckled Hen has helped to boost sales by 5% in the run-up to Christmas, BBC News reported on February 2. The Suffolk company said sales of Old Speckled rose 12% in the 36 weeks to 11 January against the same time last year. Other beers made by the Bury St Edmunds-based group's brewing division also sold well, with Greene King IPA up 3% on the same period last year, Abbot Ale 4% higher and sales of Ruddles increasing by 1%. Demand for both Abbot and Old Speckled has surged in recent months following a sustained marketing campaign by the group.

Greene King owns more than 1,650 pubs and also sells its beer through free houses, other pub chains, supermarkets and retailers.

It said it continued to sell more of its beer via external channels, while its pubs estate continued to do well. Like-for-like sales from 520 of the group's 549 managed pubs increased by 3.4%. The company's leased and tenanted division, Pub Partners, increased beer sales by 4% while total like-for-like turnover was 6.2% up.

Greene King said trading profit margins in its managed pubs had remained strong at 17.2% while margins from leased and tenanted pubs jumped 41.4%. The group said the figures were in line with expectations. Analysts are forecasting pre-tax profits of £81m in the year to May, against £75m last time, the group said.


04 February, 2004