Morning:
14°c
Overheating Britons are back at the boozer. Greene King today reported recession-defying sales in the summer so far, with like-for-likes over the past eight weeks up by 5.2%.
The Scots are even thirstier as sales at the group's pubs north of the border soared by 10.2%.
“The weather is clearly playing a part,” said Rooney Anand, chief executive of the Suffolk brewer, which runs 1100 pubs around the UK and has another 1400 tenants.
He added: “Whether it is people wanting a drink at lunchtime or after work, people are more relaxed and they want to take advantage of al fresco drinking. But there is also the factor that in the early part of the credit crunch people perhaps stayed at home but now, with more money in their pockets as their mortgages come down, people are coming out.
“But we are not out of the woods. We'd be foolish not to recognise that we are up against soft comparisons. Last summer was the wettest since 1912 and the year before it was the wettest on record.”
It is a much-needed recovery. The group today reported a 15% dive in underlying profits in the year to 3 May, or a crash of more than 60% to £54 million factoring in a writedown in the value of its pubs.
