Mitchells & Butlers adds 195 sites in past year

By Erin Smith

Published: 25 September, 2014

Mitchells & Butlers, one of the largest operators within the UK market, has been quietly growing the number of site throughout the year and has added 195 new sites over the past year.

In June, Mitchells & Butlers acquired 173 outlets from the Orchid Group for £266 million. Over the course of the year the company also opened 22 new sites.

The company released its pre-close trading update for the year-end which posted total sales growth for the 51 weeks of 3.8%. The World Cup helped to bolster the sales figures in July, but August was a very challenging month. According to the release, "having seen an improvement in demand in July following the World Cup, trading conditions during August were difficult in the pub market, as consumers remained cautious about spending and rainfall was significantly higher than last year".

Margins for the company took a hit this year and fell below last year's figures, but this was due to increased investment in staff and infrastructure that will better equip the company to serve the UK market. Three key areas of investment for the company included the roll out of a 'remodel programme' focused on converting the newly purchased Orchid Group sites to the Mitchells & Butler brand, increased staff training to improve customer service and a new IT pub system which was rolled out to over 1,000 of their sites. The remodel programme includes converting the Orchid Group sites to the Mitchells & Butlers brand.

The investments should help bolster numbers for the group in the next financial year.

Alistair Darby, the chief executive of Mitchells & Butlers, said: "Despite a difficult trading period in the last quarter, the transformation of our business is well on track. Coupled with the successful integration of the Orchid estate, this gives us confidence in our future growth prospects."

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