Belhaven's pubs and pints push profit at Greene King

GREENE King said today that profit at both the brewing and pubs divisions of Belhaven had increased since it came into the group's ownership last year.

And the company also said that its ownership of Dunbar-based Belhaven would give the company "useful insights" when the smoking ban was introduced south of the Border next year.

Chief executive Rooney Anand said Belhaven's experience since the ban came into force in Scotland in March would give Greene King a head start on many of its counterparts on the best way to deal with the ban.

Over the past year, Greene King posted a 25 per cent increase in underlying profit to £119.6 million in the year to April 30, slightly ahead of City expectations for around £117m.

Total sales jumped by 16 per cent to £818.6m and the firm said it had made a good start to the current financial year, helped by the World Cup presently taking place in Germany.

At Belhaven, whose estate totals around 290 pubs and includes the production of the flagship Belhaven Best beer, operating profit in the 30 weeks under Greene King ownership hit £12.5m on sales of £64.8m, while operating margin was 19.3 per cent.

No comparable figures were given but Greene King - which also bought the 73-strong Essex-based pub chain Ridley last year - said both sales and profit were up at the East Lothian business, which remained under the stewardship of managing director Stuart Ross following the £187m takeover in October last year.

"Belhaven Best volume was up nine per cent year-on-year in Scotland; in recent months the brand has been trialled in some of our English managed houses, and the early results have been very encouraging," the company said.

In the period since the implementation of the Scottish Executive's smoking ban in enclosed public places on March 26, overall trade in the Belhaven managed estate has fallen by 0.3 per cent.

However, an increase in business in the early weeks following the ban followed by a sharp fall and another increase in trade led the company to take the view that "it is too early to accurately call the effect of the ban into the future".

Mr Anand said that despite that, the Belhaven team had managed the introduction and implementation of the ban well and Belhaven's experiences would be used as a outline template for the introduction in England and Wales.

"Looking ahead to the English smoking ban expected in England in 2007, our ownership of Belhaven also gives us very useful insights into the likely impact and best practice approach to adopt," said Mr Anand.

Commenting on the current trading year, Mr Anand said: "The new financial year has started well, and our pubs are also benefiting from the targeted plans that we put in place for the World Cup."