‘Pivotal year’ delivers revenue growth and portfolio expansion for City Pub Group plc

Newly formed leisure operator The City Pub Group plc has achieved revenue growth on the back of a year of expansion.

The London-headquartered company generated sales of £37.4m in the 53 weeks to December 31 2017, up from £27.8m the year previous.

City Pub Group, which operates dozens of pubs across Southern England and Wales, grew its estate last year with the opening of eight sites.

It now has 34 wet-led pubs trading and five completed acquisitions that will launch in the coming months.

Two further pubs are due to join City Pub Group’s portfolio soon, and the company confirmed that additional sites have been identified and are currently “in legals”.

The group made a pre-tax loss of £200k last year in real terms, down from a profit of £600k the year previous.

However, when adjusted to account for £3.2m in exceptional items and the £200k cost of a share option charge, the firm’s profit before tax would have been £3.2m last year. Similar adjustments in 2016 bumped its pre-tax profit up to £1.6m.

At the end of October, City Pub Group plc was formed through the merging of operators City Pub Company (East) Plc and City Pub Company (West) Ltd, raising £35m through an IPO on AIM.

Executive chairman Clive Watson said: “2017 was a pivotal year in the evolution of the business.

“Not only did we combine the two divisions under one roof, but we made the important step of listing on AIM.”

He continued: “We have also continued to expand our high-quality drink-led estate which has significantly increased revenue and group EBITDA.

“The momentum from 2017 has continued into the current financial year and we have already earmarked seven new pub openings for this year. We are on course to meet our target of doubling the size of the estate to around 65 pubs by mid-2021. We have a great head office team in place to deliver on this goal.”