(Reuters) – Britain’s Marston’s reported on Tuesday higher overall sales over the 16 weeks to Jan. 18, driven by Christmas drinking, although cold and stormy weather in November and this month slowed growth.
CEO Justin Platt in a statement said the company was still on track to meet market expectations for 2025.
Shares in the company, however, fell 2.5% in early trade.
The group, based in Wolverhampton in the English Midlands, said like-for-like sales were up 2% after industry peer Mitchells & Butlers also reported a slowdown in comparable sales during its first-quarter as cold weather kept people at home and away from pubs.
Analysts at JP Morgan said they believed Marston’s had been “arguably more impacted” than Mitchells due to greater exposure in Wales, Scotland and Northern England where winter storms were more severe.
Marston’s total retail sales were up 3% versus 8.8% reported in 2024, with like-for-like sales for the two weeks covering the most lucrative festive days rising 11.1% from last year.
Peel Hunt analysts said it expected Marston’s to raise prices in March.
UK pubs, which enjoyed higher footfall as consumers spent more on discretionary items during the holiday period, are grappling with cost pressures from higher taxes and minimum wages.
In December, the pub group said it expects an 8.6 million pounds ($10.5 million) impact in its 2024-2025 financial year due to higher employment costs, but said that was manageable.
According to a company-compiled consensus, analysts on average expect Marston’s to report an underlying profit before tax of 68.3 million pounds in the fiscal year 2025, up from 42.1 million pounds in 2024.
($1 = 0.8168 pounds)
(Reporting by Raechel Thankam Job; Editing by Janane Venkatraman, Sherry Jacob-Phillips and Barbara Lewis)
