Adnams, City Pub Group, Hostmore, Odeon, wider trading & other:

Adnams, City Pub Group, Hostmore, Odeon, wider trading & other:

A DAY IN THE LIFE:

Arriving down in London yesterday lunchtime, it did appear to be rather quiet.

Yes, it’s Monday and yes, the half-term holiday could have spilled over for some but, when it got to around 4pm, 5pm and the bin in the communal kitchen (our floor has maybe 8 offices on it) was still unused and the loos still had their bleach in them, it occurred that this WFH thing really might be catching on.

Which, of course, is not new news per se but, when you multiply that across the thousands of offices – shared or otherwise – squatting in Central London, it starts to become rather material.

No wonder, then, that some hospitality operators are cutting hours on Mondays. Or are even shutting altogether. Friday might have a bit more life in it but the unfortunately-named TW & Ts (Tues, Weds & Thursday people) seem to have the upper hand and getting them to revert back to their 2019 working practices may be rather a challenge.

That has implications for coffee shops, pubs, bars, sandwich shops and the like but, before we get too heavy, let’s move on to the news:

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PUBS & RESTAURANTS:

Working from home:

See also comments above in A Day In The Life. The FT reports that around half of large multinationals are planning to cut office space in the next three years…

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Cost of living

The Telegraph warns that homeowners who secured rock-bottom mortgage deals during the pandemic now face paying an extra £5,000 a year as rates surge again….

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Price inflation.

The BRC yesterday reported that shop price inflation accelerated to 9% in the month to May, up from 8.8% in April and the highest number since the series began in 2005. Food price inflation slowed (a touch) from 15.7% to 15.4%…

Market growth:

Lumina Intelligence reports that the UK eating out market is forecast to grow by 4.6% this year, compared to 2019…

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Consumer behaviour:

CGA reports that ‘consumer demand for Britain’s pubs, bars and restaurants has stayed robust during months of rising household bills.’ It says 40% consumers went out to eat and drink at least weekly in April 2023….

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Other news: The pubs code adjudicator has produced its annual survey ‘with Marston’s coming out as the top performer across the board.’ It says this was its largest-ever survey. Some ‘62% of tenants are happy with the current relationship they have with their pub company’ (unchanged from last year’s survey) and ‘the data reveals that tenants at Marston’s have the highest overall satisfaction rates at 85%, a +12 percentage point increase on last year….’

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Trading; S4 Labour has reported that ‘across May, hospitality sales saw a slight uplift of 2.7% compared to the same month last year.’ It says that the boost provided by the coronation Bank Holiday was ‘modest’….

There are some concerns that Glasgow’s night-time economy could be negatively impacted by the introduction of the city’s low emission zone (LEZ) on Thursday.

COMPANY NEWS:

Adnams has reported full year numbers to end-December 2022 saying that sales for the year rose from £57.4m to £64.2. The group reports a loss before tax of £2.3m (2021: loss £1.4m) and reports losses per A share of 81p (2021: loss 87p).

Adnams chairman, Jonathan Adnams, says ‘in the early months of 2022 the beer market began its journey back to health, and customers were clearly pleased to be visiting pubs and bars again throughout our heartland and London. Our retail shops, hotels and pubs enjoyed a good beginning to the year, enabling the payment of an interim dividend.’ He says, however, that sales ‘would have been higher had demand not suffered as consumer confidence fell away….’

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City Pub Group has updated on trading. In a statement that will be read to its AGM later today, the company says that it ‘is pleased to announce that trading continues to be strong for the first 23 weeks ended 4 June 2023 with sales up 20% on 2022.’

The company adds that ‘LFL sales improved by 13% on 2022 and would have been higher if not for recent train strikes. The strong LFL performance is being driven by our strategy to further premiumise the estate and a continuous focus on customer service. We expect this trend to continue through H2 and we will also benefit from the new openings from 2022 which have performed well to date….’

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Hostmore has updated on trading, saying LfL revenue in the first 22 weeks of the current year is down 3% with total revenue down 1%. Inflation across the whole economy (as measured by the CPI) is running at 8.7%, suggesting that….

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Cracker Barrel Old Country Store Inc in the US has reported that ‘traffic’ (i.e. footfall) fell in April and May. It reports the fall as ‘meaningful’ and says ‘this softer trend has continued fourth quarter to date…’

The MCA reports that Yard Sale Pizza has confirmed it has appointed advisors as it explores “a number of potential options” to take the brand forward.

Subway is reported to have entered into a master franchise agreement with Shanghai Fu-Rui-Shi Corporate Development Co to expand in mainland China.

AB Foods is buying Aquis-listed National Milk Records. It says ‘NMR is a high-quality business which is extremely complementary and additive to our dairy strategy and offering to the dairy industry.’

HOLIDAYS & LEISURE TRAVEL:

UK Hospitality has called on the government ‘to bring short-term lets up to the standard of the majority of the visitor accommodation sector.’ The government is currently consulting on possible legislation…

OTHER LEISURE:

Odeon cinemas says that it celebrated its busiest Friday in 18 months after the latest Spider-Man movie was released last week….

Lloyds Banking Group is reported to be on the very of putting the owner of the Daily and Sunday Telegraph into administration. A restructuring and advisory group is said to have been lined up as receivers….

Spotify is to axe another 200 jobs from its podcast business in what will be its second round of redundancies this year. The company cut around 600 jobs in January.

FINANCE & MARKETS:

The Telegraph reports estate agent Hampton’s as saying that ‘houses are taking twice as long to sell today as they did a year ago, as rising mortgage rates make it harder for buyers to afford homes….’

S&P released its May PMI for the UK construction industry yesterday, saying that the ‘data signalled a modest upturn in overall UK construction output, driven by faster rises in commercial building and civil engineering activity.’ The number rose to 51.6 from 51.1 in April…

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Sterling mixed at $1.2423 and €1.162. Oil down at $76.76. UK 10yr gilt yield off 3bps at 4.19%. World markets better yesterday but Far East lower in Wednesday trade & London set to open down around 2pts as at 6.30am.

RETAIL WITH NICK BUBB:

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