Marston’s PLC (LSE:MARS) has toasted strong trading over the festive period, which it said made it confident of meeting market expectations for the current financial year to September.
A day after the Treasury announced a targeted business rate support package for the industry, the pub company reported like-for-like sales growth of 4.0% for the 17 weeks to 24 January 2026, with a 5.6% increase across the five key festive trading days.
Christmas Day was a record day for the group, which operates over 1,300 pubs across the UK.
Marston’s said trading performance continues to outpace the broader market. It launched 23 new-format pubs in the first quarter, which it said are outperforming and support its plan to complete more than 50 rollouts this year.
The group said its operating model is delivering further margin improvement, helped by cost discipline and efficiency gains.
The company reiterated confidence in achieving full-year consensus profit forecasts, currently standing at £78.7 million.
A busy calendar of events is expected to help drive demand this year, including the FIFA World Cup, as well as pub quizzes and the darts 'Cool Hand Cup', fronted by professional player Luke Humphries.
Marston's said it was also "firmly on track" to deliver the targets set out at the October 2024 capital markets day, including shareholder returns.
Earlier this month, a US activist investor wrote an open letter calling for a board reshuffle and increased shareholder returns.