Young & Co’s Brewery PLC (LON:YNGA) has made a strong start to its new financial year despite the gloomy traditions hanging over the sector.
Pubs have been battling higher costs and squeezed household incomes for the past year or two, which have put pressure on their top and bottom lines.
READ: Conditions still tough for Greene King
The recent warm weather,coupled with England’s decent run so far at the World Cup, has provided some respite for Young’s, though.
“Trading in the current year has started well, with managed house sales for the first thirteen weeks up 8.8% in total and up 5.2% on a like-for-like basis,” said chairman Stephen Goodyear ahead of the company’s annual general meeting later today.
“We are, once more, benefiting from a long period of very warm weather.”
Goodyear did utter a few words of caution, though, particularly with regards to Brexit, which has become a more precarious situation over the past 24 hours with the resignations of David Davis and Boris Johnson.
Brexit uncertainty is "unhelpful"
“The macro-economic and political environment remains challenging and the continued uncertainty surrounding Britain's future trading relationship with Europe is unhelpful for businesses,” he said.
“In addition, our sector faced huge cost headwinds last year and while these pressures have continued into the current year, they have slightly moderated.”
Despite the challenges, Goodyear said he and the board “remain positive” about the outlook for the year ahead.
Young’s shares edged 0.2% to 1,748.3p in early deals on Tuesday.