Greene King PLC (LON:GNK) sales gained in the first quarter as customers flocked to its pubs to watch the World Cup and to sit in beer gardens during the UK's heatwave.
In morning trading shares were up 11.6% to 530.8p.
Sales rose 2.8% on a like-for-like basis in the 18 weeks to September 2, ahead of the wider market’s 1.2% growth. In the past 10 weeks, like-for-like sales increased by 3.2%.
The pub operator sold 3.7mln pints of beer during England’s seven World Cup matches and like-for-like sales on the day the team competed in the semi-final jumped 61%.
The group said its local pubs traded “particularly well” with like-for-like sales up 5.5% in the quarter.
READ: Conditions still tough for Greene King despite World Cup boost
In the Pub Partners division, which includes independent licensees that run their own business through Greene King, like-for-like net profit fell 0.4% after 16 weeks due to the timing of higher overhead costs. However, the company expects these costs to balance out over the year.
The brewery unit, Brewing & Brands unit, achieved a 4% increase in total beer volumes in the quarter while own-brewed volumes edged up 0.3%.
Greene King said its cost savings programme to offset higher inflation of between £45mln to £50mln is on track. It added that it was making “good progress “with its refinancing, which will reduce the cost of debt and increase flexibility.
As part of the restructuring, the group is on course to dispose of 100-110 pubs and expects to open around nine new pubs.
“We continue to focus on profitably driving top-line growth, developing a more streamlined and efficient organisation and further strengthening our capital structure to deliver long-term value creation for our shareholders. “
Liberum maintained a 'buy' rating on the stock, saying: "Greene King has issued a positive update with the robust trading seen at the start of the current financial year having continued in the following 10 weeks."
The broker added: "We are not changing our numbers at this stage as we believe it is prudent to retain some caution in light of consumer pressures and Brexit uncertainty HOWEVER we note that a mere +0.8% LFL is now required over the remainder of the year to meet our FY19E estimate of +1.5%."