Mitchells & Butlers PLC (LON:MAB) saw annual profits slide last year as unfavourable weather and the World Cup knocked the performance of its Harvester and Toby Carvery restaurants.
The ‘Beast from the East’, hot summer and football compounded what was already an oversupplied sector, with a net 4,000 new restaurants estimated to have opened over the past four years.
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To try to get customers through the doors, pubs and restaurants have been trimming menu prices and bringing in more deals.
That led to M&B’s adjusted operating profit margin falling to 14.1% in the 12 months ended September 30, compared with 14.4% in the prior year.
Adjusted operating profits slipped to £303mln (2017: £308mln), despite revenue edging up to £2.15bn (2017: £2.14bn).
In the first couple of months of the new financial year, like-for-like sales are up 2.2%, M&B said, although it did caution that the market remains “challenging” given the “high level of macro uncertainties” around at the moment.
Shares were down 0.5% to 266.2p in early deals on Thursday.