Fuller Smith & Turner PLC (AIM:FSTA), the pubs and hotels business, said trading is picking up again in the New Year after a disappointing Christmas period.
The group said that its managed estate's like-for-like (LFL) sales reached 90% of 2019 levels prior to the emergence of the Omicron Covid variant in early December.
Office Christmas parties were cancelled, and City workers stayed at home, leading to managed LFL sales in the four weeks to 1 January 2022 reducing to 72% of 2019 levels.
Since then things have improved for the London & south-east-focused group with Fuller’s revealing that in the 43 weeks to 22 January LFL sales in the managed estate were running at 81% of pre-pandemic levels.
London issues. Fuller’s update highlights hurt in the London market. Says 4wk Xmas LfLs were down 28%. Some improvement since N Year. Managed LfLs for the whole 43wk period running at minus 19% (all trading restriction ups and downs included).
— Langton Capital (@langtoncapital) January 27, 2022
"We are seeing an improvement in trade and expect that to quicken further now that the government has lifted Covid restrictions. We saw sales rise steadily in the City after previous lockdowns, and recent trading patterns suggest that there is a strong desire among many workers to return to office working. In addition, we expect to see a rise in the number of international tourists, which will benefit our London pubs and those in other tourist destinations,” said Simon Emeny, the chief executive officer of the Chiswick-based company.
“I am confident about the future, especially as we move towards business as usual and an end to government intervention. Our estate of iconic, well-located pubs is in great shape, and we have a busy pipeline of investments due to complete during the last quarter of the financial year,” he added.
Fuller’s shares were up tuppence at 702p in mid-morning trading.