Admiral Taverns posts strong financial results

Admiral Taverns has increased its EBITDA by over £7m over its last financial year, with the wet-led community operator bucking the trend of rising revenue alongside falling profits.

Group financials for the 52-week period ended 28 May 2023 showed a group turnover of £182m (2022: £154.3m) and EBITDA of £55.8m (2022: £48.4m).

Led by CEO Chris Jowsey (pictured), Admiral says that over the last 12 months it has made good progress in its strategy to develop and maintain a high-quality estate of successful, individual, wet-led community pubs at the heart of their communities.

Its £55.8m EBITDA reflects the group's growth across first half of FY23, with second half impacted by the faltering economy, inflationary pressure and the energy crisis.

"We are delighted to see strong trading during the 12-month period, underpinned by our highly supportive strategy to help our licensees serve their communities and grow their business," says Jowsey. "Our focus has been on ensuring investment in robust trading, while successfully integrating the pubs and operations from the Hawthorn acquisition, and assisting licensees navigate the challenging financial environment presented by high inflation and a volatile economic outlook for the UK.

"The current economic environment creates a challenging backdrop for our publicans, but our community based, wet-led pubs continue to demonstrate their resilience, and are well situated within their communities to provide affordable hospitality. We continue to deliver strategic initiatives to support our licensees, including significant investment in sustainability initiatives, leading the way in the industry as the first leased and tenanted business to do so, along with substantial capex ranging from transformational refurbishments to general maintenance upgrades."

Admiral invested £27.7m in capex over the period and has further investment planned for FY24 to improve the retail offer of its tenanted and managed pubs. It currently operates c.1,500 pubs across the UK.

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