Update on Peach, as it announces results

Peach, the market town pub operator, has provided an update on the business, as it reveals its financial results for 2019.

Like-for-like turnover was reported as flat at £27m, with an operating profit before exceptional items of £423,000. This was down from the £671,000 delivered in 2018.

Founder Hamish Stoddart (pictured) says that so much has much has happened in the last year, figures now seem a distant memory.

“The decrease is a disappointment, reflecting the growing cost pressure on hospitality businesses in general between 2017 and 2019,” he says. “We need to achieve increased like-for-like sales growth in our current pubs and we aim to find additional pubs that can be added to our portfolio. Peach is set up to do both through its strategic plan and the centre structure that has capacity to manage more pubs highly effectively.”

In 2020, Peach refinanced the business, selling four freeholds for ground rent leases and removing most of its debt. It developed new pub The Boathouse at Boulters Lock in Maidenhead, Berkshire, with a £750,000 refurbishment. However, the site opened for just one day before being closed alongside all UK pubs on 20 March.

During lockdown, with the support of HSBC, Peach paid all its creditors and has now concluded deals and paid all of its landlords up to date. Your Hub Pub, a social enterprise set up by Stoddart as a way of keeping the pub at the heart of the community and support furloughed teams, cooked, served and delivered meals to the NHS, homeless organisations and local communities.

The VAT cut and Eat Out to Help Out support, alongside the weather meant that during July Peach was able to recover some of the substantial losses it sustained from March to June, putting the business well ahead of last year in August. September has also been profitable.

“Winter looks pretty scary for all hospitality businesses and for Peach too,” adds Stoddart. “Since the 10pm curfew and the weather turning, we have dropped 15% on our like-for-like performance in September. We will be close to breakeven over the winter period to April 2021, as long there aren’t more Covid-19 regulations that scare our guest base or stop us trading.

“10pm curfew is just hurting all pubs and bars without any evidence of being beneficial to reducing Covid-19 transmission. Christmas will see a huge drop on previous years. A second national lockdown would be hugely costly and we presume supported in some form by the government. We are comfortable we have enough funding and free cash in place to survive most eventualities through working with our team and all our suppliers.”