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Daniel Thwaites has revealed that turnover for the half-year ended 30 September hit £60.3m, increasing by 4%.
This is despite the group’s operating profit dropping from £9.9m last year to £8.8m for the half-year, which was attributed to the impact of property disposal at the hospitality group. Daniel Thwaites reported only making a £200k profit off these disposals compared with £1.3m in 2022.
While the group’s operating profit before the impact of property disposals remained flat year-on-year at £8.6m, net debt up until September increased from £61.1m in 2022 to £70.6m.
According to the business, it has “comfortable” headroom against total banking facilities of £82m and maintains that it is trading well within its banking covenants.
The group’s hotels and spas segment delivered “steady” growth in sales, which are up on a like-for-like basis by 2% year-on-year. Profits also increased by 5% during the half-year.
Daniel Thwaites noted seeing increased demand for rooms, which drove both occupancy and rate across the segment.
Meanwhile, the group saw beer volumes drop 1% year-on-year during the half year within its pubs and inns business, which it attributed to the “terrible” wet spell throughout July and August.
The group maintains it has had a “glorious” start to September, however, and is said to be ahead on contribution.
Daniel Thwaites’ inns also performed very strongly over the summer, with sales up 10% on last year and profits up 12% after a quiet summer in 2022 when more people opted for overseas holidays post-pandemic.
Richard Bailey, chairman of Daniel Thwaites, said: “The government, whilst ostensibly saying that it wishes to control inflation and support economic growth, is scheduled to withdraw the current support on the overburden that pubs contribute to the government coffers in respect of business rates in the spring.
“However, so far both we and the general economy have continued to grow our top line and navigate the current cost and tax challenges, so we look forward with overall, albeit tempered, optimism.”
