Punch profits fall 16%

Punch Taverns has seen its pre-tax profits fall almost 16% in the year to 20 August 2011, following its demerger from Spirit.

Revenue at the business also fell by almost 7% to £521.7m.

Punch has around 5,000 pubs, almost 3,000 of which are in its "core" division, and just over 2,000 of which are in its "turnaround" estate.

Despite that, the company pointed to some positives, including the first growth in average net income per pub (0.9%) for three years, and an improving trend in like-for-like net income in the company's core estate, which fell 2.1%, better than the 5.1% drop it suffered in the previous year.

Roger Whiteside, chief executive, said: "These results have been achieved despite the challenging UK economic, regulatory and fiscal conditions, which continue to impact on the licensed trade sector.

"Our aim now is to become the UK's highest quality, most trusted and best value leased pub company."

Punch to demerge Spirit and sell off 2,200 leased sites >>

Punch demerger on track for the end of the summer >>

By Neil Gerrard

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