Pub group Hartwell Inns reports 5.8% sales rise as drinkers ‘trade down the hours’

Hartwell Inns, the Nottingham-based pub group with 540 sites across England and Wales, has reported a 5.8% rise in like-for-like sales over the past year, as it said customers were coming in earlier, eating more and leaving before 9pm.

The company, which is listed on the Aim market, said revenue rose to £412m in the year to the end of September and pre-tax profit to £31.6m, up 12%. Food now accounts for 54% of sales, from 46% three years ago, and the proportion of takings rung up before 7pm has risen from 38% to 51%.

“The pub is not dying, it is moving earlier in the day,” said the chief executive, Caroline Beddoes. “Our busiest hour on a Friday used to be 9 to 10 at night. It is now 5 to 6. People come in from work, have a meal and two drinks, and go home. The late-night trade has gone to the sofa and we have stopped trying to win it back.”

Hartwell has reshaped its estate around that shift, closing kitchens later, opening earlier at weekends and adding 60 “coffee-first” mornings at sites near railway stations. It has also cut the number of draught lines at most pubs from an average of 14 to nine, saying wastage had fallen by a quarter as a result.

The company said Christmas party bookings were 17% ahead of the same point last year, with the average group size up from nine to 11 people. Office bookings for Thursday lunchtimes were particularly strong, which Ms Beddoes attributed to employers using meals out to coax staff back into the office.

The results stand out in a sector that has been squeezed by rising employment costs and a cut in business rates relief. Hartwell said its wage bill rose by £14m over the year, and that it had passed on about half of the increase through prices, with a pint of lager now averaging £5.15 across the estate. It expects energy costs to fall next year as a fixed contract signed during the crisis expires.

Analysts said the company’s model, which relies on freehold pubs in market towns rather than city-centre leaseholds, had insulated it from the worst of the pressure. Daniel Okoro, leisure analyst at the stockbroker Penrose Wade, said: “Hartwell owns 70% of its buildings, which means it does not have a landlord putting the rent up. That is the single biggest difference between the groups that are growing and the ones that are not.”

The shares rose 7% on Tuesday. Hartwell said it would open 15 pubs next year and had bought a further 11 freeholds from a rival group that is retreating from the north of England.