Greene King reports 6% Xmas period like-for-likes: Greene King has reported managed division like-for-like sales up 5% in the last six weeks and 3.8% year-to-date – like-for-like growth hit 6% over the two-week Christmas and New Year period. Average EBITDA per pub in the Pub Partners tenanted division was up 5.6%. The company has also reported strong growth in brewing and brands with core own-brewed volume up 5.8%. Chief executive Rooney Anand said: “Trading over the important Christmas and New Year period has been very strong with all of our businesses performing well, driven by the strength of our seasonal offers and our continued focus on delivering industry-leading value, service and quality to our customers. Our teams have excelled this festive period, particularly in terms of delivering great customer experiences, and this has helped us deliver record-breaking achievements. Retail like-for-like sales over the two most important trading weeks of the year were up over 6% and we sold a record 62,000 meals on Christmas Day. This drove record retail sales on Christmas Day of £3.1m, up over 12% on the previous year. New Year’s Eve was also very strong with retail sales up 10% to £4.5m.” Total sales in Greene King Retail, its largest and fastest growing business, were up 8.2% after 36 weeks, with like-for-like sales growth of 3.8%. Like-for-like sales growth in the two weeks over Christmas and the New Year was 6.3%. Over the last six weeks, food took further share of the Greene King sales mix with like-for-like sales growth of 5.8% with room like-for-like sales up 12.5% and drink like-for-like sales up 3.9%. The company added: “In addition to the continued strong underlying growth in Retail, we added a net 28 new sites to our retail estate in the year-to-date. The retail margin remains strong and we expect the full year to be in line to slightly ahead of last year. Pub Partners continued to trade well with average EBITDA per pub up 5.6% after 36 weeks. Our disposal programme is on track with 81 non-core sites sold in the year-to-date. Core own-brewed volume in Brewing & Brands was up 5.8% after 36 weeks, with growth of almost 20% in the last six weeks, driven by a strong Take Home performance. Old Speckled Hen, the UK’s leading premium ale brand, was up over 15% in the year-to-date. Overall, our expectations for profit, cashflow and our balance sheet are unchanged and we remain confident that we will continue to provide growth in earnings and dividends, and improving returns, to our shareholders.” 

Jimmy’s World Kitchen adds two key executives: Jimmy’s World Kitchen, the multi-cuisine restaurant proposition delivering over 100 dishes from around the world spanning Indian, Thai, Chinese, Japanese, Italian and Mexican, has added two further senior executive appointments as it continues to gear up for its next stage of growth. Jeremy Smith has joined the company as property director and Dan Simpson joins as operations director with effect from 20 January 2014. These senior appointments follow Zoe Tindall joining the business as finance director last month. Jeremy Smith has worked for a variety of fast-growing retail and leisure retail businesses such as Starbucks, Crew Clothing, Fat Face and Allied Domecq. Dan Simpson joins Jimmy’s from SA Brain, the Welsh integrated brewer and pub company, where he was head of retail operations. Prior to this, he was head of operations at SSP UK at Luton Airport. Jimmy’s World Kitchen plans five new openings over the course of the next 12 months to add to its existing ten.