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Fuller’s promotes Simon Emeny to executive chair, like-for-likes up 4.2% in last ten weeks, full-year revenue increases 4.8% to £376.3m: Fuller’s has promoted chief executive Simon Emeny to executive chair as it reorganises its leadership team. It comes as Michael Turner will retire as chair at the company’s annual general meeting on 22 July after 18 years. Meanwhile, Fred Turner is being promoted to chief operating officer, which will broaden his responsibilities, bringing sales, marketing and operations across both managed and tenanted together “to leverage the synergies and maximise the opportunity across these key functions”. Fred Turner has led the managed pubs and hotels business since June 2019. Emeny said: “With the financial foundations in place, we want to ensure that our people and our properties are ready to tackle the challenges ahead, and that we continue to deliver an outstanding offer and proposition for our premium customer base. Since the day I joined Fuller’s in 1996, Michael has been inspirational and supportive. He retires with our best wishes and gratitude, and he leaves an incredible legacy. I will be taking on the role of executive chairman. It is a move I am relishing – and I see the move as evolution, not revolution. I’m looking forward to continuing to lead our excellent executive team and to taking Fuller’s on the next stage of its journey. Fred has successfully led the managed pubs and hotels business since June 2019, and I know the business will benefit as he takes on this wider commercial remit. We have also strengthened our board with the appointment of Jane Bednall – an experienced non-executive director who will have a particular focus on employee engagement.” It comes as Fuller’s reported like-for-like sales for the first ten weeks of its new financial year were up 4.2% “as it continues to build on the momentum of last year”. The business reported revenue increased 4.8% to £376.3m for the 52 weeks to 29 March 2025 (2024: £359.1m) “driven by an excellent performance across the estate”. Like-for-like sales in the year in its managed pubs and hotels grew 5.2% compared with the prior year. Adjusted Ebitda was up to £67.6m (2024: £60.8m). Adjusted profit before tax was up 32% to £27.0m (2023: £20.5m). As reported in March, the business has agreed a new £185m bank facility with a consortium of existing relationship banks. The unsecured facility is available until 31 August 2028, at an interest margin 75basis points lower than existing terms, “reflecting the strong financial position of the company”. Food like-for-like sales increased 4.8%, drink like-for-like sales increased 5.3% and accommodation like-for-like sales rose 5.4%. Tenanted inns profit grew 5% in the year while revenue was slightly down having sold 37 non-core sites to Admiral Taverns in July 2024 for £18.3m.Fuller’s transferred 23 pubs from managed pubs and hotels to tenanted inns. The group maintained investment in its existing estate, with £27.8m invested in the period “to enhance capital values and drive further growth”. Chief executive Simon Emeny said: “It has been an excellent year. We have continued to build on our existing momentum and have delivered strong like for like sales growth in our managed pubs and hotels. We have converted this strong revenue growth into improved profitability. We have started the new financial year well. We have completed our investment at The Chamberlain in the City of London, one of our largest hotel sites, which reopened in May and we have a number of clear priorities for the year focused on our properties, our people and our customer proposition. Our estate is well invested, predominately freehold, and full of iconic gems in great locations. Our people are dedicated and engaged, and our customers are more resilient to economic turbulence than most. Our financial position is robust and we make sensible decisions for the long-term. I have no doubt that interesting times are ahead and I’m looking forward with confidence and excitement.”

Premium Club subscribers to receive two updated databases this week: Premium Club subscribers will receive two updated databases this week. The latest Propel Food & Beverage Franchisee Database will be sent today (Wednesday, 11 June), at 12pm. The database will feature ten new entries to take the total number to 250 and more than 102,000 words. The new entries include Domino’s franchisee Team West, Burger King franchisee Windmill (NI) and multi-brand franchisee Airport Retail Enterprises. Premium Club subscribers will then receive the next Turnover & Profits Blue Book on Friday (13 June), at 12pm. The database will feature 64 updated accounts and 17 new companies, taking the total to 1,125. A total of 712 companies are making a profit while 413 are making a loss. Premium Club subscribers also receive access to four other databases: the Multi-Site Database, the UK Food and Beverage Franchisor Database, the New Openings Database and the Who’s Who of UK Hospitality. All Premium Club subscribers will be offered a 20% discount on tickets to Propel paid-for events including the Operational Excellence Conference in July and discounts on specialist sector reports. Operators that are Premium Club subscribers are also able to send up to four members of staff to each of our four Multi-Club Conferences for free. Premium Club subscribers receive their daily Propel Info newsletter 11 hours earlier than standard subscribers, at 7pm the evening before. They also receive videos of presentations at eight Propel conference events two weeks after they are held. This represents around 100 videos of industry insight over the course of the year. Premium Club subscribers will be sent a dedicated monthly newsletter that will highlight key updates in the sector and direct subscribers to all the vital content their membership offers. Premium Club subscribers also receive exclusive opinion columns every Friday at 5pm, which include the thoughts of Propel group editor Mark Wingett and a host of industry leaders from across the sector. A Premium Club subscription costs an annual sum of £495 plus VAT for operators and £595 plus VAT for suppliers. Companies can now have an unlimited number of people receive access to Premium Club for a year for £995 plus VAT – whether they are an operator or supplier. Email kai.kirkman@propelinfo.com today to sign up.

Exclusive – Knoops signs Chinese joint venture agreement, to open Shanghai site next year: Luxury hot chocolate shop brand Knoops is to make its debut in China next year, after signing a joint venture agreement to launch in the country, Propel has learned. William Gordon-Harris, chief executive of Knoops and Xu Peng, chairman of Haiguihai Group, have signed an agreement to form a joint venture to launch the brand into China. Following a year of detailed discussions the new entity plans to open a flagship Knoops store in Shanghai in early 2026 and roll out a first phase of sites to test and understand the store economics, “in order to optimise the roll out strategy thereafter”. The Haiguihai Group currently owns and operates the largest number of Michelin-starred and fine dining restaurants across China with diversified holdings across many complimentary sectors. In terms of the potential for Knoops in China, Gordon-Harris told Propel that the plan was to “roll out the store network to the optimum size (unknown at present bit clearly four figures post test phase) and to own the multi-channel business for Knoops at home”. He said: “In a country where one coffee chain alone opened more than 1,000 new stores in the last quarter, finding the partner with the belief in Knoops, the operational excellence to set up the brand to scale and the capital to support that, was absolutely key to entering this incredible market.” Knoops, which is understood to be the fastest growing non-franchised food and beverage brand in Europe, currently operates 26 sites in the UK and one in Dubai. Knoops plans to open 30 new international stores annually. The business is set to make its US debut, in Utah, as a wholly owned subsidiary staffed by local teams on the ground, later this year. Last year, the brand began its global expansion, opening its first Middle Eastern store in the UAE in November, with a third due to open this summer. With the ongoing organic growth of coffee sales, founder Jens Knoop has predicted the brand will eventually grow to at least 300 stores in the UK and 3,000 globally in the next decade.

Further growth in its pubs sees Wadworth boost turnover and profit, aims to refinance business on longer-term basis: Brewer and retailer Wadworth has said it continued its growth trajectory in its managed house division as it boosted turnover and profit. The company, which operates 18 managed pubs and 129 tenanted pubs, said having extended its borrowing facilities in September 2024, with interest rates “becoming more attractive”, it aims to refinance on a longer-term basis from September 2025. It comes as Wadworth saw revenue increase to £41,318,000 for the year ending 4 January 2025 compared with £39,154,000 the previous year. Ebitda was up to £5,417,000 from £4,644,000 the year before while pre-tax profit grew to £923,000 from £815,000 the previous year. The company said that the improved Ebitda was primarily due to the improvement in the performance of its managed house division and a solid performance across its tenanted estate, supplemented by immediate production cost benefits arising in its new brewery. The company has three tenanted sites on the market. Simon Townsend, the former chief executive of Ei Group, and Wadworth’s non-executive chairman, said: “It has been another transformative year at Wadworth but not one without its challenges. The managed division continued its growth trajectory with an 8% uplift in sales on prior year and divisional profit increasing by more than 20%. This continued improvement has been down to the high calibre of people we have running our managed pubs, complemented by a central services team entirely focused on improving underlying performance has meant that the creating brilliant customer experiences. Notwithstanding the cost increases seen in the supply chain, both food and drink margins increased in the year as a result of carefully managed price increases and reduced wastage. While Wadworth achieved continued performance improvement in the 2024 financial year, it is clear that 2025 is going to be another challenging period for hospitality businesses like ours. We are doing everything possible to prepare for what is to come and are conscious that competition for customers will be even more intense in the year ahead. We have a clear strategy to improve the quality of our pubs through carefully targeted investment and to increase the proportion of our own brewed products sold within our estate. Alongside continued investment in our attractive portfolio of assets, we will seek to progressively reduce borrowings over time, thereby increasing shareholder value and free cash for allocation as appropriate.”