Exclusive – St Austell Brewery delivers another year of growth and unveils major new rebrand: St Austell Brewery has reported strong financial performance with a further year of record-breaking turnover and unveiled its first significant rebrand in 70 years, Propel has learned. The strong trading performance for the year ending 28 December 2024 saw increased turnover of £231m, which converted into an 8.7% increase in Ebitda to £22.4m. Chairman Gerard Barnes said: “Despite the sustained challenges in the sector, the company has once again achieved record turnover, and importantly, has also converted this performance into increased Ebitda. While inflation has eased, a combination of fragile consumer confidence, higher taxation, the lowest number of visitors to the south west in a decade, and a second summer of disappointing weather, conspired to provide a challenging backdrop in 2024. The financial results represent continued momentum and positive progress against our strategic plans. As we continue to navigate the many challenges and evolving customer demands, our ambitious capital investment programme remains key to our long-term success.” In 2024, St Austell Brewery – which has more than 160 pubs, inns, and hotels across the West Country – invested £18.3m in capital expenditure across all areas of the business. St Austell Brewery’s managed houses delivered like-for-like growth of 13%, “significantly outperforming the market”. In the beer business, there was continued investment in the company’s brewing capability and its brands. 2024 saw the launch of Proper Job 0.5% – a strategic move into the no and low category. Following the investment into Harbour Brewing Company in 2022, the performance of its lead brand, Arctic Sky, delivered growth of 78% on the previous year. St Austell Brewery has also unveiled its first major rebrand in more than 70 years. The company said the new brand identity is an important part of the ongoing evolution of the business and underpins its ambitions for the future. Chief executive Kevin Georgel said: “I’m proud of the strong financial performance in 2024, which came off the back of a very strong 2023. The results are all the more meaningful given the challenging trading environment. Despite the sustained economic headwinds, and wider market challenges, the commitment and passion of our people, and the resilience of the company, have enabled us to deliver continued growth in both revenue and profits. While the outcome of the autumn Budget has created significant additional cost pressures – necessitating some difficult, but necessary decisions to review and reduce our operational structure – we remain resolutely focused on delivering our long-term strategy and sustainable growth. Our recent rebrand signals our intent to future-proof the company. The evolution of our brand isn’t just about a new identity, it’s about clarifying and refining our purpose, positively evolving our values, launching our new sustainability plan, and aligning everything we do with the world we want to help shape. Guided by extensive research and insight from both inside and outside of the business, we are committed to ensuring that we are fit for the future. The rebrand, which has been developed over the last three years, is a natural and considered step forward which underpins our ambitions for the future and the generations to come. Next year we celebrate 175 years of St Austell Brewery. Drawing on our rich heritage, through the evolved brand story, we’re proud to unveil a clearer, more confident vision for the future. This is more than a new visual identity. It represents a thoughtful, holistic evolution of our brand – designed to reinforce our position in the market and support the next phase of our growth. More importantly, it’s a statement of intent and demonstrates our commitment to our people, our guests, and the great experiences we deliver. With encouraging financial results, a bold new identity and ongoing investment across our pubs, brands and our people, St Austell Brewery remains firmly on a growth trajectory.” St Austell Brewery features in the Propel Turnover & Profits Blue Book, which is available exclusively to Premium Club subscribers. The latest edition was released on Friday (13 June), featuring 1,125 companies. St Austell Brewery’s turnover of £231m is the 55th highest in the database. Companies can now have an unlimited number of people receive access to Propel Premium for a year for £995 plus VAT – whether they are an operator or a supplier. The single subscription rate is £495 plus VAT for operators and £595 plus VAT for suppliers. Email kai.kirkman@propelinfo.com to upgrade your subscription.

 

 

Current trading: “It’s fluctuated, but at the end of May we are very much in line with where we expected to be. Easter was very strong for us – up 19.6% on a like-for-like basis, which was encouraging. Our managed pubs performance has remained strong with like-for- likes year to date at the end of May being up 9.6%. This performance will give us a good launchpad ahead of the key summer season.”

 

Costs: “The increase in the national minimum wage and employers’ national insurance contributions has added £2.7m to our costs annually. It was a significant blow for us just as it was for the rest of the sector. We’re working through how we mitigate that, which included the reorganisation, which we completed at the end of April. What would also be helpful would be the continuation of the better weather that we have seen in recent weeks, it makes a significant difference to our business given the location of our pub estate. Last year, we had record-breaking rainfall in the early part of the year and a very poor summer of weather, and this acts as a significant drag on our business. Like many businesses in our region, we are reliant on tourism – numbers have been down in recent years and we are working with the tourist boards to promote the area because we continue to have a lot to offer.”

 

Challenges: “One of the challenges at the minute is to ensure that we keep our teams focused and positive about what we are doing. We are investing significantly in our people as we look to build a better business. But it can be hard in the face of all this negativity about the economy. Yet again, off the back of the spending review, we’re hearing talk of further tax rises in the autumn Budget. The speculation is unhelpful and impacts on consumer confidence. It’s exactly the same thing that happened in the run-up to the autumn Budget last year when the economy stalled as a result of the speculation. It’s not helping consumer confidence and it’s not helping businesses.”

 

Trends: “People are certainly going out earlier and they are booking ahead – it’s less impulse driven and more occasion led. We need to make sure we positively respond to that, and we are. For example, we’ve simplified our booking process and with daypart trading becoming ever more important, we’re working hard to improve our offer including breakfast and brunch options. Consumers are still looking for quality and we have seen that across all parts of the business, but as an example we saw the demand for a truly great tasting ale brand within the low and no-alcohol category. We spent two years developing Proper Job 0.5% to ensure that first and foremost it was a fantastic quality beer that people would really enjoy. The feedback on the beer has been fantastic and the performance so far has exceeded our expectations.”

Prices: “We put prices up 3% at the start of the year. But while prices have had to go up in recent years to counter inflation and further tax increases at the same time, we have significantly improved the experience for our customers – the environment, the quality of the offer and the service are all so much better than a few years ago but that gets lost in the headlines. I’ve been in the sector for more than 30 years and the quality of experience in our pubs and indeed across the sector, is unrecognisable from when I first started, and it’s improving all the time.”

 

Acquisitions: “We remain acquisitive but our main focus at the moment is improving the guest experience in our existing pubs. In the past two years we’ve invested significantly in our managed pubs because we needed to make sure we were winning market share in all areas of the business. So, we’re investing in improving our existing estate but at the same time we are now very clear on the types of pubs that we would like to own and operate, and we have the resources to grow the estate as and when the right opportunities come along. As an example, we acquired The Godolphin Inn Marazion in January as it was a perfect fit within our managed business.”

 

Growth channels: “On the brewing side, our Proper Job brand refresh last year has worked well, and Proper Job 0.5% is a significant growth opportunity for us. As I’ve already said, we’re delighted with how that has gone so far. Then following the investment in Harbour Brewing Company in 2022, we’ve seen how that’s paying dividends with the performance of Arctic Sky which has grown by nearly 80% year on year. On the pub side, it’s about winning market share and being better in everything we do. So, it’s about delivering on our bold investment plan, improving the quality of the offer – the food and drink – underpinned by fantastic service from our team with a total commitment to the guest experience. These are all things that have been our primary focus over the last 18 months. We’re also looking to continue to build all year-round appeal for visitors to come and stay with us through the spring and autumn; the region has so much to offer outside of the peak summer season.”

 

The rebrand: “The business has evolved significantly over the last few years and the rebrand is the opportunity for our purpose, vision and values to reflect both the business we are today and the business that we aspire to become. We’ve been building our fresh brand narrative and identity for three years and this will take us forward for the next 70 years. This will be seen on our website, our pub signage – it’s very much about future-proofing the business.”

 

The next 12 months: “Performance wise, we are where we hoped to be. It’s all to play for as we go into the key summer season. We need the weather to continue to play a role though. If we get a good summer, we are very confident that we will continue to build on the excellent performance of the last three years. So, we need a bit of good fortune, but we are having another good year so far and as ever that is testament to our teams and their continued hard work, passion and commitment.” 

Thwaites – general trading environment ‘feels more settled’ but ‘extremely nervous’ of additional tax increases, full-year turnover increase to £120.6m: North west brewer and retailer Daniel Thwaites has said the general trading environment “feels more settled than it has done for some time, although we are extremely nervous of additional tax increases in the autumn”. It comes as the company reported turnover increased 4.4% to £120.6m for the year ending 31 March 2025 (2024: £115.5m). Pre-tax profit, which benefited from a mark to market gain on interest rate swaps, was £9.8m (2023: £9.1m). Ebitda grew to £18.9m (2023: £18.0m). The company stated: “We have started the year with a sustained period of good weather, which has demonstrated that if you are ready, when the conditions are right, pubs and hotels benefit from being a familiar favourite for the great British public. Our investments from last year are open and going well, the outdoor investments that we have made over the last few years are doing their job. After some political uncertainty last year things feel more settled, however we are wary of more tax increases for the sector. It is already under tremendous pressure from last October’s increases to national minimum wage and national insurance, as well as increased business rates through reduction in reliefs. Pubs and the wider hospitality industry are over-taxed, and we hope the government has got the message that enough is enough. It seems that businesses are more active than they were last year, and that bodes well for our hotels. Further interest rate reductions are forecast, which should serve to ease the burden on businesses, our customers and the cost of servicing the enormous national debt. We completed on the acquisition of the Buck Inn, Malham, in March 2025, which we were pleased to be able to secure, and which will trade as one of our inns.” The pubs and inns division, which consisted of 197 tenanted and 14 managed sites, saw turnover rise to £63.6m (2024: £60.0m) with Ebitda up to £17.8m (2023: £17.1m). Tenanted pub turnover was down 1%. The number of pubs that needed to be re-let started the year at 20, with 11 closed pubs, and as of now the number needing to be re-let stands at ten – with two pubs under offer to prospective tenants. Inns increased sales by 4% on the previous year, with strong growth in drink sales. The ten-strong hotels and spas division saw turnover rise to £57.0m (2024: £52.5m) with Ebitda up to £10.5m (2024: £9.1m). The company sold three bottom-end pubs and two ancillary properties with total proceeds of £2.1m (2023: £3.8m). Net debt at 31 March 2025 was £71.4m (2023: £70.8m), as a result of :continued investment in our properties, which totalled £14.7m (2023: £18.3m). Chairman Richard Bailey said: “Thwaites has built the most diversified portfolio of hospitality assets in the UK, with a fantastic collection of pubs, inns, hotels and spas and the future is bright as we continue to refine and grow the business and look for new opportunities.”

Yum! Brands names new CEO: Yum Brands has named chief financial officer Chris Turner as its new chief executive from 1 October, succeeding David Gibbs. The company – which owns brands including KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell – said in March that Gibbs would retire in 2026 after 37 years at the business, during which he assumed several roles and became chief executive in 2020. Gibbs will remain at Yum! Brands in an advisory capacity until the end of next year, the company has now said. Turner, who has been chief financial officer since 2019, has previously worked with packaged food giant PepsiCo and consulting firm McKinsey & Co. Turner’s role at Yum! Brands was expanded last year to include chief franchise officer, with responsibilities for finance, corporate strategy, supply chain, franchise standards and support. The company said in recent years, he has been instrumental in driving bold actions that leverage Yum! Brands scale, such as accelerating the company’s digital and technology transformation through initiatives like the establishment of Byte by Yum!, an artificial intelligence-driven restaurant technology platform; launching a centralised, global supply chain centre of excellence; and the creation of Saucy by KFC, a new restaurant concept. “On behalf of the board, I want to extend our deepest gratitude to David Gibbs for his outstanding visionary leadership, and the lasting impact he’s made on Yum! Brands,” said non-executive chairman Brian Cornell. “David led the company during unprecedented times all while strengthening, transforming and growing the business, with Chris as a key partner. During his tenure, Yum! Brands delivered strong performance and advanced its growth strategy that has helped attract and retain the best talent in the industry. We are thrilled to appoint Chris as the next chief executive – a proven leader with a deep understanding of the business, strategic expertise, financial acumen and unique perspectives that will help accelerate our growth. The board is confident that Chris is the right leader to take Yum! Brands forward and accelerate the company’s momentum.”