Acquisitions & Pub Investments Deliver Against Long-Term Strategic Growth Plans

Admiral Taverns, the UK’s leading community pub group owned by real estate private equity firm Proprium Capital Partners, is pleased to announce the Group’s financial and operational results for the 53 weeks ended 1 June 2025.  

BUSINESS HIGHLIGHTS 

Delivering against Group’s strategic plan with strong track record of profitable expansion 

• Strong trading exceeding budgets across the Group’s estate of 1,365 pubs, underpinned by £31.5m of pub investment over the course of the year 

  • Underlying operating profit from operations up 19% at £45.6m for the period (2024: £38.3m). 

  • £31.5m invested across both Leased & Tenanted and Operator Managed estates, achieving attractive returns 

  • Continued focus on expansion of Operator Managed division, Proper Pubs, to 222 sites  

  • Delivery against strategic plan to grow estate with two acquisitions to the core business 

  • 37 pubs acquired from Fullers in July 2024 to strengthen presence in the South East and London. 

  • 18 community pubs acquired from Marstons in September 2024 

  • Continued focus on expansion with support of investors, Proprium Capital Partners, with post year end acquisition of 21 pubs from RedCat Hospitality in November 2025. 

Highly supportive, licensee-centric business model  

• Admiral was recognised in The Licensee Index for providing a high level of service to our licenses. Additionally, 8/10 licensees would recommend the company to other publicans. Post Year end in January 2026 Admiral has been ranked first again in the most recent survey.  

• Strong performance in annual Pubs Code Adjudicator survey of tenant satisfaction with highest scores for both Business Development Managers and overall Pub Company Satisfaction.  

• Increased investment in sustainability measures across estate, reducing operational cost for licensees and improving building EPC Ratings.  

• Consistent lobbying of the Government on behalf of licensees for fairer treatment in the non-domestic energy market, on draught beer duty and business rates. 

• Proactive capping of drinks price increases to limit rises over the long term and investing heavily in pubs to attract additional customers. 

Continued growth of community wet-led division, Proper Pubs 

• 25 conversions during the period, taking the division to 222 pubs.  

• Significant capital investment has positioned Proper Pubs well in the value market and continues to generate excellent returns.  

• Net sales for Proper Pubs surpassed £75m in FY25 and continues to convert strongly to EBITDA.  

• Proper Pubs operators continue to champion local areas and be ‘community obsessed’ with significant contribution to food banks and local charities, collectively raising over £80,000 for Claire’s Hospice in 2025.  

Current trading demonstrating strategic progress 

• Pubs trading through to January 2026 ahead of management expectations with strong seasonal trading, demonstrating the Group’s resilience in challenging macro-economic circumstances, and its  ability to deliver sustainable, profitable growth.  

• Continued investment in energy saving projects for both Leased and tenanted and Operator Managed estates.  

KEY FINANCIALS 

Key financials for the 53 week period ended 01 June 2025 (2024: 52 weeks) 

• Group Turnover of £210.4m (2024:£194.5million) 

• Gross Profit £122.0m (2024:£111.8million) 

• Underlying earnings before interest, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) £68.9m (2024: £60.8m) 

• Underlying Profit from Operations £45.6m (2024: £38.3million) 

• Underlying Profit after tax £2.0m (2024: Loss of £4.7m) 

• Group estate net book value of £748.7m (2024: £613.2m) implying a multiple of pub EBITDA of 8.2x (2024: 7.2x) 

• The Group transitioned from FRS102 to UK IFRS in 20251 

Chris Jowsey, CEO of Admiral Taverns, commented:  

“I’m pleased with the strong progress we have made against our growth strategy, reinforcing Admiral’s position as the champion for community pubs across the UK.  

Despite challenging wider, macro-economic circumstances, we were pleased to deliver the first two acquisitions since our Hawthorn acquisition in 2021, with a further 55 sites added to our portfolio. Both have been excellent additions to our core estate, strengthening our high-quality portfolio and enabling us to work with entrepreneurial licensees to maximise their retail opportunity and embrace their local community.  

The results from the industry’s independent annual tenant survey importantly showed that 8/10 of our licensees would recommend Admiral to other Publicans. Our licensee-centric model is vital to the success of the business, and we were delighted to receive this recognition from our licensees.   

As we look to the future, we remain focused on growing our estate of successful, individual wet led pubs at the heart of their communities. Post year end, we were delighted to announce the acquisition of 21 pubs from RedCat Hospitality, as we continue to expand our core business and we look forward to working with our new licensees, investing in both our pubs and our people.  

Current trading is ahead of our expectations, demonstrating the strength and resilience of our business and estate against a very challenging market backdrop, and the Group remains well positioned to continue to deliver profitable Group growth and sustained strategic progress. Importantly we were pleased to see that the Government has listened to the industry’s concerns, announcing a revised business rate regime for the pub sector which will lessen the impact of the originally planned increases and give pubs clarity for the next three years. We remain hopeful that this is the first step in a longer-term permanent overhaul of the unfair business rates system.  

I’d like to end by extending a huge thank you to our entire team, including our publicans for their continued hard work and dedication and look forward to working together to deliver further progress in 2026.” 

 ENDS 

Notes to Editors 

Admiral Taverns (“Admiral”) is the UK’s number one community pub group. Headquartered in Chester; the Group operates a national estate of c.1,350 predominantly wet-led community pubs. Admiral’s unique operational approach has earnt industry recognition with the Group winning Best Community Pub Operator at the 2024 Publican Awards, whilst also being shortlisted for Best Partnership Pub Company (501+ Sites). In 2019, 2016 and 2013, Admiral Taverns won Best Leased and Tenanted Pub Company at the Publican Awards and ranked highly commended as Best Community Pub Operator in 2017. The Group has also been consistently highly rated by licensees in the industry’s independent annual Tenant Track survey, exceeding the scores of all its national peers. 

Contact: Polly.Clarke@brandpotential.com

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