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7th January 2018

Upham Group plc reports strong Christmas trading

 

Upham Group Plc, a collection of premium pubs with its own regional brewery, is pleased to announce a strong Christmas trading period for the five trading weeks to 31st December 2017.

 

Total gross pub sales during the period were up 6.5% to £2.3m, on a like-for-like basis on the previous year. New Year’s Eve was the highest grossing sales day in Upham’s history, taking £112,000, and the week from Christmas Day to New Year’s Eve marked the first time that sales exceeded £0.5million in a single week. The Weighbridge Brewhouse in Swindon took the top sales spot over the festive period, followed by The Navigator in Lower Swanwick, Southampton.

 

This strong performance was driven largely by food sales of just above £1.2m, with drink sales topping £0.8m. Bedroom occupation was also relatively high for the time of year, accounting for around 13% of total pub revenue.

 

The brewery successfully launched Upham’s new craft beer UB5, selling over 4,000 pints in December.

 

Upham’s festive season in numbers:

  • 6,460 Christmas lunches and dinners served in December
  • 10,161 pints of Punter pulled in Upham pubs over the period
  • 1,326 glasses of prosecco sold on New Year’s Eve
  • 128 Bloody Marys drunk on New Year’s Day
  • 83,880 pints of beer sold by the brewery in December
  • £123,000 of non-alcoholic drinks
  • 177 staff working on Christmas day
  • 116 5-star reviews via social media channels in the period
  • £1,200 raised for the “Born Too Soon” charity via Upham’s fundraising page

 

Chris Phillips, CEO of Upham, commented: “This strong Christmas performance rounds off a good year for the Upham Group, despite a difficult trading environment for the sector. 2017 was a productive year, in addition to pursuing our pub acquisition strategy, we also launched our first ever craft beer, which continued to sell extremely well throughout December. I would like to thank the teams at all our pubs for their fantastic Christmas menus, as well as the rest of our staff who made this such a successful few weeks. We enter 2018 with good momentum, and look forward to welcoming even more customers over the course of the year.”

 

 

ENDS

Enquiries:

Upham Group plc
Chris Phillips, CEO

Robb Harris, Finance Director

 

Temple Bar Advisory (PR adviser) upham@templebaradvisory.com
Tom Allison

Olivia Everist

07789 998 020

07514 929 305

 

 

About Upham Group Plc:

Upham Group plc is a collection of premium pubs with its own craft brewery in the south of England. At present, it operates 16 pubs across the South of England with plans to increase the portfolio. The Group seeks to buy freehold pubs with growth potential in prime trading locations in order to invest in the customer experience, increase the revenue generating space of the buildings, provide comfortable and stylish accommodation, and improve the pubs’ underlying operations. The first pub to open was The Winning Post at Winkfield near Ascot in April 2012.

 

The new Upham Brewery was opened in May 2013, and it now supplies over 250 stockists, including leading pubs, hotels and local Tesco, Majestic and Co-op stores, with its staple ales, Punter and Tipster, as well as ten seasonal special ales.

 

The Group has a highly experienced management team led by CEO Chris Phillips, and Deputy CEO and Estates Director David Butcher, who were recruited in 2011 to develop and roll out a pub acquisition strategy. They were joined by Finance Director Robb Harris in October 2014, who also brings with him strong experience of the hospitality sector.

 

 

Additional information:

 

The Estate

      Covers
Pub Location Opening Date Bar & Restaurant Other1
Upham Brewery Stake Farm, Hampshire Jan 2012
The Winning Post Winkfield, Berkshire Apr 2012 68 78
The Thomas Lord West Meon, Hampshire Aug 2012 96 70
The Navigator Lower Swanwick, Hampshire Sep 2012 95 134
The George Inn Longbridge Deverill, Wiltshire May 2013 80 200
The Running Horse Littleton, Hampshire Jul 2013 75 80
The Bunk Inn Curridge, Berkshire Oct 2013 85 112
The White Hart (South Harting) South Harting, West Sussex Nov 2013 70 82
The Wheelwright’s Arms Havant, Hampshire May 2014 66 86
The Peat Spade Inn Longstock, Hampshire Sep 2014 70 65
The Plantation Canford Cliffs, Dorset Nov 2014 85 85
The Mill at Gordleton Hordle, Hampshire May 2015 88 104
The White Hart (Overton) Overton, Hampshire Jun 2015 102 64
The Swan Inn Chiddingfold, Surrey Sep 2015 84 60
The Hawk Inn Amport, Hampshire Feb 2016 82 136
The Station House Haslemere, Surrey Nov 2016 108 86
The Weighbridge Brewhouse Swindon, Wiltshire Jan 2017 210 25

¹ Other covers include private dining rooms, function rooms, terrace and garden areas, conservatories and tiki huts

 

 

Olivia Everist

Temple Bar Advisory

Media & Investor Relations

Address: 60 Cannon Street, London EC4N 6NP

Mobile:   +44 (0)7514 929 305

Office:    +44 (0)20 7002 1482

Web:      www.templebaradvisory.com