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Like-for-like sales at Young & Co's Brewery were up 1.1% in its half year report, reflecting challenging prior comparatives from the hottest English summer on record and England's FIFA World Cup performance.
Th company's total revenue for the period to the end of September was up 7.3% to £168.2m, along with a 7.2% increase in adjusted pre-IFRS 16 EBITDA to a half-year high of £43.3 million.
It has also announced a 23-consecutive year-on-year interim dividend increase, with a 6.0% rise to 10.57p per share.
During the period, Young & Co made an investment of £17.3 million, including the freehold acquisition of the White Bear in Tunbridge Wells.
It has also integrated The Redcomb pubs into the existing Young's estate and, after a build-up period, these are performing in line with expectations
Patrick Dardis, chief executive of Young's, said: "In what was a challenging period up against tough comparatives, we continued to grow profits, make acquisitions, invest organically and increase the dividend: a reflection of the consistent execution of our strategy and the hard work of our teams throughout those six months.
"The start of the half year was challenging as the poor and unpredictable weather was a far cry from last year's exceptional early summer sunshine. However, the summer Bank Holiday temperatures and late-September sunshine contributed to strong like-for-like sales growth in the second 13 weeks which helped to balance the first half, with like-for-like sales finishing up 1.1%."
At 9:24am: (LON:YNGA) Young Cos Brewery PLC share price was +12.5p at 1565p