Mitchells & Butlers sees 5.6% sales boost over Christmas

Pub group Mitchells & Butlers saw like-for-like sales growth of 5.6% over the three-week Christmas period.

The pub giant, behind brands including Harvester, Toby Carvery and All Bar One, also reported quarter-on-quarter like-for-like growth of 2.6% in its first quarter update for the 14 weeks to 4 January. In the period food sales were up 3% and wet sales were up 1.8%.

Chief executive Phil Urban said: "We are pleased with our trading performance over the festive trading season against a strong set of results last year, again demonstrating the breadth of appeal of our brands for special occasions.

"We achieved record sales levels across the five key festive days at growth of 6.5%. This continued progress reflects the output of our Ignite initiatives which will continue to be our focus for the year ahead."

Over the past year Mitchells & Butlers it has completed 81 conversions and remodels of venues and opened a new site.