Marston’s PLC on Tuesday said it swung to an annual profit as it returned to more normalised trading, despite a disrupted Christmas period due to Omicron.

In the year ended October 1, the Wolverhampton, England-based pub operator reported a pretax profit of £163.4 million. The previous year, the firm recorded a loss of £171.1 million.

Revenue in the year nearly doubled to £799.6 million from £401.5 million. Marston’s said that drinks sales continued to outperform food sales, which it said showed the resilience of its predominantly community pub estate.

Marston’s explained that its first-half was impacted by trading restrictions and reduced consumer confidence as a consequence of the disruption caused by the Omicron variant, which affected its December 2021 trading and the ‘critical’ Christmas trading period through to the end of January 2022.

The second-half, however, saw renewed consumer demand as normal trading conditions returned.

In regard to its current trading, Marston’s said it is well-positioned to meet challenging market conditions, with like-for-like sales up 6.8% in the last eight weeks against the year prior.

‘Current trading to the end of November has been positive with encouraging levels of Christmas bookings as we look forward to the first restriction free festive period in three years. Additionally, the World Cup has benefited trading, delivering like for like drink sales of around +50% for the home team games,’ commented Chief Executive Andrew Andrea.

Shares in Marston’s were up 1.1% at 39.12 pence on Tuesday afternoon in London.

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