UK: Belhaven's financial year has ‘started satisfactorily’

The new financial year of Scottish brewer/pubco Belhaven “has started satisfactorily”, The Publican cited the brewery saying on July 22. Speaking at the company’s AGM this week Belhaven chairman Angus Meldrum said profit growth was ahead of internal expectations and “comfortably ahead of the previous year”.

Mr Meldrum said overall beer volumes were up around six per cent. “Our flagship brand Belhaven Best continues to increase in terms of sales volume, sales value and market share. “Our pub estate expansion programme is also proceeding well and we are on track to grow the portfolio to around 300 pubs by the end of the current calendar year,” he added.

Belhaven recently announced pre-tax profits of £17.43m for 2005, up 22.5 per cent on 2004’s numbers.

Turnover for the brewing, distribution and retailing group grew 20.5 per cent to £114.4m, while operating profits were up 23.2 per cent at £20.46m. Belhaven’s pub estate grew from 226 to 270 pubs during last year.

Anticipating the introduction of a smoking ban throughout Scotland next April, Belhaven is to invest £2m in order to enable Belhaven’s pubs to comply with the smoking ban.

E-malt.com, the global information source for the brewing and malting industry professionals. The bi-weekly E-malt.com Newsletters feature latest industry news, statistics in graphs and tables, world barley and malt prices, and other relevant information. Click here to get full access to E-malt.com. If you are a Castle Malting client, you can get free access to E-malt.com website and publications. Contact us for more information at marketing@castlemalting.com .