(Reuters) -UK's Mitchells & Butlers (LON:MAB) said on Wednesday sales picked up strongly in the festive season and expected annual profit before tax towards the top end of current consensus estimates, as more customers visited its pubs during the Christmas season.
Mitchells' 15-week trading update, including the key Christmas season, comes at a time when British pubs and restaurants are still fretting over macroeconomic worries curbing consumer spending and offsetting benefits from reduced costs.
"Growth was particularly strong on key dates, with recordsales for Christmas day based on 229,000 meals served, supported by strong trading in the run up to Christmas," CEO Phil Urban said in a trading statement.
The owner of Toby Carvery, Harvester and All Bar One brands said like-for-like sales grew 7.7% in the first 15 weeks of the current fiscal year started Oct. 1, compared with 7.2% growth reported in the initial eight weeks.
The company, which in November had forecast overall annual costs to decrease to about 65 million pounds ($82.12 million) from 175 million pounds a year ago, underpinned by a reduction in energy prices and slowing food inflation, said overall cost pressures were now abating.
($1 = 0.7915 pounds)