Like other pub groups, Mitchells & Butlers enjoyed a buoyant end to 2011 thanks to the warm weather in October and a clement winter, which made an extremely favourable comparison to the freezing conditions of December 2010. Overall, like-for-like sales were 4.4 per cent ahead in the 17 weeks to 21 January and 6.5 per cent up in the past nine weeks.
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However, the underlying picture was much more subdued with underlying sales rising just 1 per cent. Such a low level of growth stokes fears that margins will come under pressure in 2012 as the group has to contend with some major cost increases. What’s more, trading in 2012 will be compared with far stronger trading periods and we could see some serious consumer retrenchment.
