While many analysts have been talking about a bounce in trading for pub companies from the Olympics and the Diamond Jubilee, Fuller, Smith and Turner has more reason than most to be hopeful since the celebrations are centred on London, the heartland of its pub estate. Not that the pub operator needs much help when it comes to producing impressive results.
In the year to March, Fuller's underlying EPS came in slightly ahead of most analysts' expectations, rising 7.3 per cent to 39.8p, once you strip out one-offs which cloud the reported figures in our table. That performance was even more impressive if you factor in some margin reduction due to acquisitions, cost increases and investment in food. Managed pub like-for-like sales were 4.2 per cent ahead and like-for-like operating profits in the tenanted division rose 2 per cent.