Fuller, Smith & Turner toasts bumper festive sales

(Sharecast News) - Shares in Fuller, Smith & Turner ticked higher on Thursday, after the pubs and hotels group toasted a bumper Christmas. Updating on trading, the 180-year-old business said like-for-like sales jumped 8.2% in the five weeks across Christmas and New Year.

In the 41 weeks to 10 January, underlying sales growth was 5.3%.

Chair Simon Emeny said: "I am delighted we have maintained our strong growth momentum, in both sales and profitability, and this has been further enhanced with an excellent Christmas period."

As at 0830 GMT, the FTSE All Share stock had put on 2% at 724.68p.

Fullers also noted that it expected to complete its buyback of 1m A shares "within the coming days", with another buyback of up to an additional 1m A shares then due to commence.

The business, which has 184 managed pubs and hotels and 153 tenanted inns across the southern half of the country, is due to publish results for the year to 28 March in June.