Proactive Investors - J D Wetherspoon PLC (LON:JDW) backed guidance as it reported strong sales growth in the final quarter of its financial year.
Tim Martin, chairman of the pub chain, said: “The company expects profits in the current financial year to be in line with market expectations.”
Like-for-like sales for the first 10 weeks of the final quarter of the financial year increased by 11.5% compared to the previous year and by 12.9% year-to-date.
Martin forecast an improved outcome in the new financial year with the first-half performance expected to be in line with the second half of the current year.
The company said net debt was £688mln at 9 July, a fall of around £114mln from 2020, and it currently has financial headroom of £289mln.
It said waivers in respect of its banking covenants granted during Covid are no longer anticipared to be required from the end of the current quarter.
In the financial year to date, the company has opened three pubs and sold, closed or surrendered to the landlord 28 pubs which has seen a cash inflow of £6.5mln.