LONDON (ShareCast) - (Sharecast News) - UK's pub group Mitchells & Butlers on Thursday said fourth-quarter like-for-like sales slowed as riots in city centres and an unseasonably wet summer hit trade but added that it still expected to deliver annual results at the upper end of consensus expectations.
The owner of Toby Carvery, Harvester and All Bar One chains said total food and drink sales sales in the period grew 2.5% compared with 3.4% in the previous quarter. For the year to date sales were up 5.2%.

Net cost headwinds were set to fall to £55m this financial year with higher staff wages "substantially mitigated" by deflation in energy and food costs, the company said in a trading statement.

"Coupled with a robust sales performance, ahead of the market, we remain confident in the delivery of a full year result at the upper end of consensus expectations."

"The rate of growth in the fourth quarter continues to reflect a progressive easing of the inflationary environment, as well as an unseasonally cool and wet summer period and the disruption caused by riots in city centres during August."

Reporting by Frank Prenesti for Sharecast.com

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