Christmas sales cheer Mitchells & Butlers

Pub group Mitchells & Butlers said like for like sales grew 2.6% in the 14 weeks to January 4 with a strong performance over the Christmas period.

The owner of Harvester and All Bar One reported like-for-like sales growth of 5.6% over the core three-week festive period.

“Overall sales have strengthened over the period since our last update with like-for-like growth of 3.5%, with particularly strong food sales growth,” the company said on Thursday.