Marston's warns of sales hit from govt Covid-19 advice

Marston's said it expected lower sales and was unlikely to pay a dividend this year as it tried to save cash to protect its balance sheet from the impact of the coronavirus and government advice for people to avoid pubs and restaurants.

The company on Wednesday said it expected to reduce full year guidance, adding that for the 24 weeks to March 14 like-for-like sales in its pubs were 1% below last year.

“Although recent trading has been impacted by Covid-19, this has been marginal to date and pub like-for-like sales have been broadly flat over the last two weeks. That said, we anticipate that the government's advice will result in significantly lower sales in the coming weeks,” Marston's said in a statement.

"Given the ongoing uncertainty, we are unable to quantify the impact of Covid-19 on our financial and trading performance at this stage, however we expect a reduction to our expectations for financial year 2020. The scale of this will depend upon how the situation develops and over what timescale, and the impact of further measures taken by the government."

The company also welcomed Tuesday's government package of £330bn in loans and a business rates holiday for the leisure, retail and hospitality sectors.

"Whilst the full details of these proposals have still to be scrutinised, they represent good progress towards the very significant commitment which the hospitality sector requires from the Government, and an acknowledgement of the importance of pubs to jobs, the economy, and communities," Marston's said.