“Friday could be an absolute mega-evening,” Mike Tye, chief executive of Spirit Pub Company, predicted today.
“The early signs are that the England/France match last night was better than anything we did in the World Cup two years ago and that was a 5 o’clock kick-off so loads of people went home early to watch it.
“The 7.45pm kick-off against Sweden could see lots of people going to the pub from work and staying there till at least 10pm.”
Trading at Spirit slowed down in the last 12 weeks which was no great surprise given the bad weather. But Tye is determined to make the most of the final 12 weeks of the group’s financial year. He has ordered a temporary halt to refurbishments of the 800 managed pubs and is upbeat about the Olympics. He said: “It is utterly unpredictable whether or not people will come to pubs to watch the Games but if it provides the feel-good factor I expect that will be good.”
Sales at Spirit, whose pubs include the outperforming Chelsea Potter in King’s Road, rose 3.7% in its third quarter which Tye said was well ahead of the whole pub market. Food sales were up 6.8% and drink up 1.1%.
