Yahoo Finance Mitchells & Butlers reveals 1,300 jobs slashed as firm reports plunging profits
The company is behind brands including All Bar One and Harvester
Mitchells & Butlers, the company behind All Bar One and the Harvester, Toby Carvery and Browns chains, has revealed it has slashed 1,300 jobs.
The FTSE 250 firm which controls more than 1,700 bars, pubs and restaurants, had earlier confirmed it was to close up to 20 sites as a result of the pandemic hit to the hospitality sector.
On Thursday, the company reported a statutory pre-tax loss of £123 million in the year to September 26, down from a profit of £177 million in 2019. Total revenues of £1.48 billion had declined by 34.1% on the £2.2 billion reported in the 2019 full year.
In its results statement, the group said: "Despite our best efforts to protect as many jobs as we can, we have had to make c.1,300 redundancies following the end of the financial period.
"The reduced levels of activity and closure of a small number of our sites meant that we could no longer support these roles."
It comes after job cuts already announced by rival pub giants. Greene King has axed 800 employees, while Fuller's has made 350 workers redundant.
Mitchells & Butlers chief executive, Phil Urban, told the Standard that the company is confident it can see out the pandemic.
He said: “The main point I would raise is that when we have been able to trade, when we have reopened the doors, our customers have come back very strongly. We remain confident that once this is all behind us, we will be able to get back on the path that we were on very quickly."
The firm said in a statement: "We will continue to manage the business on an efficient and prudent basis, limiting the outflow of resources when we are closed and taking advantage of the ability to reopen our sites and trade as and when that occurs.
"Given this uncertainty, we continue to be unable to provide detailed guidance on expected forward financial performance, other than to say that we believe we are well placed to recover quickly, once restrictions are lifted."
Analysts at JP Morgan noted the results were “better than expected”, saying “the group has clearly taken effective action to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on the business" and “operational performance since reopening has been solid”.
James Wheatcroft at Jefferies said that M&B's outlook is also improved as a result of its "mainly-freehold, well-invested estate" that leaves it "well-placed to capture market share from a damaged hospitality sector".
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