JW LEES REPORTS A RECORD YEAR

JW Lees has today filed its accounts for the year ending 31st March 2016. Turnover was £64.1m (+0.2%), EBITDA £8.9 m (+1.6%) and operating profit £6.6m (+3.8%) which is a record year for the company by all three measures.

JW Lees strengthened its senior management team during the year by hiring Tony Spencer as Director of Retail and Nicola Waring as the company’s first Director of People. 2016 has been a year of consolidation for JW Lees and, although we have not acquired any new sites, we have spent a record £5.3m on improving our pubs with the aim of building the best pub estate in the North West by raising quality, standards and service. Major refurbishments were carried out at over 40 sites including The Greyhound in Ashley, The Parrswood in Didsbury, The London Bridge in Stockton Heath and The Boathouse in Chester where we not only added a floating beer garden in the form of a barge but also 21 new bedrooms which takes our Managed Estate to 185 bedrooms in total. JW Lees paid out a profit share of £317,000 to team members since the company has achieved its budgeted profits for the fourth year in a row.

William Lees-Jones, Managing Director said, “We are proud to be reporting a record year and our business is growing steadily. We remain hungry for acquisitions of both Managed and Tenanted pubs as well as hotels in the North West.”