Strong trading during the World Cup and warm summer weather contributed to our achieving record revenue and underlying profit before tax for the financial year. Group turnover was up 15% to over £1.1bn and we anticipate reporting underlying profit before tax of around £104 million (2017: £100.1 million) with higher operating profits in each of our trading segments offset by higher interest charges.
Total pub sales increased 3.2%, including like-for-like sales growth of 0.6% and the contribution from our pub expansion programme. In the most recent 10 weeks, like-for-like sales were up 1.6%.
Taverns: our wet-led Taverns pubs performed strongly with managed and franchised like-for-like sales growth of 3.8% including growth of 3.8% in the last 10 weeks. This good performance from our community pub estate was boosted by the World Cup and warm summer weather, although trading has been consistently strong throughout the year. Like-for-like profit in our leased estate is around 2% up.
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