LIVE BUSINESS: Burberry Recovery Plan; United Utilities benefited from bill increases; Young’s sees £11m budget hit

Young’s has become the latest hospitality company to outline the impact of employers’ national insurance increases and an increase in the minimum wage set in the Autumn Budget.

It came as the pub group revealed revenues had soared more than 27 per cent in the six months to September 28 to £250m, with adjusted profits before unpleasantness up 23.2 per cent to £59m .

‘I am very pleased with our performance and the progress we have made over the period, which has been achieved despite some challenges.

‘The Government’s new budget will deliver a significant increase in costs for our industry in the short term through increases to the national minimum wage and employers’ NI payments.

‘We expect the impact on costs to be approximately £11 million on an annualized basis from next April. We will work to see how we can mitigate these obstacles without passing the entire cost on to our loyal customers.

“We would like to see certainty and the implementation of real business rates reform that benefits all hospitality businesses.”

North West England water supplier United Utilities expects its revenue to soar 10 percent this year after reporting a more than doubling of profit in the first half, supported by higher consumer bills.

It means revenue for the year to the end of March 2025 is on track to analyst estimates of £2.13bn.

The sector has been under extreme public and regulatory scrutiny, especially as Britain’s largest water supplier, Thames Water, risks running out of funds if financing talks with creditors fail.

United Utilities posted an underlying pre-tax profit of £182.9m for the six months to September 30, compared with £90.3m a year earlier.

Burberry’s new chief executive, Joshua Schulman, has launched a turnaround strategy designed to return growth to the struggling fashion brand as sales continue to plummet.

Revenue fell 20 per cent to almost £1.1bn in the 26 weeks to September 28, and the group fell to an adjusted operating loss of £41m for the period from a profit of £223m sterling during the same period last year.

Schulman told shareholders this morning:

‘My first few months have reaffirmed my conviction that Burberry is an extraordinary, quintessentially British luxury brand, with equal parts heritage and innovation. Burberry’s original purpose of designing clothing that protects people from the weather is more relevant than ever.

‘Our recent poor performance is due to several factors, including inconsistent brand execution and lack of focus on our core outerwear category and core customer segments.

‘Today we are acting with urgency to correct course, stabilize the business and position Burberry to return to sustainable and profitable growth. We have a powerful brand with broad appeal among luxury customers, authority in the outerwear and scarf categories that have remained resilient over this period and a strong presence in all key luxury markets.

‘We now have a clear framework to reignite brand desire, improve our performance and drive long-term value creation. Building on our strong foundation, I am confident that Burberry’s best days are yet to come.”