Belhaven sales lift Greene King results

Greene King revealed in a trading update in April that like-for-like sales in Belhaven's managed pubs outstripped the English performance in the 49 weeks to 11 April – up 5.6 per cent compared with 3.6 per cent down south.

Douglas Jack, drinks specialist at Numis Securities, said: "I think Greene King's management were pleasantly surprised at how well Belhaven did. "But the comparators for the Scottish subsidiary will get harder from here on in. Belhaven's sales growth slowed in the year, from 10 per cent in the first half to 1.7 per cent in the second half."

GK chief executive Rooney Anand predicted a year ago that looming cuts in public spending were a "dark cloud" over the recession-defying success of Belhaven, which has more than 300 pubs in Scotland. Anand said then that big cuts in public spending – announced recently by the coalition government in last week's Budget – could hit Scotland disproportionately in terms of redundancies and reduced consumer spending.

One GK-watcher said: "That could be the main story this week. Belhaven's done brilliantly for the company since it was acquired in 2005. But that Scottish exposure could now cut the other way as the Scottish economy is much more exposed to the public sector."

The City consensus for GK's pre-tax profits to be posted on Thursday is 124 million against 118.5m in the previous year. The consensus is that the total divi will be pegged at 21p via a flat 15.1p final payment.

GK said in its update that underlying tenanted pub profits at Belhaven were flat.

But it revealed that volumes of Dunbar-based Belhaven Best beer grew strongly at 15.4 per cent. "Belhaven Best has been a standout, but it could stall a bit both through the strong comparators going forward and also the fallout from the public spending axe," one analyst said.