UK pub group Fuller, Smith & Turner (“Fuller’s”) has said that its energy bill for its current financial year is expected to more than double without government help.
It comes ahead of details being released of the UK government’s promised financial assistance for businesses to help cover surging energy bills.
In a trading update, the company said it paid a total of £8m for gas and electricity in 2021/22 and this is set to increase to £18m in 2022/23.
Fuller’s added that it has “made good progress implementing a number of initiatives, with more to follow, which reduce our energy usage and help mitigate these cost increases over the medium term”.
For the first 25 weeks of its financial year, the company reported total sales up 3% against pre-pandemic levels and up 50% compared with the same period last year. On a like-for-like basis, sales for the 25 weeks to 17 September 2022 were 21% up on last year.
Chief executive Simon Emeny said: “While sales continue to recover from the effects of the pandemic, we are conscious that consumers face increasingly challenging times ahead.
“Businesses across the hospitality sector are experiencing unsustainable increases in energy costs.
“Despite having proactively purchased forward contracts to limit the impact on Fuller’s, we will see significant increases this year and do urge the government to provide much needed clarity on its proposed support package so that we can plan accordingly.”
Fuller’s operates almost 180 tenanted pubs and several hotels in the UK, predominately in the south of England.
