Dorset brewer Hall & Woodhouse return to profit making after devastating Covid losses
With more than 170 pubs spanning from Brighton to Bristol and a range of hugely popular beers including perennial favourites such as Fursty Ferret, Tangle Foot and Golden Champion, Hall & Woodhouse are sizeable players in the British beer scene.
As with so many other drinks and hospitality companies, Covid hit them hard. To the tune of some £10.5m, in fact. The Dorset firm survived the pandemic, however. Now? They're recovering in a quite reassuringly demonstrative way.
Hall & Woodhouse, a going concern since 1777, made an underlying pre-tax profit of £1.6million in the year that ended January 2022. After the devastation of the past two years, it's great news for the business.
Anthony Woodhouse is the chairman of the Blandford-HQ'd firm. He's said this about his brewery's financial recovery:
“The last financial year was again a challenging one, but it has been reassuring that Hall & Woodhouse has been able to return to profitability with an underlying profit before tax of £1.6m, despite the ongoing disruption.”
"The team are to be congratulated for what has been achieved. It's such a demonstration of resilience and does not happen by accident. Through the pandemic, we are justly proud of how H&W has resolutely stuck to its purpose and lived by its values despite the extreme pressure."
“In the short term, the cost to the company has been great. However, as has happened many times in H&W’s history, the crisis has given rise to significant opportunities to acquire both managed houses and business partnerships at very attractive prices. H&W has been able to grasp these opportunities due to its strong balance sheet, tight management of cashflow and the limited borrowings that were in place at the start of the pandemic. We also bolstered our resources by disposing of a number of smaller predominantly wet-led pubs that did not fit with our long-term strategy.”
"I am afraid we will not be immune to any further impact on the economy, but notwithstanding this, I am optimistic about H&W’s continued recovery in the year ahead.”
