FULLER, SMITH & TURNER P.L.C.

("Fuller's", the "Company", or the "Group")

Financial results for the 26 weeks to 27 September 2025

A strong first half with continuing momentum

Financial Highlights:

1    Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, amortisation, profit on disposal of property, plant and equipment, and separately disclosed items.

2    Adjusted profit before tax is the profit before tax excluding separately disclosed items.

3    Per 40p 'A' or 'C' ordinary share. Basic EPS is calculated using earnings attributable to equity shareholders after tax including separately disclosed items. Adjusted EPS excludes separately disclosed items.

4    Net debt excluding lease liabilities comprises cash and short-term deposits, bank overdraft, bank loans, debenture stock and preference shares.

·    Like for like sales for our Managed Pubs & Hotels in H1 up 4.6%, maintaining continued market outperformance

·    Adjusted profit before tax increased by 28% to £22.5 million (H1 2025: £17.6 million)

·    Statutory profit before tax of £21.1 million (H1 2025: £29.0 million) - prior period reflects book profit of £17.2 million arising from the disposal of The Mad Hatter hotel 

·    Exceptional financial performance with adjusted earnings per share up by 38%

·    Net debt of £138.3 million (H1 2025: £128.2 million) with cash generated from the business invested in enhancing the existing estate and financing shareholder returns

·    Interim dividend increased by 6% to 7.85p (H1 2025: 7.41p)

·    Continuing share buyback programme, with 1.2 million 'A' shares repurchased in the period. 

Strategic Highlights

·    Industry leading sales growth underpinned by our premium and resilient customer base

o  Drink like for like sales increased by 6.5%

o  Food like for like sales increased by 2.0%

o  Accommodation like for like sales increased by 3.3%

·    Successful evolution of senior team with new roles of Executive Chairman and Chief Operating Officer

·    Enhanced our iconic freehold estate with investment of £13.5 million

·    Returns to shareholders of £13.8 million through dividend and share buybacks

·    Balance Sheet continues to strengthen - well placed for appropriate acquisition opportunities.

Current Trading

·    Like for like sales for first 32 weeks of the year to 8 November 2025 up 4.6%

·    Christmas bookings 16% ahead of the comparable period last year

·    Planned capex of £15 million earmarked for the second half

·    Business is in excellent shape and primed for future long-term growth.

Executive Chairman Simon Emeny said:

"In my first report as Executive Chairman, I am delighted to be delivering such a great set of results. The business has performed exceptionally well, outperforming the market and delivering like for like sales growth of 4.6%, a 28% increase in adjusted profit before tax to £22.5 million and a significant rise in adjusted earnings per share of 38% to 30.03p. This has been achieved through a combination of factors - a clear long-term strategy, our well-invested, predominately freehold, property portfolio, a premium and resilient customer base, and a team of amazing people throughout the organisation who strive every day to support, promote and deliver brilliant food, drink, accommodation and an outstanding customer experience.

"Our positive momentum has continued into the second half with like for like sales in our Managed Pubs and Hotels for the 32 weeks to 8 November rising by 4.6%. We are heading towards the peak Christmas season and we have a healthy pipeline of Christmas bookings, which is currently 16% ahead of the same time last year.

"On 26 November 2025, the Government will announce its Budget for the coming year. I hope the Chancellor has heeded the arguments and proposals articulated by the hospitality sector to avoid further punitive financial measures but, more so, I am frustrated by the lack of a clear plan to deliver the growth the Chancellor claims to be seeking. The country needs ambitious and innovative ways to drive sustainable economic success. It needs new ideas, new thinking - and I genuinely hope the Government succeeds in that and succeeds quickly.

"We look forward to continuing to develop the business and drive returns for our shareholders. Our consistent long-term strategy provides a clear focus and vision, our Balance Sheet is in excellent shape and supports our ambition to grow, and we face the future with optimism, excitement and confidence."

-Ends-

For further information, please contact:

Forthcoming dates in the financial calendar:

Interim dividend payment: 2 January 2026

Trading update: 15 January 2026

Full year results announcement FY 2026: 10 June 2026

AGM: 21 July 2026

Half year results announcement H1 2027: 11 November 2026

Notes to Editors:

Fuller, Smith & Turner is a premium pubs and hotels business. With an outstanding estate of iconic pubs and hotels across the southern half of England, our purpose is to create experiences that nourish the soul. At our heart is the warm and inviting welcome of a fantastic pub or hotel, delivered by an exceptional team of over 5,000 talented individuals. We have been delighting our customers - with delicious, fresh, seasonal food, an exciting drinks range, and beautiful bedrooms - for 180 years. Fuller's has 185 Managed Pubs and Hotels, with 1,028 bedrooms and 151 Tenanted Inns, all aiming to ensure that everyone leaves that little bit happier than they arrived.

Photography is available from the Fuller's Press Office on 020 8996 2000 or by email at pr@fullers.co.uk.

This statement will be available on the Company's website, www.fullers.co.uk. An accompanying presentation will be available from 12 noon on 12 November 2025.

EXECUTIVE CHAIRMAN'S REVIEW

In my first report as Executive Chairman, I am delighted to be delivering such a great set of results. The business has performed exceptionally well, outperforming the market and delivering like for like sales growth of 4.6%, a 28% increase in adjusted profit before tax to £22.5 million, and a significant rise in adjusted earnings per share of 38% to 30.03p. This has been achieved through a combination of factors - a clear long-term strategy, our well-invested, predominately freehold property portfolio, a premium and resilient customer base, and a team of amazing people throughout the organisation who strive every day to support, promote and deliver brilliant food, drink, accommodation and an outstanding customer experience.

While our financial success is clearly pleasing, improvements in our customer Net Promoter Score (NPS), increased team retention and strong employee engagement scores all support the fact that this success is sustainable. The rise in sales is due to a commitment to growth - attracting more customers, increasing spend per head and delivering it in the right way for our teams and our guests - with amazing service and genuine passion.

I am honoured to work with such a great team of people, and I would like to personally thank them for all their hard work. Fuller's success is their success. They are a credit to the Company and across the business - front of house, in our kitchens, back of house, in the supporting functions at Pier House - they show a dedication and commitment that helps us to deliver for our customers and our stakeholders.

As we head towards the busy Christmas period, we have a strong pipeline of bookings - currently 16% ahead of the same time last year - and an enthusiastic, well-prepared team set to deliver exceptional customer service.

On 26 November 2025, the Government will announce its Budget for the coming year. I hope the Chancellor has heeded the arguments and proposals articulated by the hospitality sector to avoid further punitive financial measures but, more so, I am frustrated by the lack of a clear plan to deliver the growth the Chancellor claims to be seeking. The country needs ambitious and innovative ways to drive sustainable economic success. It needs new ideas, new thinking - and I genuinely hope the Government succeeds in that and succeeds quickly.

Our financial success is underpinned by our commitment to a robust capital allocation framework. I am delighted that, in the first half of the year, we returned £13.8 million to shareholders through dividends and share buybacks, on the back of £34.6 million returned in the prior financial year. We have now bought back over eight million 'A' shares since September 2022 at an average price of £6.05, with the programme continuing.

DIVIDEND

The Board is pleased to announce an interim dividend of 7.85p (H1 2025: 7.41p) per 40p 'A' and 'C' ordinary share and 0.785p (H1 2025: 0.741p) per 4p 'B' ordinary share. This will be paid on 2 January 2026 to shareholders on the share register as at 12 December 2025.

TRADING UPDATE

It is our ability to stand out from the crowd that makes Fuller's successful. From our commitment to constantly investing in our iconic estate, creating beautiful bedrooms and interesting spaces for our customers, to our tailored offer - created, promoted and delivered in a manner that appeals to the key affluent customer groups in each individual site - we successfully strive to set ourselves apart from the competition.

Premium, affluent and resilient customers

Our long-term strategy has delivered great results in the period - with increases across the board. Like for like drinks sales rose 6.5%, like for like food sales rose 2.0% and like for like accommodation sales rose by 3.3%. This growth is driven by delivering a first-class, premium offer to economically resilient customers.

By having a detailed understanding of our customers, we can ensure the offer in each site is the right one for that location - and this drives our sales performance. Identifying the sites with the most customer similarities allows us to test, learn and refine the offer to ensure we are meeting the needs of the customer and growing sales. Combined with an engaged database, of which two million can be contacted directly by SMS or email, we can expertly target specific customer groups with the right message in the right style, at the right time.

Pre-booked sales have been a key focus for the Company in recent years and during the period, our Sales and Events Team has driven prebooked sales up by 4.8% to account for 33% of Managed Pubs & Hotels revenue - equating to £60.9 million. This focus has helped build our corporate business and improved access to the lucrative wedding market. Weddings are an important opportunity for both hotels and iconic locations, and in the first half alone, we have hosted 510 happy couples on their special day.

Having such a strong key customer base is so important with the high level of economic pressure on consumers. We over-index against the market in our key demographic groups and this year has seen disposable income grow in those groups, further demonstrating their financial resilience.

Well-invested, iconic properties in great locations

During the first half of the year, we invested a total of £13.5 million in our estate.

Projects completed in the period include a £4 million transformation of The Chamberlain Hotel on Minories, a £1.8 million investment to elevate The Hampshire Hog at Clanfield, a fantastic site on the edge of the South Downs, and a £1 million scheme at Bel & The Dragon in Odiham, Hampshire, where we have upgraded all the bedrooms.

Investing in our bedroom stock - which has been a consistent focus over the last few years - continues to deliver results with occupancy rates of 81% (H1 2025: 82%) and average room rates of £143.10 - an increase of 3.8% (H1 2025: £137.90). Combined, these factors have led to revenue per available room rising £3.63 to £115.76 - the highest in the pub sector. In our Cotswolds sites, this rises to an average room rate of £165.96, which is 3.1% up on the prior year.

As well as investing in our hotels, we also completed a £1 million investment at The Parcel Yard - an iconic pub at Kings Cross station. This has added a new level of opulence, evoking the spirit of traditional European station restaurants and it has proved very popular with both new and existing customers at this busy and well-known location.

In the remainder of the current financial year we expect to spend around a further £15 million on investments, including 14 transformational schemes, with a targeted return of 20% on any trade enhancing investment. This will set us up well for continued momentum and success in FY2027.

Inspiring our People

Our people make the real difference - their commitment to our customers' enjoyment and desire to deliver experiences that nourish the soul is reflected in our rising NPS scores. We have seen an increase across all areas and our current overall NPS score stands at 70.5.

We have achieved this with a dedication to recruiting, developing and retaining the best people. Our retention rates have been growing year-on-year and our current average tenure is 11 years for a General Manager and just over six years for a Head Chef.

Supporting this recruitment is a commitment to training and development, including our excellent Lead Your Way programme. Lead your Way is aimed at all our senior managers - from General Managers in our pubs and hotels, through to our support centre senior managers and including our Head Chefs. Across the estate, the course has now been completed, or is underway, by 88% of our General Managers, 72% of our Head Chefs, and 68% of our support centre senior managers.

Finally, we were delighted during the first half to complete work on the Fuller's Kitchen Academy in Reading. This amazing facility is now fully open following a £0.5 million investment and gives us the bespoke space we need to inspire and develop our chefs and, therefore, our food offer. From delivering the classics with brilliance and elegance, to inspiring new, exciting seasonal dishes, this wonderful space is a home from which our Fuller's Chefs' Guild will inspire the next generation of amazing Head Chefs.

Life is too good to waste

Underpinning everything we do is our commitment to delivering our Life is too good to waste programme. We have added a further eight electric kitchens across the estate in the first half of the year, have a further 12 planned for the second half, and we are on target to hit our Scope 1 & 2 Net Zero target by 2030. We are already recycling 66% of our waste - with a target of 70% - and with all remaining waste going to an "energy from waste" facility, we no longer send anything to landfill.

Sustainability is a central pillar of our procurement process and one of the changes we have made during the period is the appointment of illy as our new coffee supplier across the estate. As a certified B Corp company, illy focuses on responsible sourcing, regenerative farming practices, recyclable packaging, renewable energy and community enrichment. It is another step to ensure we hit our Scope 3 Net Zero target by 2040.

TENANTED INNS

Our Tenanted business continues to be a strong cash contributor with low investment needs and good returns. During the period it has delivered EBITDA margins of 53.3% and average EBITDA per pub of £127k per annum - a rise of 7.1%.

Maintaining both Tenanted and Managed operating models continues to deliver flexibility within our portfolio framework for pubs to sit within the operating model that delivers the best returns for the Company. The strong financials and good geography of our Tenanted Inns attract economically resilient Tenants, and we have a great support centre team, with a real depth of knowledge and experience, to help both parties maximise the opportunities available.

During the period, we have launched an improved marketing hub, with better access to social media assets and completed new websites for 110 of our Tenants. 

FINANCIAL REVIEW

In the first half of the year we have delivered strong growth in both revenue and profit, with adjusted profit before tax growing by 28% to £22.5 million (H1 2025: £17.6 million) and revenue growing by 7% to £207.5m (H1 2025: £194.1m). The improvement in profitability has meant that net debt to EBITDA has decreased to 2.18 times leaving our Balance Sheet in a strong position to take advantage of opportunities to grow the business through acquisition, when the right acquisition targets arise.

The increased profits and the continued share buyback programme have delivered a particularly significant increase in adjusted earnings per share, up 38%. This demonstrates real momentum in the business as the performance follows a similarly strong prior period when adjusted earnings per share grew by 27%.

In the first half of the year we continued to deliver on our capital allocation framework through investment in the estate and returns to shareholders while reducing net debt and leverage. In the first half, we paid a dividend of £6.7 million to shareholders and £7.1 million was deployed as part of our ongoing share buyback programme. This amounts to a total return to shareholders of £13.8 million in the period.

We have invested a total of £13.5 million in our property portfolio, with a further £15 million of investment planned in the second half of the year. During the period we have completed major investments in our bedrooms, with significant schemes at The Hampshire Hog in Clanfield, Bel & The Dragon, Odiham, and The Chamberlain in the City.

Managed Pubs and Hotels like for like sales increased by 4.6% on the prior period, outperforming the market. Total revenue in the Managed Pubs and Hotels division increased by 8% on the prior period. This total growth is assisted by the acquisition of the Lovely Pubs business and The White Swan, Twickenham during the prior period. All categories of revenue showed like for like growth against the prior period, with drink sales up by 6.5%, food sales up by 2.0% and accommodation sales up by 3.3%. The improvement in revenue was delivered through pricing, mix and volume growth.

As well as growing revenue, we have also improved our operating margins within the Managed Pubs and Hotels division growing from 15.7% to 17.1%. The improvement in margin has been achieved in multiple areas. We invested in our procurement team which has driven improvements in our gross profit margin. We have transitioned to Coca-Cola in the period, introduced a new premium spirits range and moved coffee suppliers to illy.  These changes have enhanced the customer offer and helped to protect our margins from the cost of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) and inflation. Our strong relationship with Asahi also remains important in mitigating some of the increased input costs, with the current partnership in place to 2029.

Labour costs remain challenging. Our business had a further £8 million of annualised costs imposed upon on it, with effect from April 2025, due to increases in National Living Wage and National Insurance. We have managed to mitigate some of these costs through improvements in labour efficiency and some selected price increases.

Through effective forward purchasing and a drive to reduce consumption we have seen a reduction in utility costs with expected annualised costs reducing from last year by £0.5 million. Looking forward into future financial years, we do not anticipate further utility cost reductions as the lower forward contracted commodity pricing is expected to be offset by increases in non-commodity costs.

Cumulatively, these initiatives have resulted in an increase in adjusted operating profit in the Managed business of £4.8 million from £27.7 million to £32.5 million.

Tenanted Inns revenue was down slightly from £17.5 million to £16.9 million due to the prior year disposal of 37 smaller non-core sites. On a like for like basis Tenanted revenue was up 2%. EBITDA margin has improved by 1.3ppts to 53.3% which demonstrates the quality of the Tenanted estate and shows the result of proactive estate management in the prior year. This effective estate management, combined with good underlying trading, has meant that we have seen a 7.1% increase in the average EBITDA per Tenanted pub to £127k.

The Group has unsecured banking facilities of £185 million, split between a revolving credit facility of £100 million and a term loan of £85 million. These facilities are committed through to August 2028. The Group also has £20 million of debentures which are due for repayment in 2028. The Group's undrawn committed facilities at 27 September 2025 were £63.2 million, with a further £4.3 million of cash held on the Balance Sheet. Net debt (excluding leases) was at £138.3 million, which was down £3.9 million from the net debt position at year end (FY2025: £142.2 million). At 27 September 2025, the Group's ratio of net debt to EBITDA was 2.18 times (H1 2025: 2.29 times). With significant headroom on facilities and covenants, we have the scope to seek further acquisition opportunities as appropriate, in line with our capital allocation framework, when they arise.

Adjusted finance costs decreased to £5.8 million (H1 2025: £6.6 million). The average cost of borrowing has reduced to 6.1% compared to 7.6% for the prior first half. The reduction from the prior year has been achieved through the benefit of the refinancing in March 2025, the execution of an interest rate swap over £60 million of the existing term loan, securing a lower rate of 3.65%, as well as the Bank of England rate reducing from 5% to 4%.

Separately disclosed items before tax show a £1.4 million expense (H1 2025: £11.4 million credit), which principally consists of an impairment charge of £1.9 million, in relation to the write down of five properties. The remaining balance relates to the profit on the sale of two non-trading assets for £1.5 million, realising a profit of £0.5 million.

Tax has been provided at an effective rate before separately disclosed items of 27.1% (H1 2025: 27.8%). The decrease in effective tax rate is mainly due to the increased profit before tax and a reduction in depreciation on assets not qualifying for capital allowances. Disclosure on tax is set out in note 5.

The movement in separately disclosed items has resulted in basic earnings per share reducing by 9.60p to 27.84p (H1 2025: 37.44p). However, adjusted earnings per share have increased by 8.22p to 30.03p (H1 2025: 21.81p) an impressive 38% increase.

The growth in adjusted earnings per share has enabled the Group to declare an interim dividend of 7.85p (H1 2025: 7.41p), which is an increase of 6% on last year. This level of dividend growth is in line with our desire to follow a progressive pathway to a normalised dividend cover in excess of 2.5 times. In addition to the dividend, the Group continues to buy back shares with the 6.5 million share buyback programme completed in January 2025 and two further one million share buyback programmes commenced in March 2025 (now completed) and August 2025. In the period 1.2 million 'A' shares were repurchased. As at 27 September 2025, the Group had bought back a total of 7.8 million 'A' shares at an average price of £6.05 since September 2022.

CURRENT TRADING AND OUTLOOK

Our positive momentum has continued into the second half with like for like sales in our Managed Pubs and Hotels for the 32 weeks to 8 November rising by 4.6%. We are heading towards the peak Christmas season and we have a healthy pipeline of Christmas bookings, which is currently 16% ahead of the same time last year.

We remain focused on delivering an outstanding offer to our customers, supported with exciting events and using high quality marketing to engage with our extensive database of existing customers and using targeted social media to attract new customers.

Continued investment in our estate is ongoing, with £15 million allocated for the second half across 14 transformational schemes. This will include further kitchen electrifications as we invest in a sustainable future.

Our support for our people continues unabated, with a range of development programmes for team members at all levels, and a commitment to reach our target of 200 apprentices during this financial year. For our Chefs' Guild, the new Fuller's Kitchen Academy will provide a focus to fuel talent and creativity.

We look forward to continuing to develop the business and drive returns for our shareholders. Our consistent long-term strategy provides a clear focus and vision, our Balance Sheet is in excellent shape and supports our ambition to grow, and we face the future with optimism, excitement and confidence.

Simon Emeny

Executive Chairman

11 November 2025