Turnover at historic pubs, hotels and brewing firm Daniel Thwaites passed £100m for the first time since 2015 during its latest financial year.
The Lancashire-headquartered company, which can trace its roots back over 200 years, has posted a turnover of £108.8m for the 12 months to March 31, 2023, up from £96m in the prior year.
The last time the business, which was badly affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, achieved a turnover of more than £100m was the £137.6m it reported in 2015.
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According to its latest set of accounts, Daniel Thwaites also grew its pre-tax profits from £12.7m to £15.1m.
Its turnover from its pubs and inns increased from £52.1m to £57.7m while sales at its hotels and spas rose from £43.9m to £51.1m.
In a statement signed off by the board, chairman Richard Bailey said: "This last year was our 216th year in business, and one in which the Company delivered a strong set of results against a backdrop of a disruptive war in Ukraine and higher inflation than we have seen for some time.
"After a strong start in the first half of the year, the environment became significantly more difficult in the second half.
"Despite reasonably strong increases in top line sales, increased utility costs and rising prices across a broad spectrum of goods, together with a very poor Christmas, meant that it was a struggle to convert sales to profit during the quieter months.
"In recent years the business has become more orientated towards the summer months and more weather reliant and last year that certainly played an important factor.
"The winter was overall mild, however late winter was characterised by a prolonged period of colder and wet weather which did not kick start the traditional spring uplift in business until after Easter."
On its outlook, Mr Bailey added: "It seems that inflation should ease this coming year, energy prices are dropping fast in the spot markets and we are seeing evidence of a plateauing in food and other costs.
"We have opportunities to convert price decreases into our own cost prices and will work hard to grow our sales whilst delivering margin recovery this year.
"The factors that have shaken consumer confidence are going into reverse; for the moment recession has been avoided and employment numbers are strong.
"Our properties are well invested and better staffed than they have been for sometime and the corporate and short break domestic leisure markets are showing good bookings for the summer.
"We are seeing strong performances in some of our pubs and as a result we look to the coming year with cautious but increasing confidence."
