Leisure business Brighton Pier Group said on Friday that full-year earnings were expected to be “significantly ahead of market expectations” after a “strong” summer trading performance.
Brighton Pier stated that with all four divisions mostly opened throughout the 13 weeks ended 26 September, total net sales for the period came to £15.9m, up 145% year-on-year and 44% against the same pre-Covid period in 2019.
Like-for-like sales at the Pier were up 47% on 2020 and 14% on 2019, across its golf sites they were up 119% compared to 2020 and up 30% against 2019, and bar sales were up 36% on 2019, with most venues closed in 2020, significantly exceeding internal expectations.
Separately, Brighton Pier confirmed that Business Interruption Insurance claims totalling £5.0m had been recently settled with its insurers, with payments on account of £4.1m already being received and the remaining £900,000 received on Thursday.
Chief executive Anne Ackord said: “The sales over this important 13-week trading period have been very strong across all divisions.
“It is also good to be able to report a new record, with the final bank holiday week of this summer being the first time in the Pier’s history that it has achieved gross sales in excess of £1.0m over a single week.”
As of 0855 BST, Brighton Pier shares had surged 26.17% to 67.50p.
