Mitchells and Butlers has reported that operating profit for the 12 months to 27 September increased 7 percent to £322m, with total revenue rising almost 4 percent to £2.7bn thanks to a 4.3 percent uptick in sales.

The pub company welcomed the results as “another year of strong trading ahead of the market,” however CEO Phil Urban sounded a note of caution regarding the increased cost of doing business in 2026.

“We are pleased to report another year of strong performance,” said Urban. “Like-for-like sales continued to outperform the market across all segments, reinforcing the strength of our strategy and market positioning. Combined with disciplined operational execution, this delivered robust profit growth mitigating sector-wide cost headwinds.” 

“As we look to the year ahead, we anticipate increased cost pressures across the sector. However, we remain confident in our ability to manage these challenges.” 

M&B anticipates approximately £130m in cost headwinds during FY2026, representing “slightly less than 6 percent of our cost base before mitigation, driven by annualisation of labour cost increases, plus further increases in the statutory thresholds, and increased levels of food cost inflation.”

However, Urban added: “Our market-leading estate and diversified guest propositions provide a strong foundation for resilience and growth, enabling us to capture incremental market share and deliver continued long-term outperformance.”