Euros and staycations to aid Marston's recovery with recruitment poised to restart

Outgoing chief executive Ralph Findlay said the target was to get back to pre-Covid 2019 levels of sales in 2022 and will be helped by this summer's Euros football tournament and more people having to 'staycation' in the UK this summer.

"It won't be easy but the objective is to get back to normal in 2022," he said.

Marston's now has 100 per cent of its around 1,500 pubs and restaurants across the UK back in action.

It was able to open 70 per cent of the estate on April 12 – higher than the UK average for the industry of 30 per cent.

"We have got the Euros in June and it looks like being a staycation summer for people in the UK which will make a difference to us. The prospects are pretty positive.

"The signs are that actually people are pretty confident – we have seen that so far. There is pent-up demand and people genuinely want to go out," he said.

Mr Findlay said that people's savings ratios had improved during the pandemic and people have put money aside for special family celebations and Marston's was starting to see the benefits from that.

He added that he had been pleased with the level of sales sine April 12: "We got back to 80 per cent of 2019 levels which was extraordinary when you think how cold April was and that we were unable to trade inside.

"We broke even - a better result than we thought we would achieve.

"Now we have moved to inside sales thing are a lot more normal and there is a high level of confidence in the trade."

He said that the next step on the road map was the removal of remaining restrictions on June 21.

"There is some uncertainty about that but we have crossed fingers that that happens as planned," said Mr Findlay.

Marston's had come through the pandemic in good shape and employees who had been on furlough had been delighted to return to work this week.

"We have spent much of the last year making sure we had regular communications with our people. It has been very difficult with many furloughed for many months.

"We had a massive online call with 4,000 of our people a few weeks ago," he explained.

Some of the group's workforce have left during lockdown and while restrictions are still in place the company has not needed to go out and recruit.

"As the trade gets back to normal we will look to bring in more people," he added,

Part of the new recruitment will involve bringing in more apprentices to the Marston's business where more than 12,000 of its employees are under the age of 25.

"Apprentices are very important for us. We have nearly 1,000 apprentices across the group. This industry is a very important employer for young people especially in places where jobs are hard to come by.

"Creating apprenticeships will be a big part of our future employment plan," he explained.