Celebrating fans lifted M&B's sales

The owner of the All Bar One and O'Neills chains said underlying sales were up 4.5% since October, with about a third of the rise due to the rugby.

The news came as Mitchells & Butlers unveiled a 1% drop in pre-tax profits to �199m in the year to 30 September.

But the firm said recent sales had been helped by the warm weather and the outlook for its business was improving.

The figures were the first full-year results from the company since it demerged from Six Continents in April this year.

Optimistic

In the year to September, like-for-like sales - which strip out the effect of new pub openings - were down by 0.4%.

But in the last 20 weeks of the year sales were up 1.8%, and the firm said it was hopeful the trend would continue.

"We are reasonably optimistic about this improving sales trend, even though we are cautious about the effect of increasing UK interest rates on consumer spending," said chief executive Tim Clarke.

In morning trade, M&B shares were one of the best performers in the FTSE 100, up 2.5p. or 1.1%, at 232.25p.