Mr Turner and his finance director celebrate a small profit

The group weathered a slow summer with a pre-tax profit of �8.2m ($15.2m) before exceptionals for the half-year to 25 September.

Chief executive Michael Turner also announced that Fuller hoped to double its number of pubs.

Strong sales in London's financial centre and its hotels offset unusually wet weather and refurbishment costs.

New pubs

Like-for-like sales in the City of London, where the group runs 23 pubs, increased by 3%, while hotel revenues climbed by 6%.

"Once [the City] starts to turn it will be a long-term recovery," Mr Turner said.

He was also unruffled by the government's plans to ban smoking in pubs and restaurants from 2008, arguing that smokers would have time to adjust.

Fuller revealed that it has started shipping beer to Canada, in addition to its existing exports to the US and Scandinavia.

Beer profits increased by 8% to �3.5m, helped by a 27% jump in export revenue.

Excluding the one-off items, the company's pre-tax profits rose by 2% from �8m in the same period last year, on sales of �73m.

Shares in the company closed down 2.5% at 717.5 pence.