Pub firm Marston’s has experienced a drop in substantial drop in annual profits.

Pub and brewing company Marston’s has posted its preliminary annual financial results, showing a significant drop in profits mainly attributed to property charges.

Marston’s, the owner of Tavern table and Pitcher and Piano pubs, revealed yesterday (3 December) that it had made a pre-tax profit of £21.4 million in the year ended 3 October – significantly less than the £76.2m profit a year earlier.

The pub company has been hit by property charges totalling £37m this year.

Despite the drop in profits, the firm stated that it intended to continue with plans to build 60 new pubs over the next three years, the first 15 of which will be open for business in 2010.

The completion of a rights issue earlier this year managed netted Marston’s £165.5m, which will be used to fund the expansion.

The company’s total revenue for the year was £645.1m – £21m less than the previous year.

However, Marston’s stated that trading picked up in the second half of the year.

Ralph Findlay, Chief Executive, said: “This was a creditable performance in a very challenging period.

“In addition, the improvement in trading we experienced over the second half-year has continued in recent weeks, and we have made an encouraging start to the new financial year.”

Like most pubs in the UK however, Marston’s remains cautious predicting a recovery. It stated that it has “a strong platform to make further progress over the coming year.”