Pre-tax profits jumped more than a fifth at beer and pub company Shepherd Neame as long-term investments in its bars and hotels have begun to pay off.

A 13.8% rise in comparable accomodation sales helped drive a strong performance across its pub and hotel estate, where revenues were up 6.1% overall.

The Faversham-based brewer, which is behind the Spitfire and Bishops Finger brands, saw its bottom line before tax increase 22.1% to £9.4 million according to its latest financial results.

Operating profits before exceptionals were up 5.1% to £14.1 million in the year to the end of June.

Its 52 managed pubs and hotels, which had an occupancy rate of 78%, were described as “the star of the show” by chief executive Jonathan Neame, after earnings before interest, taxes and other costs grew 7.1%.

Mr Neame said: “People’s reason for visiting hotels and pubs is changing.

“It is less about drink and much more about food and accomodation. We have been investing over a long period of time to position our business for those trends and we are seeing some of the benefit of that this year.

“Our managed pubs have had two years of very strong growth, mainly from accomodation. We have invested a lot in the last four to five years in those.”

Shareholders lapped up the positive results, with their basic earnings per share increasing 17.2% to 49.1p.

The only blip for the firm – Britain’s oldest brewer, founded in 1698 – was a marginal fall in turnover, down 0.3% to £138.3 million.

This came as it finally ceased its contract to brew beer for Kingfisher after a two-year phased exit.

Mr Neame said: “Shepherd Neame has limited capacity and we want to focus production on our own and our licenced beers, like Samuel Adams and Asahi.

“We have developed a lot of new brands in that time, not least the Whitstable Bay range, and we have relaunched Master Brew and launched Spitfire Gold, which we think is going to be very successful.

“Although our total volume was down, our brewery is being used much more to develop our own brands, which we think is a better long-term strategy.”

The company said it expected to see “no material impact” from the proposed rises in the minimum wage to £6.70 for over 21s on October 1 and then to £7.20 an hour for over 25s from April next year.

Mr Neame said: “It is a cost challenge for all small businesses particularly in the hospitality and retail sector.

“The flipside is if it creates the pathways to a more sustained career structure, which many of us in the industry have been working towards for a long time. Then we would see it as beneficial.

“For too often hospitality has been seen as a temporary job. We see it as an opportunity to improve the training, development and career path of our staff.”

Shepherd Neame employs 1,200 people at 338 pubs across the South East, of which 286 are tenanted or leased and 52 managed.

It sold 261,000 barrels of beer, roughly 75.1 million pints, including 224,000 brewers’ barrels of own-brewed beer (64.6 million pints) in the last year.

The majority of these sales were made in the UK although the company also exports to more than 35 countries.