A HAMPSHIRE brewing and pub firm is toasting a successful set of festive season figures.

The Upham Group’s pub sales in the five weeks up to December 31 were 6.5 per cent up to £2.3m, on a like-for-like basis on the previous year.

New Year’s Eve was the highest grossing sales day in Upham’s history, taking £112,000, and the week from Christmas Day to New Year’s Eve marked the first time that sales exceeded £0.5million in a single week.

The Weighbridge Brewhouse in Swindon took the top sales spot in the group followed by The Navigator in Lower Swanwick.

This strong performance was driven largely by food sales of just above £1.2m, with drink sales topping £0.8m.

Bedroom occupation was also relatively high for the time of year, accounting for around 13 per cent of pub revenue during the pre-Christmas period.

The brewery successfully launched Upham’s new craft beer UB5, selling more than 4,000 pints in December.

Upham’s festive season numbers included:

l 6,460 Christmas lunches and dinners served in December

l 10,161 pints of Punter pulled in Upham pubs over the period

l 1,326 glasses of Prosecco sold on New Year’s Eve

l 83,880 pints of beer sold by the brewery in December

l £123,000 of non-alcoholic drinks

l 177 staff working on Christmas day

Upham CEO Chris Philips (pictured) said: “This strong Christmas performance rounds off a good year for the Upham Group, despite a difficult trading environment for the sector.

“Last year was a productive year, in addition to pursuing our pub acquisition strategy, we also launched our first ever craft beer, which continued to sell extremely well throughout December. I would like to thank the teams at all our pubs for their fantastic Christmas menus, as well as the rest of our staff who made this such a successful few weeks”

Upham Group plc operates 16 pubs across the south – including the The Peat Spade at Longstock, The Mill at Gordleton, The Running Horse at Littleton– and has plans to increase the portfolio.

The Group seeks to buy freehold pubs with growth potential in prime trading locations.

Upham Brewery, at Stakes Farm, opened in 2013 and now supplies more that 250 stockists, including pubs, hotels and local Tesco, Majestic and Co-op stores, with its staple ales, Punter and Tipster, as well as ten seasonal special ales.