Pubs and brewing group Greene King today reported a successful start to its new financial year, with like-for-like sales growth across all key categories.

In a trading update ahead of its annual general meeting, Bury St Edmunds-based Greene King said that like-for-like sales in its retail division (involving pubs under direct management) were up 1.3% in the 18 weeks to September 6.

And the rate of growth accelerated to 1.9% in the last 10 weeks of the period, covering the main summer season.

Excludinig the impact of tougher drink-driving laws in Scotland, Greene King said retail like-for-like sales were up by 1.8% in the first 18 weeks of the year and by 2.4% in the last 10 weeks.

Like-for-like sales within the managed estate of the Spirit Pub Company, which Greene King acquired in June in a deal valued at £774million, were 0.8% higher during the opening 18 weeks of the year.

On the tenanted and leased pubs side, like-for-like net income was up 2.0% within the Greene King estate after 16 weeks of the new year amd 1.1% higher at Spirit.

Own-brewed volume within the group's brewing business was up 1.7% after the first 18 weeks, with good growth seen from

Old Speckled Hen, Greene King IPA and Abbot Ale, despite strong take-home trade comparatives due to the World Cup last year.

Greene King added: 'Although it is still early in the process, the integration of Spirit is going well and we remain confident of generating at least £30million of cost synergies. 'We will provide a further update on the integration at our interim results on December 2.'

The group is currently conducting a consultation with staff over its plans for the integration of Spirit, but has stressed that the 'central' role of its operations in Bury will continue.

Under the proposals, all headquarters functions will continue to be based in Bury, together with the group's tenanted and leased pubs division and the brewing operation, but the retail division will in future be based at the current Spirit offices in Burton-upon-Trent.

There has been no word yet from the group on the number of jobs likely to be affected but it has said that it is 'working to keep redundancies to a minimum'.

Greene King added today that it had exchanged contracts on all 16 of the pubs that it was require by the Competition and Markets Authority to sell in order to secure approval for the Spirit deal, with the sales expected to complete in early October.

In July, Greene King reported record revenues of £1.315billion for the 52 weeks to May 3, with annual sales within the retail division topping £1bn for the first time. Underlying pre-tax profits (excluding the impact of the sale of 275 non-core pubs) were 4.9% higher at £167million.

These figures included no contribution from Spirit, the acquisition of which was completed after the year-end and has made Greene King the UK's largest operator of managed pubs.

Enterprise Inns and Punch Taverns remain the UK's two largest pub owners, with around 5,500 and 4,300 properties respectively, but they are focused on the tenanted sector.

Greene King now has more managed houses than rivals such as Mitchells & Butlers – which owns around 1,700 pubs under brands such as Harvester and O'Neills – and J D Wetherspoon, which has around 920.

The Spirit deal has also extended Greene King's lead over Marston's as the country's largest integrated pubs and brewing group, with the Marston's estate numbering around 1,630.