Mitchells & Butlers (M&B), the Harvester and All Bar One operator, today became the latest company to benefit from a growing consumer penchant for value-for-money offers as it reported a 5.1 per cent jump in like-for-like food sales.

The company, which is seeking to put its recent hedging losses and strategic woes behind it, said that its residential division had benefited from "some particularly powerful performances" from its value food concepts.

It highlighted the performance of its Pub & Carvery format, where a main course costs an average of £3.96, and Sizzling Pub Co, where main meals average £4.94, although its Vintage Inns and Premium Country Dining concepts had also done well.

M&B, which sells more than 110 million meals a year, said its "value and volume sales strategy" was "enabling us to benefit from the increasing customer focus on value".

In a trading update covering the 10 weeks to July 19, M&B said that total like-for-like sales had risen by 1.1 per cent, down from growth of 3.4 per cent in the previous four weeks, taking growth for the first 42 weeks of the year to 0.8 per cent.

On an uninvested basis - excluding refurbished sites - like-for-like sales for the 42-week period fell by 0.8 per cent.

The rise in food sales was offset by a 0.2 per cent decline in drink sales, although M&B said that it continued to beat the estimated 10 per cent decline in beer market volumes.

The group said that, with two thirds of its sales now generated by a "food-driven visit" and just 25 per cent by beer, it was "well placed to benefit from these long-term structural trends".

Like-for-like sales in its residential division, which accounts for 76 per cent of sales, rose by 2 per cent in the 10-week period, while its high street business fell by 0.1 per cent.

It said the high street fall reflected "a very challenging market for the later evening venues offset by good growth in both the Central London estate and our high street pubs in the rest of the UK".

It said that although the outlook for both consumer spending and food and energy costs remained difficult, it expected strong productivity gains and management measures to offset input cost increases.

Tim Clarke, chief executive, said that although food commodity inflation was running at 7-8 per cent, M&B was using its growing purchasing power to limit the unit food cost increase to about 3 per cent.

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