Cornish brewer St Austell has shrugged off its Covid blues and announced record sales for 2022.

Total revenue was £209m, up 34 per cent on 2021 and surpassing pre-pandemic sales by 10 per cent.

Total revenue in the St Austell Brewery’s Pubs, Inns & Hotels division was £87.4m (2021: £62.6m), with the company’s managed sites up 41 per cent on 2021 and pubs in its tenanted estate up 38 per cent.

The company’s beer division saw revenues up 29 per cent at £120.6m (2021: £93.2m).

Since the end of 2022, the figures show sales in its managed pubs are up 12 per cent in the 23 weeks to 10 June.

St Austell non-executive chairman Will Michelmore said: “Despite the impacts of the pandemic beginning to abate at the start of the year, the economic challenges facing the business continued to intensify due to external factors – largely beyond our control – which significantly increased the cost of doing business.

“Against this backdrop, we still achieved sales growth, significantly improved the profitability of our beer business, and made good progress against our objective of releasing the full potential of our high-quality pub estate.

“Despite the current challenging environment, we are optimistic about our long-term prospects and remain confident that we have the leadership, talented teams, and focused strategy to ensure the company’s future success.”

The business owns more than 180 pubs, inns and hotels across the West Country including managed houses and tenancies. It also operates two breweries, in St Austell and Bath, having acquired Bath Ales in 2016.