LIVERPOOL is defying a national industry decline, pubs group Punch Taverns said last night.

The group, which operates 8,300 pubs, including 252 in Merseyside, reported “a really robust trading environment” across the region.

Chris Welham, Punch Taverns North West operations director, told LDP Business: “Liverpool is performing very well.

“National trends have seen double-figure decline, but Liverpool is beating that.”

Despite tighter cost controls, he said the group was still investing in its Liverpool portfolio, including recent refurbishments at The Coburg, in Stanhope Street, and improvements at familiar city centre watering holes, including The Cross Keys, in Earle Street, and both The Lion Tavern and Railway, in Tithebarn Street.

Speaking after the launch of the group’s interim results to March 7, Mr Welham said: “We have seen some improvement in the last quarter generally in terms of trading and we have done some work on the balance sheet which is what the City is looking at.”

In fact, the City broadly welcomed the update, with shares rising as much as 15% initially, after confirmation that the group is not planning a rights issue and had reduced gross debt by £318m to £4.45bn.

However, chief executive Giles Thorley reiterated that Punch had no bank debt and was in no danger of breaching covenants on its long-term bonds.

The group reported a fall in revenues from £813.5m to £768m and pre-tax profits of £82m were down from £133m. After £184m of exceptional charges, including property impairments and reorganisation costs, the business made a loss of £122m.

But Mr Thorley pointed out that only £7m was an actual cash cost, and disposals during the reporting period worth £91m helped reduce those debts.

About 5% of the group’s estate has closed due to business pressures – Mr Thorley urged the Government to support the industry – and a special turnaround division has been formed to help 1,250 pubs considered in most difficulty.

And the group is now investing £1.6m a month in supporting struggling licensees, compared with £400,000 a month last year.

And while Mr Thorley admitted that “lack of forward visibility on trading outlook” is causing concern in the near-term, he added that overall he remained confident of the longer-term prospects for the group, and the board’s expectations for the full year remained unchanged.