Young & Co is one of the few breweries not drowning its sorrows at the moment. After four years of static results, the group has been enjoying a burst of growth, evident from last year's results. This has continued, reflected in the 49% leap in interim pre-tax profits to £5m (a 20% increase to £3.8m excluding £1.2m from property disposals), on turnover up 8.8% to £45m. Beer production leapt 22.6%, largely as a result of new brewing contracts. Even so, at a time when sales of traditional ales are declining, Young's performance, and a 1.9% increase in its own beer production, is something of an achievement. Finance director Peter Whitehead hopes to sustain such growth through increasing free trade, securing beer contracts and increasing the estate, a slow and steady programme, given the attention paid to picking community pubs. The group is also rapidly expanding its hotel division, having been granted permission for a hotel in Putney and one in Kew Green which will almost double the division's capacity. This is essentially an asset sweating exercise, utilising space from current pubs.