Fuller, Smith & Turner reduced its defined benefit (DB) pension deficit by £31.7m to £4.7m in its financial year ended 28 March 2020, according to the company’s annual financial report.

The pub chain and brewery said the decline in deficit from its DB scheme came as the value of its liabilities decreased by £19.8m to £128.5m and the fair value of scheme assets increased by £11.9m from £123.8m.

The company attributed this to a voluntary contribution of £24m and standard deficit recovery payments of £2.4m.

The voluntary contribution was made possible by pre-IFRS 16 profit before tax increasing by £148.4m to £174.5m, which was predominately as a result of the April 2019 sale of the Fuller’s Beer Business to Asahi Europe for a £162.4m profit.

The company registered a net actuarial gain on its pension schemes of £5.9m during the 12-month period, compared to losses of £5.0m the year before.

Fuller’s chief executive, Simon Emeny, said: “When we released our interim statement in December 2019, we were on track to finish the financial year in a good position having received the proceeds from the sale of the Fuller’s Beer Business and with a clear future path laid out before us.

“It had been a transformational year for Fuller’s – but we would never have anticipated that we would end it in March with the whole hospitality industry in a state of closure and with no income stream.”

He added that the decision to sell the Fuller’s Beer Business “has proved fortuitous and ensured we were in a strong position, with substantial liquidity headroom, when the coronavirus pandemic struck”.

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