PUBS group New Century Inns yesterday announced it had broken through the £1m profit mark.

Two years ago, the Teeside-based firm, which has pubs across the North-East and Yorkshire, set a target to acquire 100 new outlets by 2008.

Chairman Alistair Arkley yesterday admitted rising property prices had forced a halt on the business plan and said that over the past year it had not bought a single site.

Mr Arkley said the group had undergone a restructuring programme helping it to achieve a 28 per cent rise in pre-tax profits to £1.01m in the year to September.

With the property market more favourable, the firm, in Billingham, is now looking to expand its estate of 48 pubs by about ten per cent in the next 12 months.

Mr Arkley described the groups profit performance, and the ten per cent increase in turnover to £5.8m, as a remarkable achievement.