Late-night bars group Po Na Na pledged to push ahead with the sale of under-performing sites after what it described as a very challenging year.

Po Na Na, which has an outlet in Brighton and also runs the School Disco nightclub in Hammersmith, London, said its core outlets had performed well.

But chief executive Christian Arden said overall conditions had been tough.

He said: "The year to March 31 was very challenging. The over-riding theme is strong trading in the majority of the estate but weaker trading in the non-core units."

The group was selling a number of under-performing outlets and had disposed of four in the last six months. Another nine were for off-loading.

Mr Arden said: "Completion of the disposal process is our absolute priority and the group will come out of this process stronger and well positioned for further advancement."

Group turnover in the year to March 31 jumped 17 per cent to £35.2 million.

This was fuelled by strong performances at core sites in Bath, Cambridge, Reading, Bristol, Swindon, Leicester, Edinburgh, Wimbledon and Putney.

School Disco continued to be very successful with capacity attendances and a high bar spend.

Operating losses improved slightly from £2.4 million to £2.1 million after taking losses from sites earmarked for disposal into account.

On a bottom-line basis, Po Na Na slid into the red because of the under-performing bars and losses on disposals.

The company's pre-tax losses were £5.3 million compared with last year's pre-tax profits of £1.5 million.

The group opened two new units during the year, in London's Chelsea and Salisbury, Witshire, but was now delaying opening any more until material progress was made on its disposals programme.

In March this year, Po Na Na was operating 44 bars and clubs.