mitchells  butlers plc said wednesday that it swung to a pretax profit for the first half of fiscal 2022 as revenue rose and that the business environment remained difficult as cost inflation headwinds were a significant challenge to the industry the uk pubandrestaurant operator said that for the 28 weeks ended april 9 pretax profit was 57 million pounds 712 million compared with a pretax loss of gbp200 million a year earlier revenue rose to gbp116 billion from gbp219 million the company said this reflected a period of continuous business compared with the prior year which included significant pandemicrelated closures and restrictions the company said that for the hospitality sector as a whole inflation headwinds were expected in utilities wages and food it added that based on fiscal 2019 and on a gbp18 billion cost base cost inflation headwinds are expected to be in the region of 115 for the current year the company that although it is working hard to mitigate costs there will inevitably be a residual margin impact in the short to medium term