JD WETHERSPOON has Scotland in its sights as it launches a £145 million investment drive across its estate that it says will create 2,000 new jobs.

The pub giant has revealed it is open a new outlet in Shawlands, Glasgow, as part of a pipeline of 75 projects that will get under way within weeks of fully reopening after lockdown conditions ease. 

The new Shawlands pub is being developed in the old Waverley Cinema. It will replace an existing Wetherspoon pub in the Shawlands Arcade, which is being redeveloped.

Eighteen new pubs in total are opening, while 57 will receive significant extensions.

Wetherspoon said the first wave of new pubs and extensions will be in Glasgow, Leeds, Birmingham, Newport Pagnell, Heswall, Sheffield, Felixstowe, Dublin, Haverfordwest and Carmarthen.

The company also plans to upgrade 871 pubs.

Chairman and founder Tim Martin said: “Our immediate  investment will provide work for architects, contractors and builders as well as result in 2,000 new jobs for staff in our pubs. We are geared up to start on the first projects within a few months.

“We are also committed to our long-term investment and job creation programme over the next decade. However, the investment is conditional on the UK opening back up again on a long-term basis, with no further lockdowns or the constant changing of rules.”

Once the 75 projects in the pipeline are completed, Wetherspoon said it anticipates investing £750m to open 15 new pubs and enlarging 50 existing pubs each year for ten years.

This ten-year pub project will result in 20,000 new jobs, it added.