Pub giant JD Wetherspoon has swung back to a significant profit as higher food sales helped its post-pandemic sales recovery continue.
Analysts said on Friday that the chain will “benefit from trading down” by customers squeezed by the rising cost of living.
The company, which runs 826 pubs across the UK, saw total sales rise by 10.6% to £1.92 billion for the year to July 30.
Wetherspoons said like-for-like sales grew by 12.7% year-on-year, as it benefitted from a significant rise in food sales, which increased by 17.7%.
Meanwhile, bar sales increased by 9%, its hotel business witnessed an 11.8% rise and there was a 26.4% increase in sales through slot and fruit machines.
Bosses at the business said sales growth has continued in recent weeks, with like-for-like sales increasing by 9.9% over the nine weeks to October 1.
Tim Martin, chairman of JD Wetherspoon, said: “Wetherspoon continues to perform well.
“The company currently anticipates a reasonable outcome for the financial year, subject to our future sales performance.”
During the year, Wetherspoon slightly trimmed its pub estate, as it sold, closed or terminated the leases of 31 pubs.
It said there was a £7 million cash boost after fees as a result. Wetherspoons also opened three pubs.
Mr Martin also told the PA news agency that its focus on “the basics” and competitive pricing have driven its improved performance.
He said: “Wetherspoons is a resilient business. It has been around for 44 years and our staff have been working here for an average of 14 years.
“The business has been through nearly everything and remains strong.
“Working to remain very competitive in price has been very important over the past year because it has been difficult for everyone financially.
“We have focused on the basics – things like real ale and coffee – while making sure the pricing is right. That’s what has worked.”
James Wheatcroft, equity analyst at Jefferies, said: “Momentum continues into the current year.
“We argue that Wetherspoons’ low relative price positioning and well-located and well-invested premises will gain market share and benefit from trading down.”
Roberta Ciaccia at Investec added that the latest figures were “strong and broadly in line with market expectations”.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel