EU leaders need ‘wise-up pill’, Wetherspoons founder warns

THE leaders of the EU need to “take a wise-up pill” to avoid economic damage to the bloc and to prevent British companies deserting their European suppliers, according to Tim Martin, the JD Wetherspoon founder.

The outspoken chairman hit out at Jean-claude Juncker, the European Commission president, Michel Barnier, Europe’s chief Brexit negotiator, and MEP Guy Verhofstadt for purposefully obfuscating over a trade deal with the UK. Mr Martin warned that such a move would cause “further economic damage to struggling economies like Greece, Portugal, Spain and Italy”.

“There seems to be little genuine appetite for a free trade deal from the Brussels bureaucracy, so EU companies are, paradoxically, reliant on the goodwill of UK consumers, who are likely to prefer tariff-free goods in the future from non-eu countries, which are generally in favour of free trade, rather than deals with companies which are subject to the diktat of those who wish to punish the UK,” Mr Martin said. He also revealed better-thanexpected full-year adjusted profits of £102m on the back of a strong 4pc rise in like-for-like sales.

While he warned such posturing by the EU would “inevitably encourage importers like Wetherspoon to look elsewhere for supplies”, Mr Martin said he had not sought out potential substitutes for businesses in Europe, which it buys products from. The chairman claimed the perception of the dangers of Brexit to the UK economy was “misconstrued”.

“When you boil it down to brass tacks, we are the biggest customer for Kopparberg cider and we were selling more than in the whole of Sweden at one point,” he said. “There has been a strong perception that the massive European gorilla can stretch its arm out and smack the UK but it is inaccurate if you look at individual circumstances.”

Mr Martin also pointed out the biggest selling product at the pub chain was Lavazza coffee, made in Italy, and that the European side in Brexit negotiations needed to be aware of the importance of UK consumers to European companies. Nearly all of Wetherspoon’s wine comes from outside the EU too and Mr Martin said while this meant paying a tariff on it, the levy did not make it that much more expensive.

The comments came as the pub company outperformed analyst expectations by delivering a 15pc rise in pre-tax profits to £76.3m on the back of revenues of £1.66bn for the 53 weeks to July 30. Shares rose 13.9pc to £11.89 yesterday.

The company saw like-for-like bar sales rise by 3.1pc – slightly below the 3.3pc rate seen in 2016 – but food sales jumped 5.7pc (2016: 3.5pc) as its breakfast offering continued to help attract customers. Current trading has also been strong, with like-for-like sales in the past six weeks up 6.1pc. Elsewhere, debt rose by £45.5m to £696.3m on the back of spending on new pubs.