Wetherspoon cautions over sales growth
Pubs chain JD Wetherspoon poured a frothy 6 per cent jump in like-for-like sales yesterday, but warned momentum was likely to slow in the second trading half.
Chairman Tim Martin said Wetherspoon’s average weekly total sales per pub was now £43,400 across its near-900 strong estate, up from £40,500 in the same period last year.
However, unveiling a 36 per cent rise in pre-tax profits to £54.3 million, Martin said: “It will be very difficult to get a 6 per cent increase in the second half of the year and the following financial year.
“Shows of 6 per cent are rare. More realistic in the second half would be 1 per cent over inflation.” The rise in samefloorspace sales in the first six weeks of the second half slowed to 3.8 per cent.
Wetherspoon’s dividend for the 26 weeks to 28 January was held at 4p.
Martin said amusement machines in the pubs, which include The Standing Order in Edinburgh and The Lord of the Isles, Renfrew, had reversed negative trends in recent years, with sales up 4.6 per cent.
He added that the group had paid utility taxes of £3m in the year to date, and faced a 4.4 per cent rise in the national living wage and a £3m hit from the new sugar tax from next month.
Martin said he found the need for a “Big Brother” sugar tax dubious, with obesity more likely to be caused by lack of exercise.
He said Wetherspoon had looked at overseas expansion, including Singapore and Thailand, but had dismissed the proposition as “too tough”.