Wetherspoon boss ‘optimistic’ despite record loss
The JD Wetherspoon pub group has reported a record annual loss, with chairman Tim Martin blaming “use of lockdowns and draconian restrictions”.
The business, which saw its bars shut for 19 weeks, posted a £154.7m loss as sales fell sharply in the year to 25 July. That follows a £34.1m loss a year earlier.
However, its chairman Tim Martin said he remained hopeful for the future, highlighting the fact that like-for-like sales, which strip out the effect of new pub openings, were just 8.7% lower in the last nine weeks than in the same period before Covid hit.
“Pubs have been at the forefront of business closures during the pandemic, at great cost to the industry – but at even greater cost to the Treasury,” he said.
‘Impossible burden’
“In the last year, the country moved, in succession, from lockdown, to ‘eat out to help out’, to curfews, to firebreaks, to pints with a substantial meal only, to different tier systems and to further lockdowns.
“Pub management teams, and indeed the entire hospitality industry, had an almost impossible burden in trying to communicate often conflicting and arbitrary rules to customers.
“In spite of these obstacles, Wetherspoon is cautiously optimistic about the outcome for the financial year, on the basis that there is no further resort to lockdowns”.
Wetherspoon said business was rapidly picking up – apart from in its airport pubs, which are struggling along with the travel industry. There it has seen like-for-like sales of only 4.9% on 2019 levels in the last four weeks.
The company also highlighted some recruitment problems “especially ‘staycation’ areas in the West Country and elsewhere” but said that overall it had received a “reasonable” number of applications for jobs.
As Covid restrictions eased its total number of employees, who are mostly staff paid per hour, increased from an average of 29,025 for the financial year to 42,003 in the week to 20 September 2021.
News of the chain’s losses comes just weeks after Mr Martin has hit back at those who mocked him after some of his pubs ran out of Heineken, Carling and Coors.
The pub chain chief and outspoken Brexit supporter said “strenuous efforts” were being made to link beer shortages with the UK’s withdrawal from the EU an he insisted pumps had run dry mainly because of industrial action by drivers and warehouse staff acting on behalf of Heineken.
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