Wetherspoons reveals locations for 200 new pubs and wants to be on EVERY high street

WETHERSPOONS boss Tim Martin has doubled down on plans to have 1,000 Spoons across the country after raking in record sales of almost £1billion.  

The pub chief said that after Covid restrictions upset trade, punters had rushed back to Spoons pubs.

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“The after-work pint is back, even the lunch pint is back although some people think that’s sacrilegious.”

He added that drink sales had been boosted by the comeback of real ale drinkers and younger boozers adopting Guinness.

He said sales of the Irish stout were “shooting the lights out”.

Wethered the storm

Overall sales rose by 8% to £991million in the six months to 28 January and pre-tax profits have bounced back to £36million from £4.6million the year before.

In fresh signs of cheer, Wetherspoons also said recent sales over the last seven weeks had kept rising by 5.8%.

The cost of living crisis and rising beer prices have made Spoons’ more attractive to cash-strapped punters and Mr Martin has vowed not to raise the price of its £5.40 breakfast.

Mr Martin told LBC: “It will not go up this year.”

Mr Martin said that the broader outlook on price rises was looking easier.

“It is easier for us, I’m hesitant about tempting fate but if I can read the tea leaves inflation is easing so we will keep our prices as low as possible, and it’s becoming easier to do so”, he said.

Mr Martin said that while ingredient and supply chain costs were easing Wetherspoons was spending £125million more than it did pre-pandemic on staff costs as minimum wages have risen.

The pub chain currently has 814 pubs but Mr Martin told The Sun that there were still 130 high streets in the country, such as Didcot in Oxfordshire, that didn’t have Spoons and he was determined to bring cheap pints and low-priced meals to them. 

He also wants to add another 60 to 70 Spoons in big city stations after recent openings such as Captain Flinders in Euston station and in the White Rose shopping centre in Leeds.

In the past year Wetherspoons has opened a franchise pub at Newcastle University, which Mr Martin said has “more or less doubled trade” since it took over the Student Union.

“They can still get cheap pints, but they didn’t sell as much food.

“They aren’t as groovy as Wetherspoons, we are the world’s grooviest chain”.

The ambition to open more pubs comes despite Wetherspoons reducing the number of pubs it has had in recent years by handing keys back to freeholders.

The company’s accounts reveal it had taken a £5.9million hit in the past year from selling five pubs and handing the keys back to three pubs.

Mr Martin also used the results to renew his calls on the government to lower the VAT rate pubs pay to the same level that supermarkets, which sell cheaper booze, pay.

“It does not make economic sense for the tax system to favour mainly out-of-town supermarkets over mainly high-street pubs,” he said.

“This imbalance is a major factor in town centre and high street dereliction.”

Which Wetherspoons pubs have closed?

Despite its ambitions to open up to 200 pubs across the UK, Wetherspoons has also been closing down boozers.

It’s quite common for pub chains or retailers to open and close sites to rebalance their portfolios and ensure they’re trading in areas where there is demand.

Wetherspoons has closed 44 pubs in recent years in locations across the UK.

Sites have closed down in London, Durham, Bournemouth and Southampton.

The Sir Norman Rae in Market Street, Shipley, West Yorkshire, will call last orders on March 24 after finding a buyer too.

It was among 11 additional pubs Wetherspoons put up for sale in September last year – a year after it initially put 32 pubs up for sale.

As many as 20 Wetherspoon’s pubs remain up for sale, while 15 sites are currently under offer.

This means that a buyer has presented an offer that is being considered by the seller.

It doesn’t mean that the sale is guaranteed, and it could remain open if it doesn’t complete.

The five pubs that are up for sale are:

• The Pontlottyn, Abertillery
• The Ivor Davies, Cardiff
• The Market Cross, Holywell
• The Rochester Castle, London
• Foot of the Walk, Edinburgh

15 Wetherspoons branches are currently under offer:

• Asparagus, Battersea, London
• Wrong ‘Un, Bexleyheath
• The Gate House, Doncaster
• Jolly Sailor, Bristol
• The Mockbeggar Hall, Moreton
• The Alfred Herring, Palmers Green
• The Cross Keys, Pebbles
• The Sir Norman Rae, Shipley
• The White Heart, Todmorden
• Spa Lane Vaults, Chesterfield
• Lord Arthur Lee, Fareham
• The Regent, Kirkby in Ashfield
• The Sir Daniel Arms, Swindon
• The Hain Line, St Ives
• The Quay, Poole
• Thomas Drummond, Fleetwood

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This post first appeared on thesun.co.uk