Member Article

JD Wetherspoon enjoys sales rise but warns on profits

Pub-chain JD Wetherspoon enjoyed a 6.3% increase in total sales over the Christmas period it revealed in a trading update today.

The Watford-headquartered company also posted a 3.3% increase in like-for-like sales for the 12 weeks of the second quarter to 17 January 2016. The figures have been revealed ahead of the release of its interim results for the six months ending 24 January which are to be announced on 11 March.

It comes as the FTSE 250-listed company continues to expand across the UK, having opened five new pubs in the last year and with ambitions to open a further five to ten pubs before the end of this fiscal year.

However, it is not all good news for national pub chain as increases to the hourly starting rates paid to staff in October 2014 and August 2015 have caused their operating budget to fall to 6.3%, a drop of 1.1% in comparison to the same period last year.

Tim Martin, Chairman of JD Wetherspoon, struck a cautionary tone when he commented: “Like-for-like sales have improved in the second quarter so far.

“However, as indicated in our November trading update, increased labour costs will be an important factor in the outcome for this financial year. Our current view is profits for this year are likely to be towards the lower end of analysts’ expectations.”