Wetherspoon sees improved FY trading despite lower H2 sales
Reports rise in interim profits to £51m
Attacks Chancellor for 'less than frank Budget'
Updated : 08:09
Pub operator JD Wetherspoon forecast “slightly improved” trading for the current year, despite higher costs and weaker like-for-like sales as it attacked Wednesday's Budget as one “for dinner parties”.
In the six weeks to 5 March 2017, like-for-like sales increased by 2.7% and total sales decreased by 0.2%, Wetherspoon said.
Reporting a rise in interim pre-tax profits to £51m from £36m, the company said it saw “significantly higher costs in the second half of the financial year”.
Operating profit rose to £65m from £49, while revenues for the term increased to £801m from £790m. The dividend was help at 4p a share.
Chief executive Tim Martin lambasted Chancellor Philip Hammond's Budget over his business rate relief package of £1,000 for pubs with a rateable value of less than £100,000.
"In fact, that sum is dwarfed by tax and regulatory increases,” Martin said, adding that the company would face an extra £20m in costs from business rates, electricity taxes, excise duty and the apprenticeship levy.
"Companies like Wetherspoon, on examination of the fine print of the budget, are not, in fact, eligible for the £1,000 per annum decrease in business rates, in any event.”
Martin resumed his attack on “the continuing tax disparity between supermarkets and pubs, in respect of VAT and business rates”.
"The company has previously emphasised the far-higher taxes per meal or per pint that pubs pay compared to supermarkets. For example, supermarkets pay less than 2p per pint for business rates, whereas pubs pay around 18p per pint,” he said.
"The increase in business rates per pint for pubs from next month will be around 2p, further exacerbating the tax gap.”
"The Chancellor was less-than-frank in his budget speech*, since he did not spell out the duty increases, giving the impression to many that there would be no increase.
"In effect, this was a budget for dinner parties, no doubt the preference of the Chancellor and his predecessor (George Osborne) - dinner parties will suffer far less from the taxes outlined above, whereas many people prefer to go to pubs, given the choice.”