JD Wetherspoon reports interim sales increase
Pub group JD Wetherspoon has seen like-for-like sales growth of 6.9% for the 26 weeks to 27 January 2013, the company reported in an interim statement.
Total sales, which include new pubs, increased by 10% to £626.4m (£569.4m in 2012).
Like-for-like food sales saw the strongest lifts, growing 13.4% in the period (2012: 0.1%), while like-for-like bar sales were up 4.1% (2012: 3.4%). Machine sales increased by 4.4% (2012: decreased by 3.8%).
The company paid total taxes of £273.5m in the six-month period, a £23.4m increase on the previous year. It indicated that if Wetherspoon was taxed on the same basis as supermarkets, it would have paid £40.7m less.
Commenting on the results, Tim Martin, the chairman of JD Wetherspoon (pictured), described the outcome for the first half of the financial year as "reasonable, given the pressures on the UK consumer".
"As previously stated, the biggest danger to the pub industry is the VAT disparity between supermarkets and pubs and the continuing imposition of stealth taxes, such as the late-night levy, and the increase in fruit/slot machine taxes.
"In the six weeks to 10 March 2013, like-for-like sales increased by 7.3%, with total sales increasing by 9.9%. Taxation and input costs will continue to rise, but, overall, the company continues to aim for a reasonable outcome in the current financial year."
Wetherspoon opened five new pubs in the period, bringing the company's total to 865. It now expects to open around 30 pubs in this financial year.
