Wetherspoon buoyant after interim performance figures
Pub group JD Wetherspoon reported a 38% increase in pre-tax profits to £36.1m for the year ended 30 July.
Sales increased by £99.9m to £369.6m, representing a rise of 37%.
Like-for-like sales in August, after its financial year-end, increased by 5%.
Sales in the 10 Lloyds No 1 pubs, which it bought from Wolverhampton & Dudley Breweries in July for an undisclosed sum, have increased by 17% since the acquisition.
Wetherspoon's capital investment during the year was £155.8m and net gearing, the company's debt as a proportion of its value, was 60% (61% in 1999).
Last year it opened 101 pubs, compared with 84 in the previous year, bringing its total to 428.
Average sales per pub in the year increased to about £1m (£904,000 in 1999), a figure which has nearly doubled since the company's flotation in 1992.
Last year JD Wetherspoon opened pubs in many parts of England as well as in Scotland - in towns such as Saltcoats, Ayrshire, and Wishaw, Lanarkshire - and in South Wales, in Port Talbot, Blackwood and Llanelli.
It also bought four sites in Northern Ireland, the first of which opened in Ballymena, County Antrim, just after the year end.
The company has 30 pubs that are being built, 32 which have the necessary permissions for development and a further 101 on which terms have been agreed.
Tim Martin, chairman, said: "Following our strong trading performance, the pipeline of new sites and our continuing investment in training and people, I remain confident of our future prospects."
