Wetherspoon's breaks ranks and calls time on smoking

15 March 2005 by
Wetherspoon's breaks ranks and calls time on smoking

Pub operator JD Wetherspoon is the first major pub company to take the bold step of stubbing out smoking in its 650 pubs, a move that will protect the health of its 18,000 staff.

Wetherspoon's, which has had smoke-free areas in its pubs for more than 10 years, announced on Monday that 60 of its sites would become no-smoking pubs by 4 May and that all units would ban smoking by May 2006. This is at least 18 months ahead of the Government's proposals to ban smoking in pubs that serve food.

"An increasing percentage of the population are giving up smoking and a significant number of people are staying away from pubs and restaurants because they are too smoky," said founder Tim Martin.

"The Government's approach to the issue of a smoking ban does not make sense, since pubs can get around it by giving up food sales. We believe the Wetherspoon's approach of a complete ban after a period of notice is the right one."

The pub company was an early supporter of Caterer's Stub out Smoking campaign, which successfully petitioned the Government to introduce a complete ban on smoking in enclosed public places to safeguard the health of hospitality workers.

However, despite the momentum behind a smoking ban in public places, none of Wetherspoon's rivals look set to follow suit. Mitchells & Butlers, Spirit Group and Wolverhampton & Dudley, which control more than 8,000 of the UK's 65,000 pubs, said they were surprised by the decision but would not be rushing in smoking restrictions.

Spirit Group said: "In September 2004 Spirit played a leading role in developing the British Beer & Pub Association commitments to move progressively towards a presumption of no smoking in our pubs by the end of 2009. We already have no smoking at the bar in about 70% of our pubs and no-smoking areas in a third of outlets."

Derek Andrew, managing director of Wolverhampton & Dudley's managed division, Pathfinder, said: "We will look at converting some of our food-led pubs to no-smoking first, and a minimum of 80% of floor space in our new sites will be smoke-free."

Mitchells & Butlers retail director Simon Ward said: "We advocate smoking rooms for rural and village pubs as a better step on the way to the presumption of no smoking in pubs than an outright ban."

Other pressure groups have also welcomed Wetherspoon's announcement. The TUC said it would save staff from the dangers of lethal second-hand smoke.

The Caterer Breakfast Briefing Email

Start the working day with The Caterer’s free breakfast briefing email

Sign Up and manage your preferences below

Check mark icon
Thank you

You have successfully signed up for the Caterer Breakfast Briefing Email and will hear from us soon!

Jacobs Media is honoured to be the recipient of the 2020 Queen's Award for Enterprise.

The highest official awards for UK businesses since being established by royal warrant in 1965. Read more.

close

Ad Blocker detected

We have noticed you are using an adblocker and – although we support freedom of choice – we would like to ask you to enable ads on our site. They are an important revenue source which supports free access of our website's content, especially during the COVID-19 crisis.

trade tracker pixel tracking