Wetherspoon reports rise in profit despite generating ‘£1 in every £1,000 of UK tax revenue’

Wetherspoon has reported a rise in operating profit to £146m having seen total sales rise 4.5% to £2.1b.

The group, which now operates 794 pubs, reported that like-for-likes sales increased by 5.1% for the 52 weeks to 27 July 2025.

However, room sales declined by 11.9% as a result of Wetherspoon dropping online booking agents due to their high levels of commission. 

Three Wetherspoon managed pubs opened in the year nine were sold, while Wetherspoon said that it planned to open a further 15 managed pubs in the current financial year.

The group continues to seek to extend the appeal of its food offer and said that 45% of the dishes on the menu available in the majority of pubs were vegetarian, with 13% are vegan and 24% under 500 calories.

Chairman Tim Martin said that in the last nine weeks, to 28 September 2025, like-for-like sales increased by 3.2%, but warned that high input costs would continue to affect performance. 

He added that increases in national insurance and labour rates will result in cost increases of approximately £60m a year, while energy costs would rise by some £7m. 

Martin said: “In the last financial year, Wetherspoon, its customers and employees generated a total of £838b of taxes for the UK government. The total tax raised by the government in the last financial year was £858.9b. Therefore, Wetherspoon generated approximately £1 in every £1,000 of all UK tax revenue. 

“In other words, the country only needs about one thousand companies like Wetherspoon and no one else would have to pay any taxes at all. Wetherspoon is confident that it will provide more tax revenue for the government in the current financial year, while aspiring to increase earnings per share at the same time.

“The company currently anticipates a reasonable outcome for the financial year, although government-led cost increases in areas such as energy may have a bearing on the outcome.”