Wetherspoon's enjoys record sales as people turn to lower priced pubs

Pub chain JD Wetherspoon is reporting a record-breaking Easter week sales and its busiest Saturday ever as money-conscious drinker looks for cheaper options amid the cost of living.

"more intractable issue" JD Wetherspoon

In a warning to MPs, its chief executive Tim Martin said 'Inflation, especially in labour, energy and food costs, remains a more intractable issue.

"more profound and longer-lasting consequences than most economists, politicians and commentators predicted" Tim Martin

Tim Martin, chairman of Wetherspoon, says lockouts and restrictions by Covid have led 'more profound and longer-lasting consequences than most economists, politicians and commentators predicted'.

The pub chain said like-for-like sales rose 12.2 per cent in the 13 weeks to the end of April and said it expected full-year sales would hit a new record, with profits growing in line with market expectations.

Wetherspoon's said many of the pubs it closing were smaller and older or where there was a second pub nearby.