JD Wetherspoon feels smoking ban pinch
Profits at high-street pub chain JD Wetherspoon have dive-bombed in the past six months due to the smoking ban. JD Wetherspoon saw its average sales per pub, per week, fall for the first time in a decade from ₤30,700 to ₤29,000. Pre-tax profit in the six months to 27 January plunged by 13% year-on-year to ₤28.5m, with turnover almost flat, up 0.4% to ₤440.2m. Wetherspoon chief executive John Hutson said that the smoking ban, which was introduced in England on 1 July, had put traditional bar sales ‘under pressure’ and the company was looking to diversify to mitigate further losses. Hutson reiterated his belief that the now UK-wide smoking ban would be advantageous for the licensed trade in the long term, with Wetherspoon already seeing new customers coming through its doors off the back of its developing business.