Wetherspoon takes gold after its Games push lures punters

Unlike many pub companies JD Wetherspoon had a storming Olympics and Paralympics.

While rivals saw customers stay at home and watch the Games from the comfort of their sofas Wetherspoon saw a well-above-average 7.1% rise in sales from pubs which have been open for at least a year between August and October.

“We put a lot of effort into the summer from the Jubilee right through to the Paralympics,” said chief executive John Hutson. “We had the Games on all day every day.

“We had special newsletters to highlight events and decorated most of our pubs. The vast majority of our pubs now have television screens which we mainly have on with the sound down and subtitles on.”

But the chain warned that it does not expect sales growth to continue at this level. Hutson said: “We are still expecting growth of between 2% and 3% across the year.”

It also said its operating margin had slipped 0.4% to 8.6% because of rises in tax, wages, utility bills and a bigger marketing spend.

Hutson called on the Chancellor in his Autumn Statement next month to look again at the disparity in how the tax system treats pubs against supermarket booze sales.