Wetherspoon grows profits despite slow sales

10th Sep 2010 07:10

JD Wetherspoon took another swipe at government taxes on the pub industry as it revealed like for like sales grew by just 0.1% in the year ended 25 July, although profit was up over 7%.Total sales, up 4.3% to a record £996.3m, were helped by new pubs, but growth was down on last year's 5.2%. Bar sales fell 0.8$ compared with a 2.5% rise last time, while a 0.4% drop in food sales in 2009 turned to a 0.1% increase a year later. Profit before tax and exceptional items rose 7.3% to £71m.In the six weeks to 5 September, like-for-like sales have increased by 1.5% and total sales by 7.6%. "Our sales, profit and cashflow continue to be resilient and the performance of our recently opened pubs is encouraging," said chairman Tim Martin.But he's still unhappy with the powers that be. "The biggest danger to the pub and catering industry is a continued increase in taxes and regulations. It is to be hoped that the UK government's attitude towards pubs, in particular, changes and that a co-operative and helpful, rather than a punitive, approach is adopted."The company opened 47 pubs during the year, giving a total estate of 775 pubs at the financial year end. At least the same number of pubs are expected to be opened in the current period.That's feeding through to local economies, with Wetherspoon creating over 2,400 jobs in the year. It expects to be one of the biggest and fastest growing employers in the country over the next five years.