Wetherspoon opens 800th pub as sector faces tough times

The company spent £2.1m developing The Unicorn Hotel in Ripon, creating 50 jobs.

Chairman Tim Martin, who opened the chain’s first pub at Muswell Hill in 1979, said the company aimed to double its tally of pubs to 1,600 in the coming years, creating more than 30,000 jobs.

He said: “The 800th pub opening is a wonderful milestone for the company and we are now looking forward to opening hundreds of new pubs.

“Our existing pubs are extremely popular and we wish to build on that success by opening new outlets across the UK. The new openings will result in new job opportunities and that is something which I am sure will be especially welcome.”

The opening comes after industry figures yesterday showed sales at pubs and restaurants open for more than a year grew 0.9 per cent in March. Total sales, which include new site openings, were up 3.4 per cent on a year earlier.

The monthly Coffer Peach Business Tracker, which records sales across 19 major pub and restaurant operators, showed sales were down on the 3.1 per cent like-for-like increase seen in February.

The survey covers chains including the Harvester, All-Bar-One, Pizza Hut, PizzaExpress, Café Rouge and Bella Italia.

Peach Factory director Peter Martin said: “The slow-down may have something to do with the corresponding weeks last year including the first part of the Easter break. So, these results may be slightly better than they appear.

“However, trading is still tough and competition for the public’s time and money is increasing. There is a fight for market share across eating-out, and those continuing to invest in improving their offer and adding sites are the ones winning out.”

Month on month, March sales were 22.3 per cent ahead of February. However, March was a five-week month compared to four-week February.

Will Hawkley, director of leisure at KPMG, said: “It will be interesting to see what impact the recent many tax changes have on consumer spending in April, set against the back drop of the upcoming spate of bank holidays and the recent good weather especially as households seem to be focussing on paying down mortgage balances.”