JD Wetherspoon reports like-for-like sales up 5.0% in past seven weeks as half-year revenue passes record £1bn: JD Wetherspoon has seen like-for-like sales in the seven weeks to 16 March 2025, increase 5.0% as the company reported record first-half revenue of more than £1bn. Chairman Sir Tim Martin said: “As previously indicated, increases in national insurance and labour rates will result in company cost increases of approximately £60m per annum, which amount to approximately £1,500 per pub, per week. Since labour costs are around 35% of the pub industry’s sales, compared with around 11% for supermarkets, increases of this nature inevitably have a disproportionate impact on pubs, exacerbating the already-wide price differential for customers between the on and off-trade. The combination of much higher VAT rates for pubs than supermarkets, combined with increased labour costs will weigh heavily on the pub industry.” Total sales for the 26 weeks to 26 January 2025 were a record £1,030m, a 3.9% increase on last year’s figure of £991m. Like-for-like sales were up 4.8% on last year. Like-for-like bar sales increased by 4.3% on last year while like-for-like food sales were up 5.4% and slot/fruit machine like-for-like sales increased by 12.4%. Profit before tax and separately disclosed items was £32.9m (2023: £36.0m). Operating profit, before separately disclosed items, was £64.8m (2024: £67.7 million). The operating margin, before separately disclosed items, was 6.30% (2024: 6.83%), mainly due to labour and utility costs which, in total, were £30.6m higher. In the period, the company sold six pubs. This gave rise to a cash inflow of £3.9m. There was an exceptional loss on disposal of £2.2m, recognised in the income statement, relating to these pubs. The company opened two pubs – the Grand Assembly in Marlow, Buckinghamshire, and The Lion and The Unicorn in London’s Waterloo station, with 796 pubs open at the period end. Wetherspoon opened its first franchised pub in Hull University’s student union in January 2022. The second opened at Newcastle University in September 2023, and the third at Haven’s Primrose Valley holiday park, in Filey, North Yorkshire, in March 2024. The company expects to open a further five franchise pubs in the second half of the current financial year – four of these will be at Haven holiday parks. Debt, excluding IFRS-16 lease debt, was £703.5m at the period end (28 July 2024: £664.8m). On an IFRS-16 basis, which includes notional debt from leases, debt increased from £1.07bn to £1.10bn at the FY25 interim review. The company has total available finance facilities of £938m. Total capital investment was £64.6m (2024: £57.2m). A total of £10.4m was invested in new pubs and pub extensions (2024: £10.5m), £40.6m in existing pubs and IT (2024: £34.6m) and £13.6m in freehold reversions of properties where Wetherspoon was the tenant (2024: £12.1m). Sir Tim added: “The company currently anticipates a reasonable outcome for the financial year, subject to our future sales performance.”