Overview
- JD Wetherspoon reported 3.7% like-for-like growth in the 14 weeks to 2 November, with bar sales up 5.7% and hotel bookings down 6.3%, and said it is slightly more cautious for the rest of the year.
- Chairman Tim Martin said recent policy changes are adding about £60 million a year to costs and estimated a 10% wage rise would add roughly 15p to a pub pint versus about 1.5p in a supermarket.
- City AM analysis shows 449 pubs and bars entered insolvency in the first ten months of 2025, the highest level in more than two decades and up 5% on the same period last year.
- Restaurant failures reached 1,440 over the same period, a total still far above a decade ago despite a slight decline from last year.
- Trade bodies urged business rates reform and no new tax increases in the Budget, warning many operators are running out of road as debts and operating costs weigh on the sector.