Wetherspoons cheers Xmas sales rise

Pub chain Wetherspoons on Wednesday said it increased second quarter like-for-like sales by 4.7% over the Christmas period as it held full year guidance.

Total sales for the quarter to January 19 rose by 4.2%, while in the year to date, like-for-like sales increased by 5% and total sales by 4.9%.

The cut-price operator said it had opened one new pub and sold five this fiscal year and intended to open a further 10 – 15, forecasting that it would spend around £80m this year on new premises and extensions.

Wetherspoons has spent £57m in the year to date buying the freehold reversions of 18 pubs of which it was previously the tenant. Full-year reversion expenditure was expected to be around £85m, up from £77m in 2019.

Net debt at the end of the financial year was currently expected to be slightly nhigher than expected at £780m - £820m, due to higher-than-anticipated capital expenditure.

“Expenditure on reversions and buybacks … approximately equals company debt - if the company had not bought shares or reversions it would be more or less debt-free, having financed dividends, the repayment of 2003 borrowings of approximately £300m and the opening of a net 239 pubs, from free cash flow,” the company said in a statement.