FINANCE: Wetherspoons aims to open 30 to 40 pubs by July 2015, following a solid set of preliminary results.
The pub chain reported a 10% increase in revenues in the 12 months to 27 July to £1.4bn and a 37% increase in pretax profit to £78.4m
Wetherspoons opened 46 new pubs during the period, and closed five, taking the size of the group’s portfolio to 927.
The portfolio ran up a £58.1m depreciation charge during the year, up from £53.1m in 2014.
Tim Martin, the company’s chairman, said that he was pleased with the year’s “record”’ set of results, but said that the VAT disparity between pubs and supermarkets would continue to pose a challenge to the industry in the coming year.
sophia.furber@estatesgazette.com
