JD Wetherspoon is planning to axe more pubs.

JD Wetherspoon is planning to offload more pubs amid slowing sales and «substantially higher» costs for staff, food and repairs. Most of the closures are near existing Wetherspoon pubs, but it comes as inflation and a tightening of consumer spending pile more pressure on the hospitality sector. «Sales have improved since the ending of restrictions in the early part of this calendar year and are considerably above the same period in the last financial year». However, the group recorded a 1.1 per cent drop in like-for-like sales in the five weeks to November 6 compared with pre-pandemic trading in 2019, having risen by 1.5 per cent in the previous nine weeks. Set against a year ago, sales rose by 10.1 per cent in the first nine weeks of its financial year and were 8.9 per cent higher in the past five weeks. The company said it had terminated most of its interest rate swaps, receiving £169.4 million after costs, leaving it with net debt as of last week of £745 million, down from £892 million on July 31. In annual results published last month, Wetherspoon said its sales were more than £1.7 billion in the year to the end of July, up from £773 million previously. Wetherspoon cut annual underlying pre-tax losses from £167 million to £30.4 million, although it made a profit of £132 million before the pandemic.

Analysts said Wetherspoon would be looking to the football World Cup, followed by Christmas trading to give it a lift in sales. Wetherspoon shares, which have fallen by more than 50 per cent this year, were down a further 30¾p, or 6.3 per cent, at 457½p yesterday.

www.sba.tax

Comments

Cloud Bookkeeping

US FED rate rise.

The US Federal Reserve officials have indicated that they plan to resume increasing interest rates to control inflation in the world's biggest economy. During the June meeting, the Federal Open Market Committee reached a consensus to keep interest rates stable for the time being to evaluate whether further tightening of policy would be necessary. However, the majority of the committee anticipates that additional rate increases will be required in the future. The minutes of the meeting have recently been made public. According to the minutes, most participants believed maintaining the federal funds rate at 5 to 5.25 per cent was appropriate or acceptable, despite some individuals wanting to raise the acceleration due to slow progress in cooling inflation. Although Fed forecasts predicted a mild recession starting later in the year, policymakers faced challenges in interpreting data that showed a tight job market and only slight improvements in inflation. Additionally, officials gr...

EU business slide.

S&P Global’s flash eurozone composite purchasing managers’ index, a key gauge of business conditions for the manufacturing and services sector, fell 1 point to 47.1, figures showed yesterday. That is its lowest level since November 2020 and the fourth consecutive month below the crucial 50 mark separating growth from contraction. One of the few bright spots in the survey was that companies in all sectors reported a slight easing of cost pressures, price growth and supply chain constraints. However, prices charged for goods and services still rose at the sixth fastest rate since such data started in 2002. Jobs growth increased marginally from October but remained low compared with the past 18 months. Following a few months of falling price pressure in manufacturing and services, the October print shows an overall stabilisation said Jens Eisenschmidt, chief European economist at Morgan Stanley. However, German businesses, at the hub of Europe’s energy crisis, reported that manu...

Tariffs on UK electric cars.

The European Commission has confirmed that it will continue with its plan to impose tariffs on electric cars exported between the UK and EU starting next year. This is due to the "rules of origin" requirement that mandates EVs traded across the English Channel to have 60% of their battery and 45% of their parts sourced from the EU or UK or face a 10% tariff. A senior Commission official, Richard Szostak, recently informed parliamentarians from the UK and EU that the bloc's battery investment has significantly declined, making the tariffs necessary to encourage domestic production. In 2022, the EU's share of global investment in battery production shrank from 41% to only 2% after the US offered substantial subsidies through its Inflation Reduction Act. Starting in 2024, car manufacturers in the UK will need to have 22% of their sales come from zero-emission vehicles, which means they may need to import EVs from the continent to meet this requirement. If EU carmakers ...

Search This Blog