Wetherspoon lowers debt as sales jump 11.5%

J.D Wetherspoon has announced that its like-for-like sales have risen 11.5% for the first 10 weeks of Q4, compared with the same period in FY22.

Alongside this, its like-for-like sales were up 11% compared with the same period in FY19, the last period before the pandemic.

In the current financial year to date the company has opened three pubs and sold, closed or surrendered to the landlord 28 pubs.

The company stated that 15 of these pubs were leasehold where the lease expired or the company found a break clause.

In regards to the other 13 closures the company stated that they closed as they had another Wetherspoon nearby.

As a result of these closures Wetherspoon saw a net cash influx of £6.5m.

As of 9 July 2023, the company’s net debt was £688m, approximately £114m lower than reported in its interim results for FY20.

Since then, the company has invested £116m in new pubs, £82m in freehold reversions and has raised equity of approximately £240m.

As previously reported, the company sold a number of interest rate swaps in Q1 of this financial year, raising £169m before tax.

Tim Martin, chairman of JD Wetherspoon, said: The company expects profits in the current financial year to be in line with market expectations. As a result of a continued improvement in sales and a slightly reduced expectation for cost increases, for example energy costs, the company anticipates an improved outcome for the next financial year, and anticipates an outcome for the first half of FY24 approximately in line with the second half of FY23.”