What next for Tim Martin?

Last week Tim Martin, boss of JD Wetherspoon, said he was stepping down. Mark Stretton examines his career.

In the past six months Tim Martin has been taking holidays in Cornwall, learning French and has even been spotted drinking in All Bar One. It was all part of a six-month sabbatical away from JD Wetherspoon (JDW) - an opportunity to sit back for the first time since launching his pub empire in North London in 1979.

This was a chance for the enigmatic leader of JDW to take a break and return with renewed vigour and focus.

But the picture was very different last week when the managed house group announced Tim was stepping down to non-executive chairman with immediate effect.

Either he has in his time away from the business acquired a taste for the gentle life or the six-month sabbatical was always a sneaky stepping-stone from full-time management to semi-retirement.

Given his emphasis on execution and managing processes within his business, the decision will not have been made on the back of a few decent Cornish pasties.

He is either genuinely stepping down or he has cleverly faked his own death.

Like many businesses set up by entrepreneurs there has always been a succession issue at Wetherspoon. Tim and the success of JDW are inextricably linked. He has been a highly visible figurehead with a very hands-on approach, thoroughly driven, portrayed sometimes (not unbelievably) as an obsessive, dominant leader.

As long as he was too hands on, it would be held against the company. Who would take over? Who could run the business as well? The same issue dogs Morrisons, the highly successful supermarket chain that is buying Safeway. Sir Ken Morrison, the complete driving force behind the company, is in his seventies and will not last forever.

But after reporting a solid set of half-year figures, the JDW management team of John Hutson (managing director), Jim Clarke (finance director) and Suzanne Baker (commercial director) have, to a degree, proved the ship is in safe hands.

The founder will now work just two days a week, giving him more time to pursue his interests of walking and real ale. Whether he does actually relinquish day-to-day control remains to be seen.

It may be that Tim simply does not relish the challenge of running a mature business, which is clearly very different to building and managing a fast-growing business.

Everything at JDW points to a business that is maturing: the company is about to sell yet another package of 10 pubs, following the 27 sold last year; the growth pipeline is slowing; it is looking to move margins up; plasma screens showing live football have been identified as a way of driving sales and is further evidence that JDW is trying to grasp the levers that will provide incremental growth.

It is well known that these issues do not inspire entrepreneurs. Maybe Tim needed to leave. Maybe he has accepted that change at the business will be much easier without him. Whatever unfolds in the coming months it is worth reflecting on the impact Tim Martin has made. He has undoubtedly changed the industry.

A trained barrister, he opened the first Wetherspoon in 1979 after moving down from Nottingham and spotting a niche for pubs with good standards serving decent cask ale in London. He took the name Wetherspoon from an inadequate history teacher from his youth and the JD part came from a character in the Dukes of Hazzard cult television show.

With brewery loans he took on more pubs, undercutting his rivals on price yet running pubs with excellent standards that offered great quality beer, smoke-free zones and no music, machines or TV.

At six-foot five, 18 stone and with a much-referenced mullet, the Wetherspoon man is not easily missed. Given the hair, hatred of suits (one hack labelled him "the man from Millets") and plastic carrier bags instead of a briefcase, he has never really conformed. When an adviser suggested he might go for a haircut before presenting the business to City institutions he was told to "get lost".

He has also played something of the bumbling eccentric, always willing to launch forth with anecdotes apparently designed to detract from his abilities. When I first interviewed him he was only too pleased to tell me how on his first night of running a pub he got stuck into the ale and drunk so much he fell asleep on the grass verge outside. He was taken in by two brothers who let him sleep it off on their sofa.

But there has always been a steely resolve. He openly stated his desire to grow the estate to 1,500 pubs and sales of £2bn.

As the company's footprint within the industry grew so did Tim's. Latterly he became an authority on a range of issues from red tape to the euro, which culminated in an appearance on Question Time to debate the hot topics of the day with David Dimbleby and a clutch of key politicians. Further appearances followed on Panorama, Any Questions on Radio 4, and also Gloria Hunniford's live Channel 5 chat show.

He is not to everyone's liking but ask any operator across the industry to name rivals they admire and inevitably Tim Martin is the first choice. Whether he is staggering his departure from the company by taking a non-executive position or trying to alter the perception of his importance to the company is not clear.

But either way when Tim Martin announced his decision to step down last week a chapter in the history of not just JD Wetherspoon but also the pub trade was closed for good.

Timothy Randall Martin​

• Born:​ April 1955
• Education:​ 11 schools in Northern Ireland and New Zealand, Nottingham University
• Family:​ Married for 28 years to Felicity, four children
• Hobbies:​ Beer (about 40 units a week), gym and squash.

Wetherspoon results​

Board changes aside, group sales in the six months to January 25 rose 11 per cent to £389m while operating profit increased from £35m to £38.6m. On a pre-tax basis, profits were nine per cent up to £27.8m. Like-for-like sales grew 4.8 per cent.

The company took a £7m hit, mainly relating to losses on the sale of pubs and one development site and provisions on the sale of a further 10 pubs.

The company said that total sales in February increased by eight per cent with like-for-like sales up 3.9 per cent. It is set to open 30 pubs in the current financial year. Mr Martin said: "As a result of continuing good like-for-like sales growth, strong cash flow and our dedicated team, I remain confident of future prospects."

Related articles:​

Tim Martin to take back seat at JD Wetherspoon (3 March 2004)