JDW and Yates in curry-war battle

by Ewan Turney The curry war between highstreet operators JD Wetherspoon and Yates scaled new heights last week as Wetherspoon's attempted to hijack a Yates curry club promotion. Yates produced a promotional slip in the Daily Star last Thursday entitling customers to a free curry that evening. How-ever, a sharp-witted Wether-spoon's manager on the Isle of Wight spotted the promotion and suggested to head office that they accept the vouchers too. An email was sent out to all JDW outlets informing them that if they had a Yates's near them, they could accept the vouchers. A makeshift poster was produced at virtually no cost and displayed in Wetherspoon's windows across the country. The idea was hailed as a success with more than 800 vouchers handed in. "We would like to say thank you to Yates for paying for and running the promotion which was well received by more than 800 of our customers," said Wetherspoon's spokesman Eddie Gershon. The promotion is also being run today and the offer will once again stand at participating Wetherspoon's. However, Yates chief executive Mark Jones claimed he was "very happy" with the way the promotion had worked and that it had led to a 70% increase in sales that day. "Good luck to Wether-spoon's but we don't feel hijacked," he said. "It was a great success and we will be running it again." Jones also revealed that the promotion had hardly cost the company a penny as suppliers covered much of the cost. The curry war began in July this year when Yates launched its curry club on Thursdays in direct competition to Wether-spoon's version, which has been running for four years. JDW claims to be Britain's biggest curry chain on a Thursday night selling 37,000 curries each week. Yates upped the ante in its competitive rivalry with JD Wetherspoon last week by reporting its rival to 16 different Trading Standards officers over mistakes in Pricewatch posters. JDW chief executive John Hutson claimed that Yates managers had been offered £50 each to find mistakes in Pricewatch posters. Yates's Jones dismissed the claim as "complete rubbish".