Wetherspoon sues property advisor for millions

JD Wetherspoon is suing its former property advisor Van de Berg & Co.

The managed operator is claiming several million pounds worth of damages against Van de Berg, which acted as their sole property adviser from 1990 to 2005, according to documents filed at the High Court.

Until last year, JDW paid the company a £2m per annum retainer to source freehold properties.

We refute these claims and have filed a defence document.​Van de Berg boss Chris Braun.

It claims the company had agreed to act as an exclusive introducer of freehold properties to JDW, but dishonestly used information it obtained from its position as adviser.

The claim relates to around 60 pub deals.

JDW chairman Tim Martin said: "A number of property transactions took place over the last 15 years, when Van de Berg was our retaining agent, of which Wetherspoons was not aware, and there were some cases where properties were offered to Van de Berg as freeholds."​

Van de Berg boss Chris Braun said: "We refute these claims and have filed a defence document."​

The managed operator is suing Van de Berg & Co for breach of agreement and wrongful use of information, from which it claims the company profited.

JDW is also claiming

damages against Braun and acquisitions director Richard Harvey - who left the company in 2004 - and three holding firms of which they are also directors: Aberdeen & Highland Estates, Fastbuck (Van de Burg's parent company) and Bacchus Estates (whose assets are no longer owned by Van de Berg).

JDW claims the three firms acquired several of the freehold opportunities that should have been offered to the pub company.

JDW, which was founded by Tim Martin in 1979, operates around 45% of its estate as freeholds.

Martin, a former barrister, has previously admitted that he tended to take an over-optimistic view of the viability of certain pub sites in the 1980s.

The company first met the property experts at Van de Berg when it acquired a property from it in 1990. It had fewer than 40 pub sites at the time and was mostly based in north London.

Wetherspoons reached its expansion peak in 2002 and 2003 when openings hit 100 sites a year.