JDW to expand post-ban

JD Wetherspoon is to step up its expansion programme after concluding that the smoking ban in the UK will broaden the appeal of its pubs.

The company revealed that it now has a pipeline of 197 pub sites - 131 of them in the negotiation stage. It will open 18 pubs in 2007 and 30 next year but is convinced there is room for as many as 1,500 Wetherspoon pubs in the UK.

JD Wetherspoon's finance director Jim Clarke said: "We're starting to get back to where we were before we got too paranoid about non-smoking.

"The first year of a smoking ban is volatile but we can

look forward with more visibility now."

The company revealed that it now understands the trading pattern in the first, difficult year of the smoking ban - and its Scottish pubs' trading patterns are likely to be repeated in England.

There was a honeymoon period in the first month of the Scottish ban with food sales up 12.8% and wet sales down by 0.8% - overall sales were up 3.2%.

The following three or four months saw sales slightly negative overall.

But within a year, business had bounced up, with Scottish pubs turning in a very strong performance - sales were up on a like-for-like basis by 5.2%.

In England, the same

pattern seems to have asserted itself, with a honeymoon month in July pushing like-for-likes up by 5.3%.

In August, the Scottish pattern had emerged with food sales up massively (12.5%) while wet sales were down by 3.2% to produce an overall 1.1% increase in sales.

Clarke said: "If we can make it through the first year of the smoking ban in line with August we'll be happy."

He added that this sales outcome for the first year of the ban was something the company would have been "biting hands off" to obtain a few years ago when less was known about smoking bans and their effect on business.

Profit before tax was up

6% to £62m for the year to 29 July 2007.

Jim clarke to move on

Jim Clarke, the JD Wetherspoon finance director, has revealed he plans to join private equity-owned property firm Countrywide at the end of October. Countrywide owns 47 different estate agency brands and hopes to combine the previously fragmented property service offer into a unified entity. Clarke, who has been at JDW for 10 years, will be taking an equity stake in Countrywide.

Wetherspoon chief executive John Hutson indicated that a replacement for Clarke was being lined up, with an announcement expected in the coming weeks.

jdw clarifies policy on kids

JD Wetherspoon has standardised its policy on children across its estate. The company will now allow them to order food until 8pm and stay in the pub until 9pm.

The move was sparked by a letter from a parent to chairman Tim Martin complaining that it was daft that his kids, aged 10 and 12, were not permitted to eat in the pub after the time of 5.30pm.

Furthermore, the letter complained that the policy varied from site to site and that no details were available on the website.

Following a meeting of senior managers and directors, Wetherspoon has decided on a policy shift. "We have decided that all Wetherspoon pubs, where the liquor licence permits it, will allow food to be ordered for children until 8pm, every day, provided that children leave the pub by 9pm, which should leave plenty of time for the meal," said Martin.

"In the case of pubs where the liquor licence requires children to leave earlier, we will publish the details on our website."