JW Lees set to announce record sales

Lees-Jones explains: “We’re about to post record sales. Our profits have doubled since the previous year so we’ll be announcing a record profit share [on 19 July], which we’ll share with colleagues in the business. I’m very happy with that because I think we’re now through the roller-coaster we’ve been in the past four or five years.”

Talking more about what the Manchester-based firm has been doing in the past year, he says: “We’ve invested about £10m on the existing estate. We’ve got plans to increase our bedroom business. So one of the things that we’ve been doing is putting 20-bed bedroom blocks onto car parks of existing pubs.

“We’ve just agreed to buy a new hotel, which is good because we’ve not done an acquisition for about 12 months – and we’ve got a couple more in the pipeline.”

Lees-Jones adds the business would like to explore the option of buying more tenanted pubs under the stewardship of recent recruit Gary Stafford, who is heading the pub partners department.

He also says JW Lees is trialling a retail agreement format, which has been “so far, so good”.

“We’re busy in different parts of our business and we’re happy to report we’re growing in all parts of the business, which is a good position to be in,” Lees-Jones adds.

The target on the bedroom business is to have more than 500 bedrooms with 400 expected to be offered within the next 12 months.

Landmark year​

On other ambitions, JW Lees has a landmark year in 2028 when the family-run company will be 200 years old.

Lees-Jones says: “We’re looking at some ideas that we might be doing in that year but, broadly speaking, it’s about how do we remain a family company? How do we continue to develop our people and our pubs?

“One of the things we always ask ourselves is ‘do we want to own this pub in 50 years’ time?’, which seems a kind of crazy notion but some of our best pubs we’ve actually owned for more than 50 years.

“It’s really believing that what’s got us this far is going take us to the next stage of the journey.”

The business – and the sector – have been through some big challenges within the past few years and Lees-Jones explains further.

“Covid was a huge challenge. Energy contracts were the next big challenge and there’s a number of energy companies who are particularly unscrupulous,” he reveals. “We had energy contracts come to an end at the end of September 2022 and that couldn’t have been a worse time but we then learned how to become futures traders and buying energy futures, putting lots of digital-reading devices into sites and, at the time, the Government was very slow to react and that was a challenge.

“People talk about labour optimisation and retention and we know hospitality is sometimes seen as a sort of career that you start in and then move into something else. So how do we recruit and retain the right people?”

Business rates issue​

“The sector also needs to be very wary of price. We get to a point where it just becomes too much in terms of how much we’re charging for a pint compared to what people might be able to have that same pint at home from the supermarkets so there’s obviously a challenge for the new Government.

“I hope the incoming Government understands the sector better than the outgoing Government did but that’s something that is reasonably precarious at the moment.”

The new Labour Government certainly has its work cut out to help hospitality and Lees-Jones says business rates is the most obvious issue.

“The Government have been saying for years they’re going to have a root-and-branch review of business rates,” he begins. “And I think online companies and tax is something that needs to be balanced and then people come along and say, ‘oh, business rates are really complicated’ but the sector’s put the case really very well.

“RICS (Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors) needs to step up and be professional – and if we’re going to save our high streets and save our towns then No.1 is to sort out business rates and No.2 – and the BBPA (British Beer & Pub Association) campaign during the Euros has been a really strong message in terms of how much duty we pay in this country compared to other countries.

“We had the respite on reduced VAT fees when we were coming out of lockdown, which I think was a measure to help the trade get a bit of profitability but what we’ve shown in Manchester over the past 30 years is we can grow the economy, we can grow the size of the cake so that we’ve now got this amazing thriving city that everybody seems to want to come to. So I hope the Government can do that on a national basis and get the UK back into shape.”

Lees-Jones, who is also vice chair of the British Beer & Pub Association (BBPA), is “feeling really positive” about the future of the sector and admits “you’ve got to be an optimist to do this job”.

He adds: “Whether you’re going out to celebrate or you’re going out to commiserate that’s what’s great about the on-trade and, as we live in an increasingly digital and working-from-home-type economy, people will always want to go out so when they do, we’ve got to make sure we’re best in class and we delight our guests and give them a great time when they’re in our premises.”