Wetherspoons sells off more pubs after £30m loss warning - is your local on the list?
The Wetherspoons announcement comes just weeks after it was revealed 32 branches across the country would be closing, amid spiralling costs for staff and venue repairs
Wetherspoons is to sell off more pubs after a £30million loss warning.
The announcement comes just weeks after it was revealed 32 branches across the country would be closing, amid spiralling costs for staff and venue repairs.
The pubs now facing closure include the Coronet in Holloway, Cross Keys in Peebles, General Sir Redvers Buller in Crediton, Lord Arthur Lee in Fareham, Plough & Harrow in Hammersmith, Saltoun Inn in Fraserburgh, and the Thomas Leaper in Derby.
The General Sir Redvers Buller is the first Devon pub to face closure, as Exeter-based businessman Tim Martin said he was "cautiously optimistic" about the future.
Wetherspoons has more than 800 pubs and hotels across the UK and Ireland.
The company said trading for the most recent period was closer to its expectations but admitted that October had been a slow month.
Earlier this year, the pub chain announced 32 venues would be sold after warning that it could face losses of £30 million, due to rising staff wages and repairs.
READ MORE: Wetherspoons hikes some beer prices by 29% - but insists its still 'best value' for pintIn a statement last month, Tim Martin said: “During lockdown, dyed-in-the-wool pub-goers, many for the first time, filled their fridges with supermarket beer – and it has proved to be a momentous challenge to persuade them to return to the more salubrious environment of the saloon bar.
“This competitive disadvantage has had an increasingly debilitating impact on the hospitality industry and will undoubtedly result in long-term financial weakness vis a vis supermarkets - which will also be harmful to employees, the Treasury and the overall economy.”
Wetherspoons has cut its losses significantly, compared to when its pubs were closed over lockdown, but pre-tax losses still stood at £30.4million in the 12 months that ended July 31.
The firm had reported a £167million loss last year, off the back of consecutive lockdowns. Before the pandemic, the company made a profit of £132million.
Sales were down 4.3 per cent to £1.74billion in the year to the end of July.
The 32 pubs already listed for closure include:
Barnsley – Silkstone Inn
Beaconsfield – Hope & Champion
Bexleyheath – Wrong ‘Un
Bournemouth – Christopher Creeke
Cheltenham – Bank House
Durham – Water House
Halifax – Percy Shaw
Hanham – Jolly Sailor
Harrow – Moon on the Hill
Hove – Cliftonville Inn
London Battersea – Asparagus
London East Ham – Miller's Well
London Eltham – Bankers Draft
London Forest Gate – Hudson Bay
London Forest Hill – Capitol
London Hornsey – Toll Gate
London Holborn – Penderel's Oak
London Islington – Angel
London Palmers Green – Alfred Herring
Loughborough – Moon & Bell
Loughton – Last Post
Mansfield – Widow Frost
Middlesborough – Resolution
Purley – Foxley Hatch
Redditch – Rising Sun
Sevenoaks - Sennockian
Southampton – Admiral Sir Lucius Curtis
Stafford – Butler's Bell
Watford – Colombia Press
West Bromwich – Billiard Hall
Willenhall – Malthouse
Wirral – John Masefield
The first Wetherspoons was opened in 1979 in London's Muswell Hill.
For the first month, it was called Martin’s Free House, but was renamed Wetherspoons in 1980.
Wetherspoon was the name of one of Martin's teachers, who told him he would never be a success.
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