One of the UK’s biggest pub operators, J D Wetherspoon, has reported a 5.5 per cent increase in like-for-like sales for the first quarter of 2018/9 (to the end of October).
However, it warned that profit growth may diminish as staff costs affect the bottom line.Tim Martin, chairman, from his hospital bed (burst appendix) suggested a trading outcome for the year “slightly below” the previous financial year.
But Martin reserved most of his remarks for a blast against the anti-Brexit campaign. A keen supporter of removing the UK from the EU, Martin went into a lengthy condemnation of the “illusory benefits of a deal with the undemocratic EU.”
Martin said: “The economic truth is that no deal/free trade will leave the UK better off on the day we leave the EU in March next year. The risk to the future lies in staying linked to the chaotic and undemocratic Brussels regime.”
