Pub group reports slump-busting profits

Pubs chain JD Wetherspoon served up a recession-busting set of results today, thanks to a combination of cheap beer, coffee and cooked breakfast sales.

Announcing its best-ever results, the group reported underlying pre-tax profits up 13.6 per cent to £66.2 million and sales of just over £955m in the year to July 26 - a record since the firm started in 1983.

Wetherspoon led a series of cut-price promotions to attract hard-up customers as the recession bore down last year, including a pint of real ale for 99p.

The past year saw a bounce-back in bar sales as conditions settled following the smoking ban in 2007, with sales up around 2.5 per cent, but set against an easing back in food sales which remained flat.

Finance director Keith Down, who hails from Halesowen, paid tribute to the group's 21,000 staff who work in its 731 pubs.

The group handed out £20.5m in monthly bonuses over the year to all staff, up by a quarter on the previous year, with more than 90 per cent paid to employees below board level.

Tougher

He said the business had a good year as far as ale sales were concerned, with beers from local brewers proving very popular with drinkers.

""It probably has been tougher in the West Midlands, but we are still looking for new sites in the region, whether in Birmingham or the Black Country," he said.

Trading has been boosted by the introduction of more breakfast and food options, with customers also developing a taste for coffee - Wetherspoon serves up 715,000 breakfasts and coffees every week.

Wetherspoon gave an upbeat outlook on costs after a year of soaring energy and commodity prices, duty increases and minimum wage rises above inflation.

The group has also negotiated better energy prices, which could save £5 million in the current year.

Chief executive John Hutson said the group may seek to introduce "one or two" price increases this year, but said consumer spending was still under pressure.

By Business Editor Jim Walsh