Wetherspoons boss Tim Martin has blamed people drinking at home for a slump in sales.
The pub chief, who has revealed that the chain’s sales are still lagging behind pre-pandemic levels, said far more people now drink in their homes rather than in pubs.
Wetherspoons, which runs 844 pubs in the UK and Ireland, said like-for-like sales surged by nearly 18% over the last three months of 2022, when compared with the same period in 2021.
The chain has pubs in Arnold, Carlton and Mapperley.
However, sales still remained 2% lower than the equivalent pre-pandemic period in 2019.
Mr Martin, Wetherspoon’s chairman, told the PA news agency: “The aftermath of the pandemic and lockdown restrictions have been far more difficult than anyone thought.
“That is the picture for the whole pub and restaurant industry. People thought that after lockdown there would be a boom in people suffering from cabin fever but, instead, it has almost been the opposite situation as people have got in the habit of staying in.
“That’s the big thing that means sales are down on 2019. Things are improving now but it’s slow.”
The Wetherspoons chief was keen to stress that he feels the biggest threat to the hospitality industry is that pubs and restaurants are taxed unfairly, while supermarkets pay no VAT on food sales.
“The aftermath of the pandemic and lockdown restrictions have been far more difficult than anyone thought.”
Wetherspoons chairman Tim Martin
He said: “This issue has been exacerbated in recent years because supermarkets now trade next to pubs on every high street, and with a huge tax benefit which means they can lower the price of beer.
Supermarkets now take up about half of the pub industry’s beer volumes, whereas “hardly anyone drank at home” when Wetherspoon’s started trading in 1979, Mr Martin said.
He warned that the industry will “inevitably shrink” relative to supermarkets if it does not campaign strongly for tax equality.
Wetherspoon opened two pubs over the second half of 2022 and sold 10, which made about £2.9 million, and 35 pubs remain up for sale.
But Mr Martin added that he is “cautiously optimistic” about the company’s prospects for the financial year.
