REG - Wetherspoon (JD) PLC - Wetherspoon and tax reform

J D WetherspoonAnnouncement

Mon 09:00

For best results when printing this announcement, please click on link below:
https://newsfile.refinitiv.com/getnewsfile/v1/story?guid=urn:newsml:reuters.com:20260209:nRSI1900Sa&default-theme=true

RNS Number : 1900S  Wetherspoon (JD) PLC  09 February 2026

 

 

J D WETHERSPOON PLC

 

9(th) February 2026

 

J D WETHERSPOON PLC

 

Wetherspoon calls on hospitality industry to back political support for tax
reform

A few days ago, the leader of the political party which is leading in the
latest polls, offered the hospitality industry something many had assumed
impossible - in effect, tax parity with supermarkets.

There's no question that this initiative would utterly transform the
competitiveness of pubs, which have lost 50% of their beer trade to
supermarkets since the millennium, according to analysts at bankers Morgan
Stanley.

In this plan, VAT would be reduced to 10% for the hospitality industry, with
further reductions in excise duty and business rates to come.

Most pubs could probably, for example, offer one beer, one lager and one cider
for, say £2.99, with these tax reductions - and STILL have a higher gross
margin than today.

By eliminating the tax differential between supermarkets and the hospitality
industry, and restoring margins to devastated businesses, these changes would
enable pubs to regain some, or all, of their lost trade.

You would think that this offer from Reform would have been greeted by a
crescendo of enthusiasm, ecstasy and support from the licensed trade and its
supporters.

However, surprisingly, initial support has been underwhelming, at least from
the great and the good in the hospitality industry.

For example, Mark Brumby of Langton Capital, a widely read pub trade
publication, damned the proposals with bland reporting, by saying:

" A 10% cut could either see the price of a pint drop by 5p or operators widen
their margins. Reform has also said it would halve the rate of VAT for the
…hospitality sector ".

Try and control your excitement, Mr Brumby, we beg you..

And one of the main industry umbrella organisations, the BBPA (British Beer
and Pub Association) said:

"We're pleased that political parties are recognising the value of the local
and want to ensure their success…".

Not exactly a ringing endorsement of the best offer any politician has ever
made to the hospitality industry in history, is it?

But, weirdly, we've been here before. A Frenchman, Jacques Borel, started a
VAT Club in 2010, aimed at reducing VAT for food in the UK hospitality
industry to 5%, having successfully achieved similar reductions in a
substantial number of countries.

Bizarrely, the then CEOs of two of the biggest pub companies, Enterprise Inns
and Greene King were openly hostile to Jacques' tax equality argument - others
were indifferent or agnostic.

Even more bizarrely, the then editor of the biggest pub trade publication, the
Morning Advertiser, withdrew support for the VAT campaign, since, he told me,
Jacques was "having a bad game". Not as bad a game as you, mate, I thought.

Sometimes, you are at a loss to understand what appears to be  perverse
 human behaviour. What could the motivations of the CEOs and the editor
possibly have been?

Perplexed, Wetherspoon, at considerable cost, decided, at the time, to conduct
a major survey of UK publicans, those on the frontline that the CEOs and
editor purported to represent - especially the employees of the recalcitrant
CEOs of Enterprise and Greene King.

Unsurprisingly, sanity prevailed in the lounge bars of UK pubs. Cardinal
Research reported in 2013 that "96% of licensees think the pub and restaurant
industry should campaign for a reduction of VAT on food".

Cardinal added that "94% support the campaign by the VAT Club" and that "86%
agree that it's unfair that supermarkets pay no VAT on food but
pubs/restaurants have to".

Needless to say, Greene King's and Enterprise Inns' s licensees strongly
supported the VAT Club and disagreed with the views of their own CEOs.

But here we go again! So what goes through the minds of the directors of the
biggest pub companies as they watch their trade switch, almost weekly, to
supermarkets, due to the vast tax-supported price differential between the on
and off-trade?

A range of thoughts, probably. I suspect, but don't know, that the CEOs in the
Borel era were closet, or not-so-closet supporters of the government of the
time - and didn't want to rock the boat. Chancellor George Osborne, not really
a pub guy, was outright hostile to Jacques the Lad.

Some others mistakenly thought they weren't competing with supermarkets, so
why bother. Yet others were short-termists: I'm off in a year or two, so I'm
alright, Jacques .

But credit where it's due , the family brewers, long-termists and driven by
principle, not politics , were on board. Well done to Fuller's, Shepherd
Neame, St Austell and many others.

The principle in question is that the beleaguered hospitality industry needs
to get behind whatever organisation or political party promises a fair and
equitable tax regime.

So here's the question for the British public - and for the senior figures in
the hospitality industry. Do you believe in tax equality with supermarkets?

If you don't, pubs may increasingly become a "special occasion" experience, as
a result of high prices, rather than the melting pot for daily rendezvous
between neighbours , workers and lovers of the glorious past.

If you do believe in tax equality, then you'd better support it, because the
supermarket industry has nicked half your trade in recent years - and it will
gobble up most of the rest in no time flat.

Finally, it's not your job to worry about how tax equality is funded. As
someone once said, the tax system needs a "sensible rebalancing". And as a
former Treasury official said to Jacques Borel and myself - don't tell us how
to raise the money. It's not a lot in the scheme of things. Tell us what's
wrong and we'll do the number crunching.

 

 

ENDS

 

 

Enquiries:

Nigel Connor                 Legal Director
              07818 232529

Eddie Gershon              Company
Spokesman               07956 392234

 

Please send any questions by email to investorqueries@jdwetherspoon.co.uk
(mailto:investorqueries@jdwetherspoon.co.uk)

 

Notes to editors

 

1.     J D Wetherspoon owns and operates pubs throughout the UK. The
Company aims to provide customers with good-quality food and drink, served by
well-trained and friendly staff, at reasonable prices. The pubs are
individually designed, and the Company aims to maintain them in excellent
condition.

 

2.     Visit our website:  www.jdwetherspoon.co.uk
(http://www.jdwetherspoon.co.uk)

This information is provided by RNS, the news service of the London Stock Exchange. RNS is approved by the Financial Conduct Authority to act as a Primary Information Provider in the United Kingdom. Terms and conditions relating to the use and distribution of this information may apply. For further information, please contact
rns@lseg.com (mailto:rns@lseg.com)
 or visit
www.rns.com (http://www.rns.com/)
.

RNS may use your IP address to confirm compliance with the terms and conditions, to analyse how you engage with the information contained in this communication, and to share such analysis on an anonymised basis with others as part of our commercial services. For further information about how RNS and the London Stock Exchange use the personal data you provide us, please see our
Privacy Policy (https://www.lseg.com/privacy-and-cookie-policy)
.   END  STRBIGDDGDGDGLI



            Copyright 2019 Regulatory News Service, all rights reserved