Brexit-supporting Tim Martin has had to issue a fourth profit warning for JD Wetherspoon in the space of just seven months, with shares in the pub chain diving.
Martin pointed the finger at below-expected sales combined with struggles over rising costs for food, workers, energy and property taxes.
Martin, founder and chairman of the UK’s best-known pub chain, said: “Profits for the year are likely to be below market expectations, with marginally lower sales than anticipated in the final quarter, combined with higher costs in the areas of food, labour, repairs, energy and business rates.”
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This is the fourth profit warning from Wetherspoon this year. The latest profit warning and reports of worse-than-expected sales will be particularly concerning given the hopes Martin will no doubt have had that the World Cup would get more punters through the doors of his 793 pubs.
But in the end, like-for-like sales rose only 4% over the 12 weeks to 19 July.
As a result, the pub chain’s shares in the FTSE 250 fell by almost 10% on Wednesday’s market open, City AM reports.
The shares ended the day 5%, at 715p.
The irony of a British business run by an arch-Brexiteer wasn’t lost on some though, with British farming campaigner Liz Webster wondering if Martin and Wetherspoon may have coped better with rising costs if Britain was still part of the European Union.