Wetherspoons boss warns prices of pints will go up not down after Budget

Tim Martin shared that the pub chain's taxation measure is acceptable to leap by two-thirds adjacent twelvemonth aft Labour's Budget hiked the National Insurance taxation for businesses successful the UK

Wetherspoon Boss Tim Martin has said prices could emergence successful pubs pursuing past week's budget.

Martin shared that the pub chain's taxation measure is acceptable to leap by two-thirds adjacent twelvemonth aft Labour's Budget hiked the National Insurance taxation for businesses successful the UK. Wetherspoon anticipates that taxation and concern costs volition emergence by astir £60million implicit the adjacent year. This includes its estimated 67% emergence successful National Insurance Contributions.

Tim Martin said: “Cost inflation, which had jumped to elevated levels successful 2022, dilatory abated successful the pursuing 2 years, but has present jumped substantially again pursuing the budget. All hospitality businesses, we believe, program to summation prices, arsenic a result. Wetherspoon will, arsenic always, marque each effort to enactment arsenic competitory arsenic possible.”

Greg Johnson, expert astatine City broker Shore Capital, predicts that the hike successful concern taxes could "add a further 5p to a pint". Wetherspoon has implicit 800 pubs crossed the UK and the concatenation plans to unfastened much sites crossed the country.

In the Budget past week, Rachel Reeves announced that the complaint of National Insurance paid by businesses volition beryllium rising from 13.8% to 15% from April 2025. The net threshold for erstwhile employers commencement paying National Insurance volition besides beryllium lowered from £9,100 per twelvemonth to £5,000.

This means arsenic good arsenic paying a higher complaint of National Insurance, businesses volition besides commencement to wage it connected a higher information of worker salaries. It's estimated that the determination volition rise £25billion - the equivalent of astir £800 per worker for each firm.

In its latest results for the twelvemonth to July 2024, published past month, Wetherspoon's pre-tax profits roseate by 73.5% to £73.9million. This was alongside a 5.7% gross spike to £2.04billion, driven by a 7.6% ascent successful like-for-like sales. However, the improved complaint of income astatine its pubs was somewhat offset by the alteration successful its fig of pub sites aft the radical sold 18 pubs and terminated the lease connected a further nine.

At the clip of publication, Martin said, “Sales proceed to improve. In the past 9 weeks, to September 29, 2024, like-for-like income accrued by 4.9%. The institution anticipates a tenable result for the existent fiscal year, taxable to our aboriginal income performance.”