13th Sep 2013 07:32
LONDON (Alliance News) - JD Wetherspoon PLC Friday reported higher revenue for the year ended July 28, but a fall in pretax profit due to exceptional items and an extra week of trading in the previous year.
The company, which owns and operates 886 pubs throughout the UK, maintained its full year dividend at 12.0 pence per share, and said that it is "aiming for a reasonable trading outcome in the current financial year" despite what it said was an increasingly unfair UK tax burden on pubs and restaurants compared to supermarkets.
JD Wetherspoon said that in the six weeks to September 8, like-for-like sales were up by 3.6%, which it hopes may be an indicator for future sales growth. It said that it intends to open around 30 pubs in the year ending July 2014, including a pub just off the motorway in a few months.
Pretax profit before exceptional items rose 6.3% to GBP76.9 million, but an exceptional charge of GBP15.6 million pushed pretax profit after these items down 3.0% to GBP57.1 million. The charges included the impairment of property, plant and equipment, and other non-current assets and assets held for sale.
The company highlighted that it paid a total of GBP551.5 million in taxes during the year, compared with GBP519.3 million a year earlier. It said that it paid roughly GBP632,000 in taxes per pub, including VAT, and late night levy, machine gaming duty, and business rates taxes.
"It is unsustainable to have far higher taxes for the pub industry than those for supermarkets.... there should be VAT equality for pubs, restaurants and supermarkets," said Chairman Tim Martin said in a statement.
The company said that revenues rose 7.0% to GBP1.28 billion in the 52 weeks to July 28, and 9.3% when excluding week 53. It reported revenues of GBP1.20 billion in the prior year. The company said that like-for-like sales were up 5.8%, helped by the introductions of new items on its food menus.
The company said that during the financial year, it opened 29 pubs and sold three, resulting in a total estate of 886 pubs at the financial year end.
It said that the average development cost for each new pub, excluding the cost of freeholds, was GBP1.55 million, compared with GBP1.42 million a year ago, due to increased expenditure on kitchens, customer areas and beer gardens.
JD Wetherspoon also said that during the period it received approximately GBP1.25 million in an out-of-court settlement with developer Anthony Lyons, formerly of property leisure agent Davis Coffer Lyons, in regards to a fraud litigation.
JD Wetherspoon shares were down 1.1% or 18.00 pence after opening Friday, trading at 727.00 pence per share.
By Rowena Harris-Doughty; [email protected]; @rharrisdoughty
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