24th Jan 2007 07:00
Wetherspoon (JD) PLC23 January 2007 JD WETHERSPOON PLC TRADING UPDATE 24 January 2007 Current Trading For the first 12 weeks of the second quarter (to 21 January 2007), like-for-likesales increased by 5.5%. Year-to-date (25 weeks to 21 January 2007)like-for-like sales have increased by 7.5%, with overall Company sales up by8.3%. Margins for the period were ahead of last year with strong like-for-like salescompensating for higher energy and labour costs. Property We opened 8 pubs in the period and completed the disposal of 3. In the currentfinancial year, we anticipate increasing the number of openings to 20 comparedwith 9 last year, with the number increasing to approximately 30 next year. Non-Smoking Pubs The 61 pubs outside Scotland which have opened as non-smoking pubs, or have beenconverted to non-smoking pubs, continued to show an improvement in salesperformance in the period. The 39 Scottish pubs have continued the positive sales performance reported inour first quarter trading update on the 2 November 2006. Like-for-like sales forthese pubs in the 12 weeks to 21 January 2007 were 3.9% with year to datelike-for-like sales of 4.9%. Outlook Overall the performance in the first half has been strong, althoughlike-for-like sales in January have shown lower growth than in previous monthsof the year. Enquiries: John Hutson Chief Executive 01923 477777Jim Clarke Finance Director 01923 477777Eddie Gershon Company Spokesman 0208 352 5012/ 07956 392234 Visit our web site at www.jdwetherspoon.co.uk This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock ExchangeRelated Shares:
Wetherspoon (J.D)