Pub chain to serve up breakfast from 7am

Published on Thursday 11 March 2010 20:16

PUBS group JD Wetherspoon is to bring forward its opening time for breakfast to 7am to capitalise on "early riser" traffic.

The company, whose 600-plus pubs include The Standing Order in Edinburgh and The James Young in Bathgate, posted record profits and sales despite a difficult trading environment that has seen many smaller pubs collapse.

Profits before tax and exceptional items rose 17.5 per cent to 36.2 million in the 26 weeks to 24 January on total sales up 4 per cent at 488m.

Wetherspoon, which already claims to be one of the UK's biggest coffee chains, said the planned earlier opening time – after five years of opening at 9am – will kick in on 28 April.

Tim Martin, founder and chairman, said: "I think by opening at 7am it will be a significant boost, especially since in many of the towns and suburbs that we operate they don't have other coffee chains open at that time."

The group currently sells about 12.5 million breakfasts a year. Martin said some pubs might serve alcohol at that time in the morning in the future to cater for shift workers.

Wetherspoon, which has nearly 750 pubs, also unveiled a new 530m debt facility yesterday, giving it the firepower to accelerate expansion.

Martin said the group aimed to open 50 pubs each year for the next decade.

He added: "It (the refinancing] gives a bit of extra scope if a few pubs come along. There are good sites becoming available. It's a question of doing the best ones and not buying things just because you've got money."

Paul Hickman, pubs and leisure analyst at broker KBC Peel Hunt, said: "Wetherspoon has the will and now has the means for another major transformation on the scale of that it achieved in the 1990s."

The company's other pubs north of the Border include Elgin's Muckle Cross and the Kirky Puffer in Kirkintilloch.

Shares closed up 1.4 per cent or 7p at 512p.