Wetherspoons to offer up recovery hopes after likely festive headache

Pubs giant JD Wetherspoon will this week put a brave face on the outlook for 2022 after a festive period likely to have been impacted by tighter Covid restrictions.

The vast JD Wetherspoon business empire has scores of Scottish watering holes including the Caley Picture House in Edinburgh.

The chain, which is one of the UK’s biggest hospitality businesses with hundreds of pubs, has been a barometer for sector sentiment as lockdowns and mitigation measures to try to control the spread of the virus chop and change across the UK.

A trading update this week will reveal how the business fared during the crucial festive period.

Susannah Streeter, senior markets analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, noted: “Omicron is likely to have induced yet another severe headache for JD Wetherspoon in the run up to Christmas.

“However, with the variant causing less severe illness, despite being highly infectious, hopes are higher that the worst of the pandemic may truly be over for the pub chain and its business model of selling cheap beer and value meals to high volumes of punters should swing back into action.”

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