JD Wetherspoon to roll out 200 new pubs

PUBS chain JD Wetherspoon is to open 200 more bars and create some 15,000 jobs over the next five years, the firm announced yesterday.

Around 15,000 jobs will be created by the expansion. Picture: Getty

The group, which was founded in 1979 by current chairman Tim Martin, said it would invest more than £400 million developing new pubs across the UK and Republic of Ireland. It already operates 931 sites and employs about 34,000 staff.

The new posts will be spread across the new outlets as well as at existing sites and will include management roles and jobs for bar, kitchen and front-of-house staff.

Martin said: “We are looking forward to opening the new pubs, many of which will be in areas where Wetherspoon is not yet represented. We are proud to be creating so many new jobs.

“Wetherspoon paid more than £600 million in taxes in our last financial year and this will rise to approximately £1 billion in the course of the next five years.”

The group’s Scottish watering holes include the Alexander Graham Bell in Edinburgh and Glasgow’s The Counting House.

SUBSCRIBE TO THE SCOTSMAN’S BUSINESS BRIEFING

• Get the latest business headlines from a variety of news sources emailed to your inbox each morning