JD Wetherspoon maintains outlook as like-for-like sales rise 6.9%

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Pub chain J D Wetherspoon left its outlook unchanged after like-for-like sales grew 6.9% in the 10 weeks to 7 July.

For the 10 weeks to 7 July 2019 like-for-like sales increased by 6.9% and total sales increased by 6.6%, while year-to-date like-for-like sales increased by 6.7% and total sales increased by 7.4%.

Since the start of the financial year, the company opened five new pubs and disposed of nine.

The company said it expected to recognised about £3m of exceptional, non-cash losses for the year, mainly a result of pub disposals which were below the value in its balance sheet.

In the current financial year to date, the company spent £71m on buying the freeholds of pubs of which it was previously the tenant and had bought back £5.4m of the company's shares.

Chairman of Wetherspoon, Tim Martin continued to highlight Brexit as the main issue for shareholders and suggested a 'no-deal' could be better alternative to securing a single agreement with the EU.

'The main issue for shareholders, which dominates debate, relates to the nature of the UK's post-Brexit relationship with the EU,' Martin said.

'The dichotomy between a 'no-deal' Brexit and a 'deal', as it is often portrayed in the media, politics and business, is highly misleading. The term no-deal really means 'multi-deal' - a multitude of deals agreed between individuals, businesses, governments and other organisations.'

'In contrast the term 'deal' refers to a 'mono-deal' - a single overarching agreement, which aims to govern the entire relationship between the UK and the EU.'

'The multi-deal approach, which immediately allows the UK to trade freely with the rest of the world, is a better alternative. As the House of Lords said in March 2017, there is then no legal liability to make any payments to the EU.'