JD Wetherspoon is a pub, restaurant, and hotel chain with establishments located across the United Kingdom and Ireland. The company was first founded in London in 1979 by Tim Martin, followed by a second location in 1981. The number of establishments operated by JD Wetherspoon grew during the following decade, and by the 1990’s the company owned over 40 establishments and began to also open hotels. The chain has been known to renovate unusual locations for its establishments including former churches, cinemas, and ballrooms. As of 2021, the
fell to 861, following a trend of a slight reduction in units each year for the last six years.
JD Wetherspoon’s place in the UK pub industry
The pub industry in the UK has been on the decline in recent years, further exacerbated by the
coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic in 2020. By 2019, the
number of pubs in the UK had already fallen to 47,200, the lowest number in the last two decades. When looking at the
distribution of JD Wetherspoon’s pub sales in the UK and Ireland bar sales showed a decrease of 16 percent over the past two decades. Meanwhile, the share of food sales steadily increased during this time, showcasing the value of pubs offering other services in addition to alcohol. JD Wetherspoon’s expansion into the hotel industry serves as another example of this. Over the past decade, the
number of hotels operated by JD Wetherspoon has increased considerably. The company had 57 hotels in its portfolio in 2022 compared to just 24 in 2012.
How successful is JD Wetherspoon in the UK?
JD Wetherspoon remains one of the UK’s largest and most well-known pub companies. Prior to the pandemic, the company experienced consistent year-over-year growth in
annual sales in the UK and Ireland. However, from 2019 to 2020, annual sales fell by over 500 million British pounds due to lockdown measures and restrictions to indoor dining. That being said,
JD Wetherspoon’s average weekly sales per pub in the UK and Ireland reached 45.3 thousand British pounds in 2022, which was not far behind the company’s pre-pandemic high of 48 thousand pounds in 2019. Additionally, few other pub companies in the UK have
JD Wetherspoon’s brand awareness. In 2022, 87 percent of Brits reported knowing the brand by name and the
share of Brits with a positive opinion of JD Wetherspoon totaled 53 percent.
This text provides general information. Statista assumes no
liability for the information given being complete or correct.
Due to varying update cycles, statistics can display more up-to-date
data than referenced in the text.
