Wetherspoon to invest £145m in pub development programme
Wetherspoon is set to invest £145m to develop new pubs and upgrade existing pubs, creating 2,000 jobs in the process.
The company is keen to start the development project within weeks of its pubs fully reopening.
It has a pipeline of 75 projects: 18 are new pubs and there are 57 significant extensions and upgrades to some of its existing 871 pubs.
The first tranche of new pubs and extensions will be in towns and cities including Leeds, Birmingham, Newport Pagnell, Heswall, Sheffield, Felixstowe, Dublin, Haverfordwest, Carmarthen and Glasgow.
Once the 75 projects in the pipeline are completed, Wetherspoon anticipates investing a further £750m to open 15 new pubs and enlarge 50 existing pubs each year for 10 years. This 10-year pub project will result in 20,000 new jobs.
Wetherspoon founder and chairman Tim Martin said: "Our immediate investment will provide work for architects, contractors and builders as well as result in 2,000 new jobs for staff in our pubs.
"We are geared up to start on the first projects within a few months. We are also committed to our long-term investment and job creation programme over the next decade.
"However, the investment is conditional on the UK opening back up again on a long-term basis, with no further lockdowns or the constant changing of rules."
