It hasn’t been a great year for the hospitality industry due to Covid-19 restrictions, with lengthy closures and rule changes it hasn’t exactly been “business as usual”. Wetherspoons, a pub chain, is not the only one to suffer – although sympathy is scarce.
It is rare for the company to experience losses. Only three have been recorded in the past 37 years. These were 2020 and 2021 respectively, while the other was 1984.
The chain recorded its worst numbers to date in the 12 months to July 25 with a pre-tax loss of £154.7 million, up from £34.1 million a year ago.
Meanwhile, sales were down from £1.26 billion to £772.6 million.
Despite this grim outlook, Tim Martin, the founder and chairman of the company is optimistic about the future. Customers made their way back to Martin’s pubs in summer when lockdown restrictions were lifted.
Martin was a government critic during pandemic. Martin accused them of mishandling hospitality sector, while also criticizing lockdown restrictions. Martin called them “libertarians”. “a threat to civil society and democracy.”
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Since the news broke, people who aren’t particularly fond of the Wetherspoons boss have taken to Twitter to share their lack of sympathy for Martin.
Martin informed his Wetherspoons employees, 43,000 in total, that they would not receive any pay during the shutdown until cash from the government furlough program had arrived. This was a decision he later reversed due to strong backlash. Instead, he encouraged his staff members to apply for Tesco jobs.
This led to some customers leading a protest to boycott Martin’s pub chains with the hashtag “#NeverSpoons.”
Martin, a staunch Brexiteer, may have been downplaying how the EU affected beer shortages in his pubs.
This was also why people decided to boycott the chain.
“During the pandemic, the pressure on pub managers and staff has been particularly acute, with a number of nationwide and regional pub closures and reopenings, often with very little warning, each of which resulted in different regulations,”Martin.
The founder then added: “In spite of these obstacles, Wetherspoon is cautiously optimistic about the outcome for the financial year, on the basis that there is no further resort to lockdowns or onerous restrictions.”