JD Wetherspoon’s efforts to sell pubs hampered by tough property … – Financial Times

Dozens of JD Wetherspoon pubs put up for sale in recent months are yet to find a buyer as nervousness over the impact of the cost of living crisis on the hospitality sector and turmoil in the commercial property market has put off potential suitors.

Wetherspoons announced it was selling 32 of its 800-plus venues in September as part of a long-term strategy to overhaul its estate, just days after former prime minister Liz Truss’s mini-budget led to a sharp rise in mortgage rates, sending shockwaves through the property market.

Of the 32 pubs advertised for sale at the time — 10 of which were freeholds and the rest leaseholds — 27 venues are yet to find a buyer. Wetherspoons has since put several more premises on the market, bringing the total up for sale to 35 venues.

Wetherspoons’s chief executive Tim Martin admitted the sale — the biggest in the pub chain’s recent history — had been affected in part by worsening economic conditions.

“Would we have done better in 2018? Yes, probably,” said Martin. “Some [of the sales] are slow but overall they are moving at a reasonable pace. It probably is a bit slower than in the middle of a property boom but we’ve sold a lot of pubs.”

The company has fetched nearly £3mn for the 10 pubs it sold since July, most of which have been offloaded to other rivals.

“It’s not really a time when publicans want to buy, renovate and open loads more pubs with all the costs of running them and the uncertain market conditions,” said a competitor, who looked at some of the Wetherspoons sites in London. The sales process is being overseen by real estate companies Savills and CBRE.

Wetherspoons said in a trading update on Wednesday that like-for-like

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