Wetherspoons

J D Wetherspoon plc

File:Weatherspoonlogo.PNG
Type	Public limited company
Traded as	LSE: JDW
Industry	Hospitality industry
Founded	1979
Founder	Tim Martin
Headquarters	Watford, United Kingdom
Number of locations	956 pubs
Key people	Tim Martin (Chairman) John Hutson (CEO)
Products	Public houses and hotels
Revenue	£1,513.9 million (2015)
Operating income	£112.5 million (2015)
Profit	£44.8 million (2015)
Number of employees	35,000 (2016)
Website	www.jdwetherspoon.co.uk

Wetherspoon (business name J D Wetherspoon plc) is a pub chain operating in the UK and Ireland, with headquarters in Watford, Hertfordshire. Founded in 1979 by Tim Martin, the company owns just under 1,000 outlets. The chain's pubs offer cask ale, low prices, long opening hours, and no music. The company also operates the Lloyds No.1 chain and a number of Wetherspoon Hotels.

The chain has become known for converting large, unconventional premises into pubs. Premises tend to be large by British pub standards, and use an open plan layout. The chain began supporting cask ale when it was unfashionable to do so.

The company is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index.

History

The Rochester Castle, Stoke Newington

Tim Martin opened his first pub in 1979, on Colney Hatch Lane in Muswell Hill, north London. Many of the other early Wetherspoon pubs were also in the western part of Haringey. The J D Wetherspoon name comes from one of Martin's teachers in New Zealand who could not control his class.

The name came from when Tim was running his first pub in Muswell Hill. "I decided to call it Wetherspoon's after a former teacher - not because the teacher in question at my primary school in New Zealand had said I would never make it, as some people think, but because he was too nice a fellow to be running our particular class and he couldn't control it. So I thought: I can't control the pub, he couldn't control the class, so I'll name it after him."

In the early 1990s J D Wetherspoon began a policy of routinely selling off its smaller or less profitable outlets, often — but not always — replacing them with larger premises close by. There are now around 100 ex-Wetherspoon pubs, and none of the earliest outlets in the chain is still part of the estate. The oldest surviving Wetherspoon is the Rochester Castle in Stoke Newington, opened in 1983.

In 1998 Wetherspoon introduced over-sized glasses and promoted the "full pint". This initiative was soon withdrawn, supposedly because customers were still asking for top-ups, but arguably because other pub chains did not follow its lead.

Food and drink

Wetherspoon claimed to be "the only large pub firm which opens all its pubs early in the morning", serving breakfast and coffee as well as a full food menu into the evening. Weekly food promotions include Mexican Monday, Steak club (Tuesday), Wing it Wednesday (Chicken club), Curry Club (Thursday) and Fish Friday. The Sunday Club (traditional Sunday roasts) promotion was controversially dropped in March 2016.

Wetherspoon hosts two Ale Festivals in March/April and October each year (when a larger range of guest ales is available in each pub) and a Cider Festival in the summer.

Properties and operations

Becketts Bank in Leeds, its name reflecting the building's former use

The Picturedrome in Liverpool, a converted cinema

Many Wetherspoon's pubs are conversions of existing buildings, including:

• Theatres and cinemas (The Playhouse, Colchester; Opera House, Tunbridge Wells; The Capitol, Forest Hill; Coronet, Holloway; Prince Of Wales, Cardiff; The Salt Cot, Saltcoats; The Picture Palace, Enfield; The Regal Cinema, Rochdale; The Plaza, Rugeley; The Capitol, Dundee)
• Banks (The Crosse Keys, City of London; Bankers Draft, Sheffield; The Twelve Tellers, Preston; The Standing Order, Derby; The Standing Order, Edinburgh; The Standing Order, Southampton; Becketts Bank, Leeds; The Moon and Sixpence, Hatch End; The Counting House, Congleton; The Counting House, Glasgow)
• Post offices (The Wheeping Ash, St Neots; The Penny Black, Bicester; Last Post, Paisley, Southend; Loughton; Humphrey Bean, Tonbridge; The Narrows, Abingdon; The Arnold Machin, Newcastle-under-Lyme, Stone; The Harlequin, Huntingdon; The Last Post, Beeston; The William Webb Ellis, Twickenham)
• Swimming pools (Swim Inn & Rawson Spring, Sheffield)
• Churches (The Church House, Wath-upon-Dearne; Chapel An Gansblydhen, Bodmin; The West Kirk, Ayr; The Black Bull Inn, Bangor); The Earl of Zetland, Grangemouth

Consequently many Wetherspoon's properties are listed buildings.

There are Wetherspoon's bars in the passenger terminals of many UK airports, such as Robin Hood Airport, London Gatwick, London Stansted and London Heathrow and in several main railway stations including London Victoria, London Liverpool Street, London Cannon Street, Leeds and Liverpool Lime Street.

In December 2013 the chain opened its 900th pub.

J D Wetherspoon pioneered non-smoking areas in pubs – even before the Smoking, Health and Social Care (Scotland) Act 2005 and the Health Act 2006 in England and Wales introduced smoking bans in public houses – and started converting some of its pubs to completely non-smoking in 2005 before introducing a complete ban in 2006.

Ireland's first Wetherspoon's pub, The Three Tun Tavern, opened in Blackrock, Co. Dublin, in July 2014.

In 2014 Wetherspoon's controversially opened a pub at the Beaconsfield motorway service area on the M40.

Wetherspoon's also owns a chain of hotels (known until 17 September 2009 as "Wetherspoon Lodges" or "WetherLodges" and since then as "Wetherspoon Hotels") in the UK. As of 2015 there are 34 hotels in England, Wales and Scotland. In December 2014 it was reported that the company would open a pub and 100-room hotel in Camden Street, Dublin, Ireland.

In September 2015 J D Wetherspoon bought the Grade II* Listed Art Deco State Cinema in Grays, Essex which had been under threat of damage from vandalism and water ingress for a number of years.

In December 2015 Wetherspoon's sent an e-mail to customers announcing that its system had been hacked between 15 and 17 June 2015. This hack resulted in the potential loss of over 650,000 customers' data including names, dates of birth, e-mail addresses and phone numbers, and around 100 customers' credit card information. Wetherspoon has since replaced its website to guard against future hacking attempts.

Every Wetherspoon's pub has a unique, bespoke designed carpet, drawing on the inspiration of the location, building and name. They are produced by Axminster Carpets and, having more than the usual standard six colours, have to be partially handmade on old fashioned looms, costing up to £30,000 – twice as much as stock designs.

Mags Thomson, 66, from Livingston, Scotland, has visited every Wetherspoons in Great Britain (none in Ireland) beginning in 1994, ending in October 2015, when she had visited 972 (including 80 that had closed).

Wetherspoon's has long since struggled with maintaining a reputation for being good pubs despite departing with some of the traditional pub etiquette. At its heart remains true to bringing the best product to its customer and maintaining high quality standard with its drink. The chain bears the credit of being one of the most diverse in its offerings, more currently propelling American craft beers to the forefront and to the attention of British drinkers.

People

John Hutson is the chief executive, with total annual remuneration of £758,000 in 2009, consisting of a £364,000 base salary and a £394,000 bonus, plus other income.

External links

Media related to at Wikimedia Commons

• Official website