Food & Drink
Wetherspoons announces plans to open 18 new pubs across the country
‘We are geared up to start on the first projects within a few months’
JD Wetherspoon has announced plans to open 18 brand new pubs and create 2,000 jobs, on the condition there are no more Covid lockdowns.
The £145m upgrade project will also ‘significantly extend’ 57 existing pubs across the country.
Spoons’ boss Tim Martin said it ‘will provide work for architects, contractors and builders as well as result in 2,000 new jobs for staff in our pubs’.
However, he also warned that the project wouldn’t happen if there were further lockdowns, adding that the company is eager to start the development ‘within weeks’ of pubs fully reopening.
JD Wetherspoon
Once this initial upgrade is finished, Wetherspoons said it plans to spend £750m opening another 15 new pubs while enlarging 50 existing pubs each year for 10 years.
According to them, this 10-year project would result in 20,000 new jobs being created.
Martin added: “We are geared up to start on the first projects within a few months.
“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.”
Ben Sutherland/Flickr
Spoons also revealed which areas are first on the list for new pubs and upgrades, saying it will begin work in these places in the weeks after restrictions ease.
The first areas are:
- Leeds
- Birmingham
- Newport Pagnell
- Heswall
- Sheffield
- Felixstowe
- Dublin
- Haverfordwest
- Carmarthen and Glasgow