Wetherspoon’s returns to profit for first time since Covid pandemic

Cost of living crisis drives consumers to low-cost pub chain but company remains cautious

JD Wetherspoon has bounced back to profit for the first time since the start of the coronavirus pandemic three years ago, as budget-conscious consumers flocked to the low-cost pub chain amid the cost of living crisis.

Wetherspoon’s, which runs about 830 pubs across the UK and Ireland, reported a pre-tax profit of almost £43m in the year to 30 July.

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Wetherspoon’s boss: hospitality holding off price rises could be ‘catastrophic’

Tim Martin says Bank of England is right to ask firms to be mindful but advice should not be taken too literally

The boss of JD Wetherspoon has warned it could be “catastrophic” for pubs and restaurants to hold off raising prices as costs continue to soar, as the pub chain revealed that the “ferocious” impact of inflation has fuelled a dramatic increase in its bills.

Tim Martin said that Andrew Bailey, the governor of the Bank of England, was right to warn companies to be mindful of how much they put up prices to avoid continuing to fuel an inflationary cycle, after the headline annual rate unexpectedly rose to 10.4% last month.

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The foreign royals and billionaire tax exiles collecting UK’s furlough millions

Read the list of super-rich claimants, from Saudi princes to Dubai monarchs, tax exiles to the UK’s richest

Glympton Park is a sprawling, 2,000-acre estate featuring an 18th-century stately home, nestled in the verdant Oxfordshire countryside near Woodstock.

It was bought for £8m in 1992, by Prince Bandar bin Sultan bin Abdul Aziz al-Saud, the senior Saudi royal whose past roles include ambassador to the US. He is said to have spent £42m on renovations, including a pheasant shoot and bullet-proof glass on the driveway to thwart would-be assassins.

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