JD WETHERSPOON has confirmed that one of its pubs in Glasgow will cease trading next month.
The Sir John Stirling Maxwell on Kilmarnock Road in Shawlands will soon cease trading, with staff being offered jobs in other pubs.
While pub bosses are unable to confirm a closing date, they have revealed that the premises will stop trading after March 26. The news comes after locals reported seeing signs at the pub informing of a closure soon.
The chain, which operates roughly 800 pubs around the UK and Ireland, previously announced that they would be putting 32 of their pubs on the market, saying it was a “commercial decision”.
Since that September announcement, multiple pubs have been confirmed to close permanently, including one in Wick and one in Shawlands.
The chain said that its sales at the end of 2022 were far higher than the previous year, after a particularly strong Christmas, but still lagging slightly behind pre-pandemic levels.
Their like-for-like sales surged by nearly 18% over the last three months of 2022, compared with the same period in 2021.
The group’s chair Tim Martin, a strong supporter of Brexit, divided the public and his own staff over his stance of Covid measures, furlough pay, and immigration.
When announcing the 11 pub closures earlier in the month, Martin said he feels the biggest threat to the hospitality industry is that pubs and restaurants are taxed unfairly, while supermarkets pay no VAT on food sales.
He said: “Supermarkets pay zero VAT in respect of food sales, whereas pubs and restaurants pay 20%. This tax benefit allows supermarkets to subsidise the selling price of beer.
“We estimate that supermarkets have taken about half of the pub industry’s beer volumes since Wetherspoon started trading in 1979, a process that has likely accelerated following the pandemic.
“Pub industry directors have, in general, failed to campaign for tax equality, which is an important principle of taxation.”
He added that the industry will “inevitably shrink” relative to supermarkets if it does not campaign strongly for tax equality.
