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More Wetherspoons pubs are set to pull their final pints this year with 22 at risk of calling their last orders.
Two more locations are now confirmed to have closed, or be shutting soon; The Bankers Draft in Eltham, London is set to shut its doors on August 20, while The Saltoun Inn in Scotland shut up shop on July 30.
The total of Wetherspoon pub closures this year now stands at 29.
The hospitality company – which has 827 pubs throughout the UK – said ‘almost all’ of the pubs facing closure were located nearby another Wetherspoons.
Their recent pre-closure trading update suggests the closures were due to ‘difficult trading circumstances for the hospitality industry in recent years’ and comes on the day that the government’s Brexit Pubs Guarantee, announced in the Chancellor’s Spring Budget securing the pledge that pubs will always pay less alcohol duty than supermarkets going forwards, came into effect.
Boss Tim Martin, said that customers are opting to stay at home and drink cheap supermarket beer instead of going out to their locals.The pub chain has denied that its series of pub closures was ‘a money raising exercise’.
The 13 Wetherspoon pubs listed as under offer and are at risk of shutting their doors are:
The Alfred Herring – Palmers GreenThe Cross Keys – PeeblesGeneral Sir Redvers Buller – CreditonThe Butlers Bell – StaffordThe Percy Shaw – HalifaxFoxley Hatch – PurleyAsparagus – BatterseaMillers Well – East HamHudson Bay – Forest GateCapitol – Forest HillThe Bankers Draft, Eltham – set to shut on August 20The Widow Frost – MansfieldCoronet – London
An additional nine pubs are listed as for sale, which means they could close for good, but at the moment they continue to operate as usual:
Wrong ‘Un – BexleyheathJolly Sailor – HanhamResolution – MiddlesbroughThe Rising Sun – RedditchSennockian – SevenoaksLord Arthur Lee – FarehamPlough & Harrow – HammersmithMoon on the Hill – HarrowThe Sir John Arderne – Newark
These 22 potential closures aren’t a first for the chain, as last September the company announced it would put 32 of its pubs up for sale
Among those 29 already closed are The Silkstone Inn in Barnsley, Angel in Islington, and Postal Order in Worcester
The pub chain has opened three new venues this year and the chain is setting their sights ahead to the next financial year.
In a pre-close trading update published in July, Tim Martin, said: ‘The company expects profits in the current financial year to be in line with market expectations
‘As a result of a continued improvement in sales and a slightly reduced expectation for cost increases, for example energy costs, the company anticipates an improved outcome for the next financial year.’
The 29 Wetherspoons that have already closed
The John Masefield – New FerryAngel – IslingtonThe Silkstone Inn – BarnsleyThe Billiard Hall – West BromwichAdmiral Sir Lucius Curtis – SouthamptonThe Colombia Press – WatfordThe Malthouse – WillenhallThe John Masefield – New FerryThomas Leaper – DerbyCliftonville – HoveTollgate – HarringayLast Post – LoughtonHarvest Moon – OrpingtonAlexander Bain – WickChapel an Gansblydhen – BodminMoon on the Square – BasildonCoal Orchard – TauntonRunning Horse – Airside Doncaster AirportWild Rose – BootleEdmund Halley – Lee GreenThe Willow Grove – SouthportPostal Order – WorcesterNorth and South Wales Bank – WrexhamThe Sir John Stirling Maxwell – GlasgowThe Knight’s Templar – LondonChristopher Creeke – BournemouthThe Water House – DurhamThe Worlds Inn – RomfordThe Saltoun Inn – Fraserburgh
