WETHERSPOONS fans have been dealt a blow as the chain announced yet another round of pubs are being put up for sale.
The boozer is looking to sell seven more pubs across the UK, bringing the total number of branches set to shut to 39.
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Wetherspoon is yet to confirm which locations will be affected.
The Sun has approached Wetherspoon to find out, and we will update this article as soon as we know more.
The chain confirmed back in September that it was planning to sell 32 pubs.
The pubs will will remain open and trading as under the Wetherspoon brand until they are sold.
And the latest news is a fresh blow for outgoing staff – who were granted a pay boost of more than £10 an hour for the first time earlier this year.
Several pubs in London are set to be sold, including boozers in popular locations such as Islington and Battersea.
While other pubs in major towns and cities such as Southampton and Middlesbrough are also being put up for sale.
Pubs have been knocked by a cocktail of cost increases as inflation sends prices soaring and less demand among cash-strapped punters.
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The pub chain saw like-for-like sales drop 1.1% in the five weeks to November 6 when compared with pre-pandemic trading in 2019.
Wetherspoon chairman Tim Martin said the firm remains “cautiously optimistic” despite the cost pressures hammering the hospitality sector.
He said he previously set out “various threats to the hospitality industry and these continue to apply”.
“Those caveats aside, in the absence of further lockdowns or restrictions, the company remains cautiously optimistic about future prospects,” he said.
Mr Martin warned last month that the group is facing a “momentous challenge” to persuade punters back into its bars after they got used to drinking cheap supermarket beer during the pandemic.
Here is a full list of all the pubs up for sale that we know so far:
- Barnsley – Silkstone Inn
- Beaconsfield – Hope & Champion
- Bexleyheath – Wrong ‘Un
- Bournemouth – Christopher Creeke
- Cheltenham – Bank House
- Durham – Water House
- Halifax – Percy Shaw
- Hanham – Jolly Sailor
- Harrow – Moon on the Hill
- Hove – Cliftonville Inn
- London Battersea – Asparagus
- London East Ham – Miller’s Well
- London Eltham – Bankers Draft
- London Forest Gate – Hudson Bay
- London Forest Hill – Capitol
- London Hornsey – Toll Gate
- London Holborn – Penderel’s Oak
- London Islington – Angel
- London Palmers Green – Alfred Herring
- Loughborough – Moon & Bell
- Loughton – Last Post
- Mansfield – Widow Frost
- Middlesbrough – Resolution
- Purley – Foxley Hatch
- Redditch – Rising Sun
- Sevenoaks – Sennockian
- Southampton – Admiral Sir Lucius Curtis
- Stafford – Butler’s Bell
- Watford – Colombia Press
- West Bromwich – Billiard Hall
- Willenhall – Malthouse
- Wirral – John Masefield
In May, the hospitality firm’s boss Tim Martin warned of a slew of major changes as a result of increased labour, food and energy costs.
It included various price hikes, with the price of beer in some pubs by up to 29% – leaving customers furious.
It’s estimated that the pub chain, known for it’s cheap drinks, employs up to 43,000 people across the UK.
According to it’s websites it boasts almost 900 pubs in towns and cities across England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, having opened it’s first establishment in 1979.
