Britain's JD Wetherspoon to open 200 pubs in next five years
LONDON, Dec 29 (Reuters) - Britain's JD Wetherspoon will open 200 new pubs over the next five years, creating 15,000 jobs in a 400 million pound ($620 million) expansion across Britain and Ireland (Other OTC: IRLD - news) , the company said on Monday.
Wetherspoon, which was founded in 1979 by Tim Martin, already operates 931 pubs, providing low-priced drinks and food, including breakfasts and promotions such as steak and curry clubs.
The new jobs will be spread across the 200 new sites, together with extra staff recruited for the company's existing pubs, and head office, it said.
Martin, chairman of the company, said that many of the new pubs would be in areas where Wetherspoon is not yet represented. ($1 = 0.6445 pounds) (Reporting by Paul Sandle; Editing by David Goodman)