Yahoo Finance Wetherspoon boss calls for 'sensible' exit from lockdown 'mayhem'
The boss of JD Wetherspoon has called for "sensible" policies to escape the "mayhem" of lockdown after the pub chain slumped to a significant half-year loss.
Tim Martin said the future of the industry and the economy depended on ministers implementing a "consistent set of sensible policies", such as ending lockdowns and tier systems that have "created economic and social mayhem and colossal debts, with no apparent health benefits".
His comments came as the chain slumped to a pre-tax loss of £68m for the six months to Jan 24 after sales more than halved to £431m.
The hospitality industry has been hammered by rolling lockdowns for the last 12 months and suffered acutely from forced closures during its key Christmas period.
Wetherspoon previously said it would reopen 394 of its 872 pubs in England from April 12, when customers can congregate outdoors in its beer gardens and rooftop terraces. Indoor drinking will be allowed from May 17 under the Government's roadmap out of lockdown.
Mr Martin has been particularly critical of the Government's pandemic strategy and repeated his belief that the hospitality industry was not a major contributor to rising virus cases in the community.
"Wetherspoon and its employees, along with the hospitality industry, have worked very hard to comply with ever-changing government guidelines," he said.
"It is disappointing that so many regulations, implemented at tremendous cost to the nation, appear to have had no real basis in common sense or science – for example, curfews, 'substantial meals' with drinks and masks for bathroom visits."
To help the beleaguered industry through the latest lockdown, Chancellor Rishi Sunak announced a six-month extension to the temporary VAT reduction for food and non-alcoholic drinks sales in his budget.
Last July, when the reduction was first announced, Wetherspoon lowered its prices on a wide range of products, including food, soft drinks and real ale.
It said it would retain these lower prices "indefinitely" if the Chancellor decided to make the VAT reduction permanent.
The hospitality industry has lost an estimated 660,000 jobs since the pandemic hit and around 2,000 pubs have closed permanently.
The British Beer and Pub Association said this week that £8.2bn in trade value has been wiped out from the sector in beer sales alone since the crisis began.
Shares fell 1.4pc to £13.02.
