Wetherspoon targets sales boost with breakfast, coffee push

LONDON, March 13 (Reuters) - British pub chain JD Wetherspoon said it would cut coffee and breakfast prices in a bid to triple sales over the next 18 months and help boost profits under pressure from much cheaper alcohol prices at supermarkets.

The company, which has grown to over 900 pubs on demand for its cheap food and drink deals, said on Friday profit before tax and exceptional items for the 26 weeks to Jan. 25 slipped 0.9 percent to 37.5 million pounds despite revenue up 9 percent.

As well as sales coming under pressure from supermarkets, the fall was due to higher utility costs and wages pushing down its operating margin from 8.2 percent a year ago to 7.4 percent.

The pub group sells around 50 million coffees and 24 million breakfasts a year and said on Friday it would look to triple those sales by introducing more competitive prices from next week.

The firm added that in the face of greater supermarket competition it would also unveil several alcohol drink offers.

Wetherspooon has been a fierce critic of the impact of the much cheaper price of drinks at supermarkets, which pay no VAT on food allowing them to subsidise alcohol prices, while pubs pay 20 percent VAT on food.

The company said that while marketing and labour costs may be higher than expected in the second half, it expected a "reasonable outcome" for the full-year.

Sales at pubs open over a year were up 1.6 percent in the six weeks to March 8, having risen 4.5 percent in the first half of the year. (Reporting by Neil Maidment, editing by William Hardy)