Wetherspoons boss warns prices of pints will go up not down after Budget

Tim Martin shared that the pub chain's tax bill is set to jump by two-thirds next year after Labour's Budget hiked the National Insurance tax for businesses in the UK

Wetherspoon Boss Tim Martin has said prices could rise in pubs following last week's budget.

Martin shared that the pub chain's tax bill is set to jump by two-thirds next year after Labour's Budget hiked the National Insurance tax for businesses in the UK. Wetherspoon anticipates that tax and business costs will rise by around £60million over the next year. This includes its estimated 67% rise in National Insurance Contributions.

Tim Martin said: “Cost inflation, which had jumped to elevated levels in 2022, slowly abated in the following two years, but has now jumped substantially again following the budget. All hospitality businesses, we believe, plan to increase prices, as a result. Wetherspoon will, as always, make every attempt to stay as competitive as possible.”

Greg Johnson, analyst at City broker Shore Capital, predicts that the hike in business taxes could "add a further 5p to a pint". Wetherspoon has over 800 pubs across the UK and the chain plans to open more sites across the country.

In the Budget last week, Rachel Reeves announced that the rate of National Insurance paid by businesses will be rising from 13.8% to 15% from April 2025. The earnings threshold for when employers start paying National Insurance will also be lowered from £9,100 per year to £5,000.

This means as well as paying a higher rate of National Insurance, businesses will also start to pay it on a higher portion of employee salaries. It's estimated that the move will raise £25billion - the equivalent of around £800 per employee for each firm.

In its latest results for the year to July 2024, published last month, Wetherspoon's pre-tax profits rose by 73.5% to £73.9million. This was alongside a 5.7% revenue spike to £2.04billion, driven by a 7.6% climb in like-for-like sales. However, the improved rate of sales at its pubs was slightly offset by the decrease in its number of pub sites after the group sold 18 pubs and terminated the lease on a further nine.

At the time of publication, Martin said, “Sales continue to improve. In the last nine weeks, to September 29, 2024, like-for-like sales increased by 4.9%. The company anticipates a reasonable outcome for the current financial year, subject to our future sales performance.”