Smoking ban preparations to dent Wetherspoon profits

By Marc Jones

LONDON (Reuters) - Accelerating work to spruce up its pubs ahead of the smoking ban will knock JD Wetherspoon's annual profits by around 5 percent, the firm's chief executive said in May.

"The preparations we've been making for non-smoking we've accelerated a bit more than originally planned and that's had a bit of a drag on profits," John Hutson told Reuters.

"We'll be slightly below where people have got us at the moment. I think they have got us in the 66 to 67 million pound range and we reckon we'll be about 5 percent below that."

"Typical Wetherspoon, can't resist the downbeat finish to a relatively upbeat statement," said Blue Oar Securities analyst Mark Brumby.

"If you really wanted to, you could call it a profit warning. The company remains a genuinely class act. It has previously bought its own shares back on any weakness," he added.

The pub firm, which has made its name selling drinks and food at lower prices than most of its rivals, said third-quarter like-for-like sales increased 3.4 percent with year-to-date like-for-like sales up 6.1 percent helped by better food sales.

BANS IN WALES AND SCOTLAND

It added that the recently introduced smoking ban in Wales had so far had a similar impact on its 34 Welsh pubs as the Scottish ban had on pubs there after it was implemented last year.