Proactive Investors - JD Wetherspoon PLC (LON:JDW) has reported a jump in half-year profits on the back of an improvement in margins.
Operating profit climbed 81% to £67.7 million over the 26 weeks to January, the pub chain reported on Friday, following an 8.2% increase in revenue to £991 million.
Like-for-like sales climbed 9.9% meanwhile, as margins widened from 4.1% to 6.8%.
This remained narrower than pre-pandemic margins though, which had sat at 7.1%, as two years of rising prices still appeared to be weighing on the industry.
“The company currently anticipates a reasonable outcome for the financial year, subject to our future sales performance,” chief executive Tim Martin said.
He also highlighted the chain’s concerns over potential future lockdowns, which prompted the likes of pubs to shut their doors in 2020, and the time taken for the government to review its response to the pandemic.
Debt increased over the half year, Wetherspoon continued, by 5% to £1.11 billion, while free cash flow plummeted to an outflow of 4.8p per share, against a 132.4p inflow last year, due to payments owed to the likes of suppliers and the tax office.