J D Wetherspoon is to invest £145 million to develop new pubs and upgrading existing pubs.
The pub chain operator has a pipeline of 75 projects. Of these, 18 are new pubs and 67 are “significant” extensions and upgrades to its existing footprint of 871 pubs.
The first tranche of new pubs and extensions will be located in towns and cities including Leeds, Birmingham, Newport Pagnell, Heswall, Sheffield, Felixstowe, Dublin, Haverfordwest, Carmarthen and Glasgow.
Once the 75 projects in the pipeline are completed, Wetherspoon said it anticipates investing £750 million to open 15 new pubs and enlarging 50 existing pubs each year for ten years.
The operator said that the ten-year pub project will result in 20,000 new jobs.
“Our immediate investment will provide work for architects, contractors and builders as well as result in 2,000 new jobs for staff in our pubs,” said Wetherspoon founder and Chairman Tim Martin.
“We are geared up to start on the first projects within a few months. We are also committed to our long-term investment and job creation programme overthe next decade.
“However, the investment is conditional on the UK opening back up again on a long-term basis, with no further lockdowns or the constant changing of rules.”