Tim Martin blames cheap supermarket beer for Wetherspoons’ continued losses

The founder of JD Wetherspoon said the company faced “a momentous challenge” to lure drinkers off cheap supermarket beer and back to its pubs after reporting another year of losses.

Tim Martin, who in May had predicted a return to break-even only to warn on profits in July, resorted to quoting Shakespeare as he described the challenges, declaring that “the multiplying villainies of nature do swarm upon” the hospitality industry.

He said that the aftermath of the pandemic had, surprisingly, been “just as difficult for many companies” as cost inflation took hold and the predicted post-lockdown boom had turned into a “painstakingly slow recovery in sales”.

Martin, 67, said a possible reason for the much slower-than-expected pace of recovery had been the difficulty in