JDW axes jobs in cost-cutting move
Managed operator JD Wether-spoon has axed Egon Ronay's inspections team as part of cost cutting that will also see several jobs disappear at head office.
Ronay will continue to advise the company on food quality and menus. But his inspection service, which sees a team of four touring the estate and marking service and food, has been ended by the company. The company has decided Ronay's inspectors duplicate inspection work undertaken by another company, DBL.
Among head office posts going are the company's property director and heads of its training and buying departments. Ten area managers are also reported to be among the positions being lost.
The company expects to lose a total of around 300 management positions at its 650 venues. It employs 5.5 managers a site, which is expected to drop to 5 the relatively high figure is an overhang from when the company was opening 100 pubs a year.
Last week, the Morning Adver-tiser revealed that the company had quietly converted 10 sites to Lloyds No 1 venues at a cost of less than £100,000 per site.
A rival high-street operator told the MA this week: "We call them Wetherlloyd's. Some massive sites have been converted but often you'll get just three plasma screens in the entire pub. I think the conversions are a way of putting up prices.
"There are all sorts of distress signals coming out of Lloyds. We hear sales start well in year one but often crater in the second year. I also believe they are struggling with the higher operational costs such as door staff of running Lloyds."
