JDW loses £600,000 on Dublin site
The aborted plan to open a JD Wetherspoon outlet in Dublin has resulted in a loss of £600,000 for the company. JDW bought the freehold of a furniture warehouse in Dublin's Capel Street for £1.8m and was planning to spend £1.5m converting it into a two-storey site that was due to open next month. Instead, however, the company pulled the plug after deciding it wanted to focus on its pubs in Northern Ireland. Contracts have been ex-changed that will see the site change hands for £100,000 less than the £500,000 book loss already budgeted. A further £3.5m will be lost against the book value on 10 other pubs £350,000 a site Wetherspoon intends to sell. Meanwhile, JD Wetherspoon opened all 638 of its pubs two hours earlier than normal on Sunday for the first time. The pubs opened for breakfast at 10am across the country. Jim Clarke, finance director, said: "I think it's going to take a while before people are aware of what we're doing it's early stages." Like-for-like sales were up by 4.2% in the 13 weeks to 26 October, with three pubs opened during the quarter.
