Wetherspoons: 'We want to sell more breakfasts than McDonalds'

John Hutson, JD Wetherspoon chief executive, said today he wants the managed pub group to ultimately sell more breakfasts than McDonalds.

While his comments were tongue-in-cheek - he acknowledged the group was a long way behind the American fast food chain, which had twice as many outlets in the UK and opened at 6am - Hutson clearly believes there is a long term gain to be had in opening the majority of Wetherspoon pubs at 7am, as will be the case next month.

"We believe that breakfasts can contribute to the overall performance of our business," Hutson said. "We already sell more than 275,000 breakfasts and 500,000 cups of tea and coffee a week in our pubs, which currently open at 9am."

Hutson said that opening at that time his pubs would appeal to "office workers, shift workers and mothers taking their children to school".

"People don't generally associate pubs as a place for breakfast. Pubs opening at 7am will face the same sort of issues as we did when we began opening at 9am four and half years ago. It takes time for people to get used to it. But we think there is a lot of potential," he added.

Hutson said the additional hours that would need to be worked by staff - around 14 hours a week - would prove to be cost neutral, although he anticipated the new opening times would lead to the creation of "at least a few hundred jobs".

Announcing Wetherspoons' half year results, Hutson said food sales had dipped 2.1 per cent, although this was due to comparisons with the same period last year when the group rolled out a heavy promotions campaign. Bar sales were up 0.1 per cent.

Two thirds of Wetherspoons' turnover was food-related, he said.

Wine and beer festivals had proved enormously successful, Hutson added, with three million pints of cask ale and the same number of glasses of wine sold through both events.