The founder of Wetherspoons, Tim Martin, has criticised restrictions designed to curb the spread of the Omicron variant of Covid-19 as “arbitrary”, warning that the pub chain’s first half profits could be wiped out by what he called “lockdown by stealth”.
In an update to the stock market, JD Wetherspoon told investors that “uncertainty, and the introduction of radical changes of direction by the government, make predictions for sales and profits hazardous”.
The company, which consistently reported soaring sales before the pandemic, suffered a £105.4m loss in the year to July 2020 followed by a record £195m deficit the year after, as coronavirus restrictions took their toll.
It had been hoping to rebound from the impact of the pandemic this
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