Wetherspoon boss Tim Martin blasts Brexit critics - but they'll have the last laugh

The Wetherspoon's boss has used his latest trading statement to take a pop at "doom monger" experts. But the post-Brexit economic shock will take time to make itself felt, and his business will not be immune

JD Wetherspoon sales are up. For now.

To read his latest comments, one does rather wonder if JD Wetherspoon’s chairman Tim Martin has been spending a little too much time in his company’s hostelries.

Note to m’learned friends - I jest. But when the boss of a major company uses a trading statement to indulge in the following rubbish, it does make you wonder if he’s living on the same planet as the rest of us.

“By voting to restore democracy in the UK, I believe the UK's economic prospects will improve, although it is quite possible that the unprecedented and irresponsible doom-mongering, outlined above, may lead to some kind of slowdown,” Mr Martin opined.

Just so you know, when he said “above” he was talking about the Brexit warnings issued by virtually every credible economist ranging from those at the International Monetary Fund to the Bank of England in addition to “the CBI, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, PWC and many FTSE 100 CEOs”.

That little lot came in for the sort of tongue lashing from Mr Martin more commonly meted out to customers who’ve had a few too many at closing time. And all they were doing was stating the bleedin’ obvious.

The tub thumping multi-millionaire suggested that in making their negative assessments they were “either dishonest, or they have a poor understanding of economics”.

Oh Mr Martin, I don’t think it’s them who have a poor understanding of economics.

Now let’s be fair here. Wetherspoon’s has been doing quite well. Its many Polish staff, who had to put Mr Martin’s pro Brexit beer mats on tables, are industrious and professional and do a good job of making the punters feel at home. Their hard work meant that the company was able to report a 4 per cent increase in like for like sales (in other words sales at outlets open at least a year) for the 11 weeks to July 10.

Because of this Mr Martin felt justified in suggesting that “in spite of the dire warnings above, Wetherspoon trade strengthened slightly in recent weeks and we consequently anticipate a modestly improved outcome for this financial year”.

I’m wondering why his statement didn’t include a little piccy of him patting himself on the back.

What he seems to have missed is that the economic impact of Brexit will take time to make itself felt, but he might like to look at the way the pound has performed against other currencies recently for an early pointer to the way things are going to go.

Economies don’t tip up because of people like the experts he cited expressing gloomy opinions. They are a function of real people making real decisions; the sort of decisions that major corporations will make when they consider whether or not to invest in a post Brexit Britain. They won’t, by the way, at least not until the current mess is sorted out and maybe not after that. Mr Martin should know that businesses hate uncertainty. He’s used previous statements to complain about it himself. It wasn’t so long ago that he moaned that paying George Osborne’s so called living wage had created “‘considerable uncertainty to future financial projections”.

If that’s what having to pay your staff barely enough to live on will do to your projections, consider the impact of pulling yourself out of the world’s biggest market.

One of the saving graces of Wetherspoon pubs is that the beer does tend to be competitively priced compared to rivals, which is always good at times of economic upheaval.

Trouble is the supermarkets are cheaper and if the experts that Mr Martin moans about are right a lot of people are going to be wandering down to their local Aldi for their favoured means of drowning their sorrows.