Investors

Our pubs continue to support this appeal, selling poppies and raising around £40,000 a year.

FareShare is the UK’s largest charity fighting hunger and food waste. It saves good food from going to waste, redistributing it to frontline charities. Since working with FareShare, Wetherspoon has donated over 300 meals a week, on average, to the charity.

Between August 2021 and July 2022 the company donated 24 tonnes of food, or 54,143 meals, to 1,118 charities. This is a total of 24 tonnes of food donations. 

Local charities

Collectively, our pubs have also donated to local and other charities and organisations, including the Royal National Lifeboat Institution.

In 2022, pubs raised £19,000 on behalf of the Disaster Emergency Committee to fund ongoing humanitarian support in Ukraine.  

Industry trade bodies and associations 

Wetherspoon is a member of the following trade bodies, associations and charities:

UK Hospitality – campaigning on behalf of its retailer members, encouraging the government to recognise and act on the economic, social and charitable values which pubs bring to communities up and down the land.

British Beer and Pub Association (BBPA) – members are responsible for 90% of the beer brewed in Britain today and represent around 20,000 of Britain’s pubs. They include international companies, family brewers, managed locals and the nation’s largest tenanted pub estates. The association’s aim is to support, represent and campaign for the well-being of the beer and pub sector.

Drinkaware – an independent charity working to reduce harm from alcohol misuse in the UK.

National Pubwatch – a voluntary organisation set up to promote best practice through supporting the work of local pubwatch schemes. Its aim is to achieve a safer drinking environment in all licensed premises throughout the UK.

The Sustainable Restaurant Association (SRA) – a not-for-profit organisation supporting companies in working towards sustainability, guiding customers to make more sustainable choices.

Supplier Ethical Data Exchange (Sedex) – the world’s largest collaborative platform for sharing responsible sourcing data on supply chains (including labour rights, health and safety, the environment and business ethics), used by over 50,000 members in more than 150 countries.

Community engagement 

Pubs as part of the local community 

Pubs are a focal point of the community. We try to contribute in several ways. 

Research (published in June 2018) by the data and research consultancy CGA has shown that a Wetherspoon pub more often has a positive effect on the local area and can stimulate general local interest in eating out. A full copy of the report is available here.

Pubs’ design and facilities 

Over the years, the company has won several awards for pub design and community facilities. Details of the most recent ones are available here. 

Local art and history 

Many of our pubs are restored from interesting and, in several cases, unique buildings which are steeped in history, including from the world of entertainment, banking and the railway. The interiors are individually designed and contain a wealth of local artwork, including paintings and sculptures, and local history information reflecting the history of the building and the surrounding area. 

The company works with, and is very grateful to, the many local history societies which support the company as part of the original pub design, and on an ongoing basis. 

Copies of many of the history panels, photographs and other information are available on the company website. Click here for ‘pub histories’. 
 
Public-access defibrillators 

These have been installed in 20 pubs¹² and at the Wethercentre (the head office in Watford) for use by the wider community. Most of these are sited on an external wall, although some are currently inside the building. Following feedback from our employees and customers, we have committed to continue to install these in pubs and hotels.  

Supporting customers with disabilities 

The company works with the charity Changing Places which supports those with physical disabilities (such as spinal injuries, muscular dystrophy and multiple sclerosis) who may need extra facilities or space to allow them to use a toilet safely and comfortably. Changing Places toilets are different from standard accessible toilets (or disabled toilets) and larger – to meet the needs of those using them. We have built Changing Places toilets in 11 pubs¹³ , providing these facilities for disabled customers and their carers.

We have teamed up with Good Food Talks to make it easier for our visually impaired customers to browse through the menu at their local Wetherspoon. Good Food Talks (goodfoodtalks.com) enhances facilities for the blind and visually impaired, when dining out, as well as for those with other reading difficulties, allowing browsing and listening to the menu through a fully accessible website and iOS mobile app.

Working in partnership with Mencap, we provide work placements in our pubs for those with learning difficulties.

We support the Not Every Disability is Visible campaign, highlighting the stigma and misunderstanding which can surround those with invisible disabilities, including Crohn’s disease or colitis.

Levelling-up

The Purpose Coalition¹⁴ was founded with the aim of demonstrating the contribution which private-sector businesses, such as Wetherspoon, can make to the government’s levelling-up agenda¹⁵ by providing social mobility and equality of opportunity across the UK, in areas with wide ranging affluence and deprivation. This support can come in many ways including:

• Social security and mobility through employment, skills, training, an extensive apprenticeship programme and a culture of supporting internal promotion and progression.  
• Bonus scheme for all employees and share ownership through the share incentive plan. 
• Employee engagement in decision-making and active participation in the business strategy. 
• Appointing two employee directors and two further associate employee directors, who attend board meetings and offer the experience of pub-based employees who are in close contact with customers.   
• Community investment through the restoration of local and historic buildings, providing community facilities, reinvigoration of high streets and promotion of local history. 
• A meeting place for the local community that offers patrons affordable food and drink in comfortable surroundings. 
• Support for other UK companies including microbreweries, food suppliers, crockery and carpets.   
• Taxes paid – contributing to the UK economy (see below).  

¹²Public-access defibrillators are available at: Sir Henry Segrave, Southport; The Bankers Draft, Sheffield; The Counting House, Congleton; The Furze Wren, Bexleyheath; The Gold Cape, Mold; The Gordon Highlander, Inverurie; The Guildhall & Linen Exchange, Dunfermline; The Horseshoe, Wombwell; The Moon under Water, Cheltenham; The Regal Moon, Rochdale; The Regal, Gloucester; The Rodboro Buildings, Guildford; The Salt Cot, Saltcoates; The Society Rooms, Stalybridge; The Three Hulats, Chapel Allerton; The Tim Bobbin, Urmston; The Unicorn Hotel, Ripon; The Union Rooms, Plymouth; The Watch Maker, Prescot; The William Webb Ellis, Twickenham

¹³Changing Places facilities are available at: Captain Ridley’s Shooting Party, Bletchley; Royal Victoria Pavilion, Ramsgate; Sandford House, Huntingdon; The Booking Office, Edinburgh; The Iron Duke, Wellington; The Lifeboat, Formby; The Mossy Well, Muswell Hill; The Pilgrim’s Progress, Bedford; The Prior John, Bridlington; The Troll Cart, Great Yarmouth; The Velvet Coaster, Blackpool

 ¹⁴ https://www.purpose-coalition.org/

 ¹⁵HM Government – Levelling Up the United Kingdom

How pubs contribute to the economy 
 
Wetherspoon and other pub and restaurant companies have always generated far more in taxes than is earned in profits. Wetherspoon, its customers and staff, generated total taxes in FY19, before the pandemic, of £763.6m. This equated to one pound in every thousand of UK Government revenue. 

In the financial year ended 31 July 2022, the company generated taxes of £662.7 million. 

The table below shows the £5.8 billion of tax revenue generated by the company, its staff and customers in the last 10 years. Each pub, on average, generated £6.5 million in tax during the period. The tax generated by the company represents approximately 20 times the company’s profits (after tax) (PAT). 

	2022	2021	2020	2019	2018	2017	2016	2015	2014	2013	TOTAL 2013 to 2022
	£m	£m	£m	£m	£m	£m	£m	£m	£m	£m	£m
VAT	287.7	93.8	244.3	357.9	332.8	323.4	311.7	294.4	275.1	253.0	2,774.1
Alcohol duty	156.6	70.6	124.2	174.4	175.9	167.2	164.4	161.4	157.0	144.4	1,496.1
PAYE and NIC	141.9	101.5	106.6	121.4	109.2	96.2	95.1	84.8	78.4	70.2	1,005.3
Business rates	50.3	1.5	39.5	57.3	55.6	53.0	50.2	48.7	44.9	46.4	447.4
Corporation tax	1.5	–	21.5	19.9	26.1	20.7	19.9	15.3	18.4	18.4	161.7
Corporation tax credit (historic capital allowances)	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	-2.0	–	–	-2.0
Fruit/slot machine duty	12.8	4.3	9.0	11.6	10.5	10.5	11	11.2	11.3	7.2	99.4
Climate change levies	9.7	7.9	10.0	9.6	9.2	9.7	8.7	6.4	6.3	4.3	81.8
Stamp duty	2.7	1.8	4.9	3.7	1.2	5.1	2.6	1.8	2.1	1.0	26.9
Sugar tax	2.9	1.3	2.0	2.9	0.8	–	–	–	–	–	9.9
Fuel duty	1.9	1.1	1.7	2.2	2.1	2.1	2.1	2.9	2.1	2.0	20.2
Carbon tax	–	–	–	1.9	3.0	3.4	3.6	3.7	2.7	2.6	20.9
Premise licence and TV licences	0.5	0.5	1.1	0.8	0.7	0.8	0.8	1.6	0.7	0.7	8.2
Landfill tax	–	–	–	–	1.7	2.5	2.2	2.2	1.5	1.3	11.4
Furlough tax rebate	-4.4	-213.0	-124.1	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	-341.5
Eat Out to Help Out	–	-23.2	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	-23.2
Local government grants	-1.4	-11.1	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	-12.5
TOTAL TAX	662.7	37.0	440.7	763.6	728.8	694.6	672.3	632.4	600.5	551.5	5,784.1
TAX PER PUB	0.78	0.04	0.53	0.87	0.83	0.77	0.71	0.67	0.66	0.63	6.49
TAX AS % OF NET SALES	38.1%	4.8%	34.9%	42.0%	43.0%	41.8%	42.1%	41.8%	42.6%	43.1%	37.4%
LOSS/PROFIT AFTER TAX	-20.8	-146.5	-38.5	79.6	83.6	76.9	56.9	57.5	58.9	65.2	288.3