High-street pub operator JD Wetherspoon today revealed it will open six new pubs during July.
On Friday (3 July), The Sawyer’s Arms opens in Exeter. On 17 July, The Queen’s Hotel, incorporating a Wetherspoon lodge, opens in Newport, while The Cordwainer opens, on the same day, in Northampton.
A further three pubs open on 24 July: The Chevalier Inn, Exeter and The Thomas Leaper, Derby, plus The Lawrence Sheriff, Rugby.
Martin Geoghegan, Wetherspoon’s operations director, said: “We are delighted to be opening so many new pubs across the UK.”
The six sites – all of which were existing pubs - will create more than 200 jobs and cost approximately £600,000 each to refurbish.
Earlier this year, Wetherspoon chief executive John Hutson said around half of its 35 new openings this year would be “second-hand” pub sites.
Traditionally the pub company has looked to convert alternative use sites into pubs to avoid expensive premiums and refurbishment costs.
However, Hutson said the market had gone completely the other way, making it more affordable to take failed pubs of landlords’ hands and pay a small refurbishment fee.
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By Daniel Thomas
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