JD Wetherspoon Ends No Smoking Trial

JD Wetherspoon has called time on a bold experiment to extend its smoking ban beyond 49 of its pubs after the company faced plunging alcohol and slot machine revenues and a backlash from increasingly disgruntled regular customers.

Profits from 37 pubs that were converted to non-smoking dropped by 20% for the three months to January 22 (new pubs are automatically designated non-smoking). Revenues dropped 7.6% with alcohol sales believed to have declined by 17% and fruit machine earnings down by about a quarter. Lower margin food sales grew by about 10% and now represent about 39% of the sales mix at the non-smoking pubs.

John Hutson, chief executive, confirmed the experiment was to be ended, with no more smoking bans to be introduced until the industry is compelled to do so by legislation. A smoking ban in Scotland later this month will mean 36 Wetherspoon pubs north of the border will join the existing 49 sites operating a non-smoking policy. With a small number of new openings, also non-smoking, the group will have 100 cigarette-free pubs by the summer.

However, Mr Hutson confirmed plans to ban smoking in all 630 Wetherspoon pubs by May had been scrapped. "We have decided to await the complete ban imposed by the government in 2007." He said there had been signs of a backlash against Wetherspoon's smoking ban experiment from some customers who he said were asking: "Why are you doing this? It is going to happen anyway. Why are you doing it now?"

Mr Hutson insisted the group had learned a lot from the experiment. "On the big question of does a non-smoking Wetherspoon pub work, the answer is yes."

He disputed suggestions from some analysts that Wetherspoon was more reliant on smoking customers than some rival pub chains. "We believe the incidence of smoking in our pubs cannot be far off the national average."About a quarter of the adult population in the UK are smokers.

Jim Clarke, the finance director, cautioned against reading market trends into the disappointing performance shown by Wetherspoon's 37 smoking bans. "There is no doubt we have lost smokers to pubs next door. That can't happen, of course, under a universal ban."