JD Wetherspoon PLC (LSE:JDW) cheered investors with a return to profit as the sales rebound after the pandemic continued to gather strength.
The pub chain said in the 52 weeks to ended July, revenue rose 10.6% to £1,925.0 million from £1,740.5 million the year before.
Like-for-like sales increased by 12.7% year-on-year.
Like-for-like bar sales increased by 9.0%, food sales by 17.7%, slot/fruit machine sales by 26.4% and hotel rooms by 11.8%.
The increase in sales helped the firm post a pre-tax profit of £42.6 million compared to a pre-tax loss of £30.4 million.
Chair Tim Martin said: “Wetherspoon continues to perform well. In the first nine weeks of the current financial year, to 1 October 2023, like-for-like sales increased by 9.9%, compared with the nine weeks to 2 October 2022.”
He added that perhaps the “biggest threat to the hospitality industry is the possibility of further lockdowns and restrictions”.
JD Wetherspoon opened three pubs during the year and sold, closed or terminated the leases of 31 pubs, leaving 826 pubs at the financial year end.
It said the net book value of the property, plant and equipment of the company was £1.38 billion.
No dividend was paid, unchanged from the year before.