JD Wetherspoon PLC (LSE:JDW) should confirm it has comfortably outdone last year’s second-quarter performance through a trading update on Wednesday, 24 January.
According to Peel Hunt, like-for-like sales will be “comfortably ahead” of the bank’s anticipated growth of 7% as the pub chain’s post-Covid recovery continues.
A heavier impact from train strikes in late 2022 compared to last December should aid results for the period to January, analysts noted ahead of the results.
Increased prices, which have not been fully offset through a decline in volumes, should also boost revenue to bring it in ahead of consensus expectations, the bank added.
“[This is] especially as average sales growth is benefiting from smaller sites closing,” Peel Hunt said.
Spoons revealed a strong start to the financial year in November, reporting like-for-like sales growth of 9.5%, alongside total sales growth of 8.1%.
Cost inflation for the pub chain sat below the consumer price index (CPI) in November meanwhile, with Peel Hunt adding this should have remained manageable since.
Wetherspoon boss Tim Martin reassured at the time that inflationary pressures had eased, but noted historically higher energy costs were still hitting suppliers and consumers.
Wethespoons reported a net closure of three pubs over the first quarter, leaving it operating 816 sites - a practice Peel Hunt noted would likely continue into the new year as the chain brings down net debt.
A 9.8% increase in the national living wage from April, alongside a 6% jump in business rates also remain as uncertainties, with analysts adding the impending cost increases “encourage restraint in making possible forecast upgrades”.