Shares in JD Wetherspoon PLC (LON:JDW) edged higher on Tuesday afternoon after the British pub chain lifted its full-year expectations for the second time in as many months.
In a short stock exchange announcement, Wetherspoon said that the recent sales performance had been slightly better-than-expected.
“Although there are still 7 weeks left of the current 53-week financial year, we anticipate a slightly better trading outcome than was foreseen at the last update,” the company said.
The press release had echoes of a previous statement from the FTSE 250-listed group at the start of May, in which it said that trading so far in 2017 had been better than originally forecast.
Given the well-documented rising costs Spoons has faced of late (business rates, utility taxes, excise duty and labour costs), the pub, restaurant and hotel chain reckons it needs like-for-like sales growth of 3% to 4% next year to maintain profits at this year’s levels.
Wetherspoon said it would further update the market in a pre-close trading statement on 12 July.
Shares added 2.7% in the afternoon to trade at 991.5p.