Time was when, regular as clockwork, JD Wetherspoon had to issue a profit warning every other summer. Why? Because the company’s insistence on keeping its pubs as television-free zones meant that every time the World Cup or European Championships came around drinkers would decamp to the nearest pub with a big screen to watch England matches (Dominic Walsh writes).
Tim Martin, the company’s founder and chairman, may be stubbornly immovable on issues such as Brexit, taxes and haircuts, but throwing good money after bad has never been part of his psyche and he has long since changed his tune and allowed TVs into his pubs.
With the British Beer & Pub Association predicting that fans will have quaffed an extra ten million pints during last