Wetherspoon chairman Sir Tim Martin has borrowed a line from the Bee Gees to ask the British public just how much it values its pubs, warning that rising employment costs and an unfair tax system are threatening their place in the nation's social fabric.
The outspoken pub boss posed the question “How deep is your love?” in a trading update this morning, as his company reported another strong period of sales growth despite mounting pressures on the hospitality industry.
Like-for-like sales at J D Wetherspoon increased by 8.2% in the 14 weeks to November 1, with bar sales climbing 9.4% and food sales rising 6.8%
However, Sir Tim used the announcement to launch another attack on government policies which he argues are making it increasingly difficult for pubs to compete with supermarkets.
He highlighted figures showing that the labour cost of serving an average £5.34 pint in a pub is approximately £1.68, compared with just 15p for an equivalent supermarket purchase.
That means a 10% increase in labour costs adds approximately 17p to the cost of a pub pint, compared with just 1.5p in a supermarket.
Sir Tim argued that successive governments' efforts to improve living standards by increasing labour costs have inadvertently widened the price gap between pubs and supermarkets, contributing to the decline of the traditional pub.
The company said pubs have lost half their beer sales to supermarkets since the millennium, with the trend also resulting in fewer hospitality jobs.
The announcement stated: "Both Conservative and Labour governments in recent years have attempted to make people better off by increasing labour costs. The net effect has been to push up the cost of a pint or a meal in a pub relative to supermarkets- and to reduce the number of jobs in the economy."
It continued: "Whether this economic effect is desirable is, above all, a question for the public. To what extent does the public want pubs to retain their position in the UK’s social fabric? “How deep is your love?”, to borrow a line from the Bee Gees."
Nevertheless, Wetherspoon remains confident of meeting market expectations, with analysts forecasting profits of £76.4million for the current 53-week financial year.