Wetherspoons: Information from Answers.com

J D Wetherspoon plc

Type	Public (LSE: JDW)
Founded	1979
Headquarters	Watford, UK
Key people	Tim Martin (Chairman of the board), John Hutson (CEO)
Industry	Hospitality industry
Products	Public houses and hotels
Revenue	£907.5 million (year – July 2008)^[1]
Operating income	▲ £87.2 million (year – July 2008)^[1]
Profit	▲ £35.5 million (year – July 2008)^[1]
Employees	11,500 (2008)^[1]
Website	www.jdwetherspoon.co.uk

The College Arms, a Wetherspoons pub in Peterborough, England

The Three Hulats, Chapel Allerton, Leeds

J D Wetherspoon plc (LSE: JDW) (commonly referred to as Wetherspoons, Spoonies or Spoons) is a British pub chain based in Watford. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index. Wetherspoon's owns the largest pub in the UK, The Regal in Cambridge.

1 History
2 Operations
3 References
4 External links

History

The Company was founded in 1979 by Tim Martin who opened his first Wetherspoons pub, 'Marler's Bar', at Colney Hatch Lane in London.^[2] Many of the other early Wetherspoons pubs were also in the same part of Haringey. Martin took the name of the chain Wetherspoons from an old schoolteacher of his.^[3]

In the early 1990s, Wetherspoons began a policy of routinely selling off their smaller and/or less profitable outlets, often—but not always—replacing them with larger premises very close by.

There are now around 100 ex-Wetherspoons pubs, and none of the earliest outlets in the chain are still part of the estate. As of 2008, the oldest surviving Wetherspoons is the Rochester Castle in Stoke Newington, opened in 1983.^[4]

Operations

Pubs

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Wetherspoons pubs have a standard menu throughout the country and serve a variety of low priced cask ales, having over 650 Cask Marque accredited houses. There is often a local ale available. They generally do not play background music and some do not have televisions or screen live sports or news. Where there is a television, the sound is turned off and subtitles displayed instead.

Many of the features aimed for in Wetherspoons pubs, such as quiet bars and reasonably-priced lunches, are influenced by George Orwell's essay The Moon Under Water, in which Orwell described his concept of the perfect pub. Several Wetherspoons-owned pubs bear the name "The Moon Under Water".

Many of the pubs are in large converted buildings, such as cinemas, banks, churches, supermarkets, swimming baths or railway stations. Several of these conversions have saved the building from possible demolition.

The decor and fittings tend to be in a faux-Victorian public house style with the addition of photos of the local area and information boards concerning local history. They take pride in the standard of decor in the toilets, some of which have won national awards.

Since November 2006, some Wetherspoons pubs have offered free Wi-Fi internet access via The Cloud, where availabile. Many pubs have Itbox quiz machines.

Food

The Wetherspoons food menu contains a variety of options, ranging from traditional English, Welsh or Scottish pub food to American-style burgers and more contemporary dishes, like curry. The chain holds "theme" food nights during the week: "Grill" night (formerly Steak night) on Tuesday, curry club on Thursday and Sunday roast lunches. These theme nights offer a choice of themed meal and a drink at a cheaper price than usual, and in the case of the curry nights offer a significantly larger range of meals. A Chinese food night was operated on Wednesday evenings in some pubs, but has now been dropped.

Promotions

Sunday Club (Sunday lunchtime, afternoon and evening)
Monday Club - Discounted drinks and inclusive drink+meal offers
Steak Club (Tuesday night)
Curry Club (Thursday night)
Beer and Burger (available whenever food is served) – a choice of burgers, served with drink selected from a restricted list included for £4.69 (£4.99 in city centres^[5])
Afternoon Deal - Fish and chips with a cup of tea and bread and butter (afternoons between 2pm and 5pm)
New Deal - Promotion started in January 2009 offering beers from £1.29 and meals from £2.99
Coffee and a Muffin - £1.29 for a small coffee and muffin, or £1.79 for a large coffee and muffin.

Smoking

Main article: Smoking ban in the United Kingdom

As with all other enclosed areas and in line with United Kingdom legislation, all Wetherspoons pubs are completely non-smoking indoors. Many offer outside sheltered areas which aim to keep smokers customers warm and dry, and awnings, patio heaters, shelves, tables and even fireplaces have become permanent fixtures outside many venues where space permits.

Wetherspoons pioneered having non-smoking areas in pubs^[6] and started converting some of its pubs to completely non-smoking as early as May 2006.^[7]

Lloyds No. 1 Bar

The Company also own a chain of new-style bars, under their "Lloyds No. 1" brand.^[8] These bars play contemporary music (along with corresponding music videos that are displayed on wall-mounted televisions) and often have a small dance floor. Some sites change from traditional Wetherspoons Pubs to Lloyds Bars at a specific time each night, thus maximizing the potential customer base in a geographical area supported by just one pub. Such "hybrid" pubs are referred to by company staff as WetherLloyds.

Wetherspoon Lodges

Wetherspoons also own and run a chain of hotels (known as "Wetherspoon Lodges" or "WetherLodges") in the UK.^[9] There are (currently) 14 Lodges in total, with 10 in England, 2 in Wales, and 2 in Scotland. Lodge rooms are cheap compared with some of their nearest competitors, and their locations go somewhat against the grain of having hotels in obvious tourist areas (i.e. along the coast), with Lodges located in Bewdley, Chesterfield, Henley-on-Thames, Inverness, Salisbury, Shrewsbury, Monmouth and Minehead. Other Lodges are scheduled to open soon. Many of the Lodges regularly run special '2 nights for 1' and '3 nights for 2' offers, where customers can get an extra night's stay for nothing.

All Lodge rooms have all the normal facilities one would expect: en suite bathrooms, tea- and coffee-making facilities, remote-control TV, telephone, hairdryer, etc. Customers staying at the Lodge have easy access to the accompanying pub (as they share the same building), where they can order from the pub food menu.