J D Wetherspoon - History

History

The Company was founded in 1979 by Tim Martin, who opened the first Wetherspoon pub, 'Marler's Bar', at Colney Hatch Lane in London. Many of the other early Wetherspoon pubs were also in the same part of Haringey. The J D Wetherspoon name comes from one of Martin's teachers in New Zealand who could not control his class, and said that Martin would never make it as a businessman.

In the early 1990s, Wetherspoon 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-Wetherspoon pubs, and none of the earliest outlets in the chain are still part of the estate. As of 2008, the oldest surviving Wetherspoon is the Rochester Castle in Stoke Newington, opened in 1983.

Until the mid 1990s, when it began to expand across the country, most of the company's pubs were clustered around the Greater London area.

In 1998, Wetherspoon introduced over-sized glasses and promoted the "full pint". This initiative was soon withdrawn, supposedly because customers were still asking for top-ups, but arguably because other pub chains did not follow their lead.

Wetherspoon reported record sales in the year to 26 July 2009 with takings growing by 1.2% and pre-tax profit up by 13% to £66.2 million, reduced to £45 million after one-off costs. Although it was a record sales they did not reach record profits due to the increases in government tax and duty. Wetherspoon claimed to be "the only large pub firm which opens all its pubs early in the morning", serving breakfast and coffee as well as other meals and drinks.