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@milnrowmug. Yes a staffing issue in part but JDW management must be aware of this practise being widespread. I wouldn't know how to raise this to director level but it needs to be done if this is, or has the potential to become more than a minor loss on the bottom line.
My old gran used to say, "take care of the pennies and the pounds will take care of themselves". Take note JDW.
Weather is warming up a little outside seating picking up here in our 3 local Spoons,
Sterr & accip, this abuse could be cured if staff cleared tables sooner. You often go in to find used glasses, half-eaten plates of food (why do they order so much, smaller dishes available?) and, yes, beverage mugs that could be re-used fraudulently. Some of this is idle staff, more is bad management; but for profit reasons the staffing can be very thin, as the margins are thin. It's a fine line, what makes more profit, stopping beverage fiddles or a lean wage bill?
However, customers who might leave a chunk of cash behind would be attracted by clear clean tables and rapid bar service. A recent experience was of 3 bodies behind the bar only 1 of which served live customers, the others doing online orders stocktaking and clerical functions. Trade was light but it only took a complex food order to cause a big delay. Only customers with possession of their order are actually making us profit, until then they just use space for no return.
Sterr, a token system would require staff time. I think the reason for refills at all is that serve-yourself is cheaper than employing to serve.
That's disgusting! It's a form of shoplifting. You could maybe overlook a case of a kid on a zero hours contract picking up an empty cup from a table and bumming a coffee, as long as it's only one and he's not sitting there all day, but this disabled man will have his Disability Living Allowance (DLA), his Personal Independence Payment (PIP), his Attendance Allowance (AA), probably his rent and rates paying, one cost of living payment after another, in other words can afford his first cup of JDW coffee, before he hits the free ones following. The manager should have got the laws in and had the man and the carer's bags turned out, and they might have found bottles of sauce, vinegar, handfuls of sugar, teabags, all the stuff that JDW's have lying about. It's not cheap brand stuff, either. Only the best.
Don't get me on about not being able to get a table for ameal at dinnertime in a fairly small JDW, because of all the tables being hogged by tea and coffee bandits.
I saw the manager in an east London Spoons bar a customer for repeatedly nicking the coffee - it was quite the sight as the offender was in a wheelchair and with a carer. Everyone seemed impressed with how the manager handled the situation - tricky one that!
I get about a bit, and think the problem is pretty widespread, so I wouldn't like to stigmatise an entire county or region. Some Wetherspoons are so big and have so many odd corners they are impossible to supervise. And as for the type of customer, one could always mention the expensive cars and SUV's parked around the street corners from PDSA clinics and food banks.
What do you pay for a cup of coffee now in a cafe or coffee shop? In the local JDW now closed, it was £1.04 and as many mugs as you wanted till it was comng out of your ears. My answer is token tea and coffee machines, one token, or two if you've bought a meal.
That would seem to be a local management issue. I am sure Mr Martin and shareholders would not like to see this practice becoming common. Out of interest, in what part of the UK is this taking place?
One of my local Wetherspoons has just closed, and it always seemed full over the day. However, a lot of customers weren't eating meals or drinking beer, they were drinking tea and coffee. And really Wetherspoons should install token-operated tea and coffee machines, and just give one or maybe two tokens for the cash. I have had it on the good authority of a coffee burglar that people take the mug home in their pocket and come back repeatedly for free drinks. Others hand the mug to somebody else before they go. I've seen this myself. Others sit in groups, and then it's "your turn for the mug now". It is Wetherspoons that is the mug in these cases. The staff could try putting the mugs out at the beginning of the day, and see how many have come back at the end of the day. It's all right to say "it's only a pound or £1.50 a mug", multiply that by a thousand, and anyway it's the principle. Other pubs don't act as a shelter for bums in cold weather.
Own slightly more of jdw than they did a couple of days ago. That must account for the soaring quarter-percent rise. If you know better do say.
Accip, an example of a recent disposal is the White Hart in Todmorden. This surprised me as the nearest towns, Bacup Littleborough and expensive Hebden Bridge have no spoons. It always seemed busy to me, lots of food, and well-run; although few of my visits were midweek.
Oh well I never saw the books, it's gone now: I believe most staff were redeployed to Rochdale or Sowerby Bridge. Perhaps the Victorian structure had issues, some floors seemed uneven, especially after a few.
Wetherspoons operates on the old market trading principle of “pile ‘em high sell ‘em cheap” - next year Rodney……..
Yes, the margins are keen but every Spoons is a cash cow with any that don’t perform sold off in favour of new sites expected to do better.
Eating out is something that people do in increasing numbers where “can’t cook, won’t cook” is very common with GenZ and even older folk.
Same in the south matey...I use the one in deal alot it's on the coast ....rammed all day
Was in my local JDW in north Leeds on Wed between 5.00 and 7.00 and it was rammed. Lots of families all eating. We ordered 2 meals with 2 large wines and it cost less than £20! (and served in less than 10 mins)
JDW could slap 20% on all costs and still not loss footfall.
Well the latest rns hasn't put the big boys off...what u expect covid smashed the company....but as pubs go to the wall spoons marches on ....
Hi I made a point about the latest accounts on 22/3 identifying that the latest numbers included a loss on interest rate swaps (and some other financial wizardry), which negatively affected the numbers and IMV caused the SP fall. I have finally got around to a comparative analysis of these figs over the last few years and they make worrying reading.
NOTE all figs below are extracted from Annual reports and are summary only , things are NEVER quite as clear as they seem.
In Year 2020 JDW made a loss of £ 122m, of this £33m Loss was due to IR swaps.
In year 2021 JDW lost £133m despite a profit of £55m on swaps.
In 2022 JDW made a profit of £50m which included swap profits of £44m.
In2023 JDW's profit was £79m of which swaps contributed £23m
To repeat these sums are shown in the various AR's BUT depending on categorisation differ in various notes to the accounts. My point is simply this , JDW is a high sales, high costs business with wafer-thin margins, I have
known the variation in accounts is highly sensitive to the way in which JDW's finances are managed, but didn't fully realise the impact of it. Having sold lately I am wary of re-entering .......will be back sometime in the future if my
vie changes.
GLA
Two days of sun here in coastal Lancashire. Jolly Tars in Cleveleys rammed, Poulton le Fylde Elk outside area half full. And I daresay the Blackpool Albert and Lion spoons will be crammed with seaside day trippers.
Sure, there are different models. The sp drop might just be what this one causes. Profit has been made from sp moves.
Sod all Dividends, Tim's using any profits to pay & brag about staff bonuses, ignoring share holders, not a good idea. Who's going to invest to get nothing back but a drop in SP?
Well, he has managed 963 last 30d v. a paltry 125. What, I wonder, would Freud make of this?
5 Mill is 5 mill
'Spoons sell ~50 million pints per annum so +10p is only £5 mill to the top line....
103000 posts you need to get out more matey
Even 10 or 20 p on a pint would help that profit and still be cheaper than the opposition
"Revenue is vanity, profit is sanity but cash is king...."
Revenue £993m
operating costs £923m
Operating profit £67m
Post tax profit £25m
It pays to understand the accounts of any stock you hold, JDW is a well-run business in a competitive market and their margins margins are paper-thin.....
Spot on matey 👌