Major update on Wetherspoons pub closure plans as another branch goes on the market – is your local at risk?
WETHERSPOONS has put another pub on the market and almost a dozen more are still at risk of closing.
Locals could lose as many as 11 Wetherspoons drinking spots, which remain up for sale or under offer.
Pubs in Cardiff, Cornwall and Bristol all remain on the market.
And now, The Bank House in Cheltenham has become the latest Wetherspoons branch to be put up for sale.
It has been listed through property consultants KBW, with a price tag of £2,800,000.
Wetherspoons does not own the building outright and currently pays £157,000 a year in rent to occupy the building.
The Sun has contacted Wetherspoons for comment.
It comes after Wetherspoons, which has 809 pubs across the UK, confirmed that 18 pubs were sold, or surrendered to the landlord between January and May this year.
As it stands, three pubs are up for sale through estate agent Savills, and seven are under offer.
If a pub is under offer, it means that a buyer has presented an offer that is being considered by the seller.
It doesn’t mean that the sale is guaranteed, and it could remain open if it doesn’t complete.
The four pubs that are up for sale are:
- The Ivor Davies, Cardiff
- Thomas Drummond, Fleetwood
- The Quay, Poole
- The Bank House, Cheltenham
The seven Wetherspoons branches that are currently under offer are as follows:
- Jolly Sailor, Bristol
- Alfred Herring, Palmers Green, London
- The Regent, Kirkby in Ashfield
- The Sir Daniel Arms, Swindon
- The Hain Line, St Ives
- Foot of the Walk, Leith
- London and Rye, London
The Cross Keys in Peebles, Scotland and The Bear’s Head in Penarth have been removed from sale after shutting their doors for good in recent weeks.
Wetherspoons pubs that have closed
As many as 52 Wetherspoon pubs have already closed their doors. Here's the full list:
- The John Masefield, New Ferry
- Angel, Islington
- The Silkstone Inn, Barnsley
- The Billiard Hall, West Bromwich
- Admiral Sir Lucius Curtis, Southampton
- The Colombia Press, Watford
- The Malthouse, Willenhall
- The John Masefield, New Ferry
- Thomas Leaper, Derby
- Cliftonville, Hove
- Tollgate, Harringay
- Last Post, Loughton
- Harvest Moon, Orpington
- Alexander Bain, Wick
- Chapel an Gansblydhen, Bodmin
- Moon on the Square, Basildon
- Coal Orchard, Taunton
- Running Horse, Airside Doncaster Airport
- Wild Rose, Bootle
- Edmund Halley, Lee Green
- The Willow Grove, Southport
- Postal Order, Worcester
- North and South Wales Bank, Wrexham
- The Sir John Stirling Maxwell, Glasgow
- The Knight’s Templar, London
- Christopher Creeke, Bournemouth
- The Water House, Durham
- The Widow Frost, Mansfield
- The Worlds Inn, Romford
- Hudson Bay, Forest Gate
- The Saltoun Inn, Fraserburgh
- The Bankers Draft, Eltham, London
- The Sir John Arderne, Newark
- The Capitol, Forest Hill
- Moon and Bell, Loughborough
- Nightjar, Ferndown
- General Sir Redvers Buller, Crediton
- The Rising Sun, Redditch
- The Butlers Bell, Stafford
- Millers Well, East Ham
- Foxley Hatch, Purley
- The Coronet, London
- The Percy Shaw, Halifax
- Resolution, Middlesborough
- Asparagus, Battersea
- The Sir Norman Rae, Shipley
- The Market Cross, Holywell
- The White Hart, Todmorden
- Resolution, Middlesbrough
- The Cross Keys, Peebles
- The Bear’s Head, Penarth
- The Lord Arthur Lee, Hampshire
The Wrong ‘Un in Bexleyheath has been taken off the estate agent’s listing and The Sun has asked Wetherspoons if this means the site has closed or if it has been removed from sale.
But it’s not all bad news for drinkers, as the chain also opened two pubs this year.
The Lion and Unicorn opened at London’s Waterloo station in early April.
Plus, Wetherspoon opened its first pub at a holiday park at Haven’s Primrose Valley in Filey, North Yorkshire in March.
In an exclusive interview with The Sun, Wetherspoons boss Sir Tim Martin he is planning to ramp up plans to launch “Super Spoons” pubs – making existing sites even bigger.
It has recently made a big bet on giant pubs, such as its one in Ramsgate which can cater up to 1,400 punters.
And work on its “Super Spoons” in Newcastle is now underway which will include a 26-bedroom hotel and 3,000 sq ft beer garden.
What is happening to the hospitality industry?
Many Food and drink chains have been struggling in recent months as the cost of living has led to fewer people spending on eating out.
Businesses had been struggling to bounce back after the pandemic, only to be hit with soaring energy bills and inflation.
Multiple chains have been affected, resulting in big-name brands like Wetherspoons and Frankie & Benny’s closing branches.
Some chains have not survived, Byron Burger fell into administration last year, with owners saying it would result in the loss of over 200 jobs.
Pizza giant, Papa Johns is shutting down 43 of its stores soon.
Tasty, the owner of Wildwood, said it will shut sites as part of major restructuring plans.
The brand plans to close 20 loss-making restaurants after a “challenging” start to the year.
Why are retailers closing shops?
EMPTY shops have become an eyesore on many British high streets and are often symbolic of a town centre’s decline.
The Sun’s business editor Ashley Armstrong explains why so many retailers are shutting their doors.
In many cases, retailers are shutting stores because they are no longer the money-makers they once were because of the rise of online shopping.
Falling store sales and rising staff costs have made it even more expensive for shops to stay open. In some cases, retailers are shutting a store and reopening a new shop at the other end of a high street to reflect how a town has changed.
The problem is that when a big shop closes, footfall falls across the local high street, which puts more shops at risk of closing.
Retail parks are increasingly popular with shoppers, who want to be able to get easy, free parking at a time when local councils have hiked parking charges in towns.
Many retailers including Next and Marks & Spencer have been shutting stores on the high street and taking bigger stores in better-performing retail parks instead.
Boss Stuart Machin recently said that when it relocated a tired store in Chesterfield to a new big store in a retail park half a mile away, its sales in the area rose by 103 per cent.
In some cases, stores have been shut when a retailer goes bust, as in the case of Wilko, Debenhams Topshop, Dorothy Perkins and Paperchase to name a few.
What’s increasingly common is when a chain goes bust a rival retailer or private equity firm snaps up the intellectual property rights so they can own the brand and sell it online.
They may go on to open a handful of stores if there is customer demand, but there are rarely ever as many stores or in the same places.
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