Half-year Results

1Separately disclosed items as disclosed in account note 2.

Commenting on the results, Tim Martin, the Chairman of J D Wetherspoon plc, said:

"In the last seven weeks, to 16 March 2025, like-for-like sales increased by 5.0%.

"Increases in national insurance and labour rates will result in company cost increases of approximately £60 million per annum, which amount to approximately £1,500 per pub, per week.

"Since labour costs are around 35% of the pub industry's sales, compared to around 11% for supermarkets, increases of this nature inevitably have a disproportionate impact on pubs, exacerbating the already-wide price differential for customers between the on and off-trade.

"The combination of much higher VAT rates for pubs than supermarkets, combined with increased labour costs will weigh heavily on the pub industry.

"The company currently anticipates a reasonable outcome for the financial year, subject to our future sales performance."

• Visit our website jdwetherspoon.com
• The current financial year comprises 52 trading weeks to 27 July 2025.
• The next trading update will be issued on 7 May 2025.

CHAIRMAN'S STATEMENT

Trading Summary

Total sales in the half year FY25 were £1,030 million, an increase of 3.9% compared to FY24. The company opened two pubs in the period (the Grand Assembly in Marlow and The Lion and The Unicorn in Waterloo Station, London) and sold six, with 796 pubs open at the period end.

LFL sales increased by 4.8% - bar sales increased by 4.3%, food by 5.4% and slot/fruit machines by 12.4%.

Operating profit, before separately disclosed items, was £64.8 million (2024: £67.7 million). The operating margin, before separately disclosed items, was 6.30% (2024: 6.83%), mainly due to labour and utility costs which, in total, were £30.6 million higher.

Profit, before tax and separately disclosed items, was £32.9 million (2024: £36.0 million).

The pub disposals, referred to above, gave rise to a cash inflow of £3.9 million. There was an exceptional loss on disposal of £2.2 million, recognised in the income statement, relating to these pubs.

Franchises

Wetherspoon opened its first franchised pub in Hull University's student union in January 2022. The second opened at Newcastle University in September 2023, and the third at Haven Primrose Valley Holiday Park, Filey, North Yorkshire in March 2024. The company expects to open a further five franchise pubs in the second half of the current financial year - four of these will be at Haven Holiday Parks.

Earnings

Earnings per share, before separately disclosed items, assisted by share repurchases (please see "Dividends and return of capital", below), were 21.5p (2024: 20.3p).

Capital Investment

Total capital investment was £64.6 million (2024: £57.2 million). £10.4 million was invested in new pubs and pub extensions (2024: £10.5 million), £40.6 million in existing pubs and IT (2024: £34.6 million) and £13.6 million in freehold reversions of properties where Wetherspoon was the tenant (2024: £12.1 million).

Separately disclosed items

Overall, there was a pre-tax 'separately disclosed profit' of £8.5 million (2024: loss of £9.9 million), mainly as a result of a positive movement in the value of interest rate swaps of £11.1 million, partially offset by a loss on disposal of £2.2 million. Details are listed in note 2 of the accounts.

The tax effect on separately disclosed items is a debit of £1.1 million (2024: credit of £3.7 million).

The net book value of the company's assets in the balance sheet at the half year end were £1.40 billion, which is approximately seven times the company's EBITDA (pre IFRS-16), in the last 12 months to January 2025, of £191 million.

Free cash flow

It is anticipated that free cash flow ("FCF"), which has often been higher than profit before tax will, in future, approximately correspond to profit after tax.

The main reasons for the reduction in the ratio of FCF to profit before tax are:

• corporation tax has increased from 19 to 25 per cent between 2019 and today, which will reduce FCF.
• capital reinvestment in existing pubs, which is deducted in calculating FCF, averaged 3.1% of sales in the five years up to 2019. It is estimated that reinvestment will increase to 3.7% of sales, as a result of an increase in expenditure in areas such as IT, staff rooms, updated kitchen equipment and heating and cooling systems.
• depreciation (which is deducted from profit before tax, but added back to FCF) has decreased as a percentage of sales since some older leasehold pubs, which are still in use, and some older assets, have been fully depreciated. In addition, there are likely to be fewer new pubs, which have higher levels of depreciation and higher levels of capital allowances. Depreciation in the five years to 2019 averaged 4.4% of sales and it is estimated that it will average 3.5% in the future.

In the period under review, there was a free cash outflow of £0.5 million mainly as a result of negative working capital of £7.6 million, higher reinvestment of £41 million, higher-than-usual share purchases for employees ("SIPs") and a corporation tax payment in the period of £10.9 million, which was higher than the tax charge in the income statement

Balance sheet

Debt, excluding IFRS-16 lease debt, was £703.5 million at the period end (28 July 2024: £664.8 million).

On an IFRS-16 basis, which includes notional debt from leases, debt increased from £1.07 billion to £1.10 billion at the FY25 Interim review.

Dividends and return of capital

The board declared an interim dividend of 4.0p per share for the current interim financial period ending 26 January 2025 (2024: nil). The interim dividend will be paid on 30th May 2025 to those shareholders on the register at 1st May 2025.

During the period, 1,840,000 shares (1.5% of the share capital) were purchased by the company for cancellation, at a cost of £11.5 million, including stamp duty and fees, representing an average cost per share of 621p.

Financing

The company has total available finance facilities of £938 million.

On 6 June 2024, the company signed a new four-year £840 million banking agreement on attractive terms.

In the last six months, the company has agreed two additional interest rate swaps, at rates of between 4.00% and 4.14%, excluding the banks' margin. The details are shown below:

The total cost of the company's debt, in the period under review, including the banks' margin was 6.59%.

Taxation

The total tax charge for the period was £8.0 million (although as indicated in the section entitled "Free Cash Flow", above, the tax payment in the period was £10.9 million) in respect of profits before separately disclosed items (2024: £6.6 million).

The total tax charge comprises two parts. The first part is the actual current tax (the 'cash' tax) which this year is £5.4 million (2024: £0.1 million). The second part is deferred tax (the 'accounting' tax), which is tax payable in future periods, that must be recognised in the current period for accounting purposes. The accounting tax charge for the period is £2.6 million (2024: £11.1 million).

We're from the government and we're here to help you

At the risk of boring shareholders, we are repeating, in this section, some comments made at the year-end regarding proposed changes to the licensing laws and a tax system which inexplicably benefits supermarkets, since many government ministers, over the decades, appear to have a hobby of introducing daft regulations and taxes which are to the detriment of the pub industry.

Pubs are highly regulated businesses, controlled by licensing laws, which originate in parliament.

In recent weeks, according to press reports, two potential changes to licensing regulations have been aired by government ministers and academic researchers, both aimed at lowering alcohol consumption.

The first is that pub and hospitality licensing hours might be reduced. Since 1988, pubs have been able to open all day, having previously been required to close for around two or three hours each afternoon.

In addition, in 2005, the then government further liberalised licensing laws, which resulted in many pubs opening an hour or two more in the evening - in Wetherspoon's case, usually until midnight on weekdays and until 1am on Fridays and Saturdays.

Counterintuitively, since these liberalisations, the share of alcohol consumption of the "on-trade" - pubs, clubs, restaurants etc - has plummeted.

In the early 1980s, the on-trade accounted for about 90% of beer sales, for example.

This dropped to about 50% before the pandemic and is now about 40%, probably due to the increase in price disparity with supermarkets, which stems from the tax disadvantage referred to in the section entitled "VAT equality" below.

The effect of reducing pub opening times would certainly further reduce on-trade consumption, but that reduction is likely to be replaced by "off-trade" consumption at home and in other "unregulated" environments.

Among the advantages of the on-trade, linked to regulation, are that consumption is supervised by trained licensees, police and local authorities, in many cases including CCTV coverage of premises, and so on.

This does not mean that pubs are invariably oases of tranquillity but, in general, pub behaviour is good and pubs are valued by communities.

The second, slightly daft, proposal is reported as emanating from Cambridge University - that pubs should sell beer in quantities of two-thirds of a pint (sometimes called schooners), rather than the traditional pint.

Common sense indicates that reducing glass sizes is unlikely, due to human nature, to reduce alcohol consumption in pubs, and would also have no effect whatsoever on drinks bought in supermarkets, unless container sizes in supermarkets were also, unrealistically, reduced.

For example, our Aussie cousins, notorious guzzlers, already use schooners without any noticeable reduction in consumption.

Both these proposals seem likely, if implemented, to encourage off-trade consumption at the expense of the on-trade, thereby exchanging the relatively highly priced and supervised pub environment for the inexpensive and unsupervised alternative of home, park and party consumption.

The word 'pub' may have a misleading connotation for some ministers and researchers. For example, Wetherspoon's highest selling draught product by far, is Pepsi. Coffee and tea volumes, which are not in the draught category, are approximately double those of Pepsi. The reality is that products sold in pubs have radically changed in recent decades.

In summary, neither of these proposals would seem to pass the common-sense test.

Scottish Business Rates

In appendix 1 below, we explain how business rates for Scottish pubs, theoretically based on property values, have, by a strange process of legal reasoning, become a de facto sales tax, based on the sales performance of the occupier.

VAT equality

Wetherspoon, along with many in the hospitality industry, has been a strong advocate of tax equality between the off-trade, which consists mainly of supermarkets, and the on-trade, consisting mainly of pubs, clubs and restaurants.

It does not make economic sense for the tax system to favour mainly out-of-town supermarkets over mainly high-street pubs.

This imbalance is a major factor in town centre and high street dereliction.

Our more detailed arguments on this point, from our FY23 annual report, can be found in appendix 2 below.

How pubs contribute to the economy

Wetherspoon and other pub and restaurant companies have always generated far more in taxes than are earned in profit.

In the period ended 26 January 2025, the company generated taxes of £410.4 million.

The table below shows the £6.6 billion of tax revenue generated by the company, its staff and customers in the last ten and a half years.

Each pub, on average, generated £7.6 million in tax during that period. The tax generated by the company, during this period, equates to approximately 25.2 times the company's profits after tax.

Republic of Ireland pubs contributed €5.5 million of tax contributions during the year, of which €2.6 million related to VAT, €1.5 million alcohol duty and €1.1 million employment taxes.

Note - this table is prepared on a cash basis. IFRS-16 from FY20 onward

Corporate governance

Wetherspoon has been a strong critic of the composition of the boards of UK-quoted companies.

Directors of UK PLCs have, on average, relatively little experience of the companies they govern, due to the "nine-year rule", which limits their tenure, combined with the fact that most directors are part-time, and have never worked for the company in question, on a full-time basis.

The combination of arbitrary rules, the preponderance of part-time directors and overloaded institutional governance departments means that bureaucracy and virtue-signalling, rather than innovation and efficacy, dominate most UK PLC boardrooms.

In appendix 3 below, further details are provided on this issue from our FY23 annual report.

Further progress

In the period Wetherspoon awarded £20.4 million of bonuses and free shares to employees, of which 97.9% was paid to staff below board level and 86.3% was paid to staff working in our pubs.

The average length of service of a pub manager increased to 15.2 years, and of a kitchen manager is 11.2 years.

251 pubs feature in the 2025 Good Beer Guide, an increase of 15 compared to last year.

In November 2023, Wetherspoon was voted the Best Airport Retailer for Food & Beverages at the British Travel Awards.

In August 2024, our national distribution centre in Daventry, operated by DHL, had its 20th anniversary. 27 of the original colleagues from 2004 are still working there. In addition, we opened a secondary warehouse in Rugby which, as well as acting as a business continuity solution, will allow for further company volume growth.

The company's UK nominated charity is Young Lives vs. Cancer (previously CLIC Sargent). It supports children and young people with cancer. Since our partnership began in 2002, Wetherspoon has raised over £24.4 million for the charity, thanks to the generosity and efforts of our customers and employees.

677 of the company's washrooms have been awarded the highest platinum or diamond statuses by the National Loo of the Year awards. The awards are aimed at highlighting and improving standards of away from home washrooms across the UK. The washrooms are judged against numerous criteria, including décor and maintenance, cleanliness, accessibility, handwashing and drying equipment and overall management.

In January 2024, the company was awarded the highest rating by the Sustainable Restaurant Association - the world's largest accreditation scheme for pubs and restaurants, see https://www.jdwetherspoon.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/pages-for-interim-report.pdf.

Wetherspoon came second in the 2024 'Out to Lunch' league table, compiled by the Soil Association. Restaurants and pubs are judged and scored on a range of criteria: family friendliness, healthy options, food quality, value, sustainability and ingredients' provenance.

Cod and haddock are sourced from fisheries which have been certified as well-managed and sustainable fisheries.

Wetherspoon uses 100% UK and Irish beef on its food menu, traceable from farm to fork.

100% of the eggs served on the menu are free range. All shell eggs are certified with the British Lion quality mark and are RSPCA assured, ensuring the highest standards of animal welfare.

Guinness have a 'Quality Accreditation Programme'. Independent assessors review 17 aspects of quality. 100% of pubs passed their Guinness accreditation.

Since 1999, Wetherspoon has worked with independent real-ale quality assessor Cask Marque to gauge the quality of ale being served in its pubs. Cask Marque carries out an 11-point audit covering stock rotation, beer line cleanliness, equipment maintenance, glasswashing cleanliness and hygiene. A star rating is awarded from 1 to 5, with a target of 4 to 5 stars for all pubs. Cask Marque state that 66% of UK pubs achieve 4 or 5 stars. 98.1% of Wetherspoon pubs have achieved 4 or 5 stars.

Sustainability, recycling and the environment

Wherever possible, Wetherspoon separates waste into nine streams: food waste; glass; tins/cans; cooking oil; paper/cardboard; plastic; lightbulbs; waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE); general waste and from December 2024 - Tetra Pak cartons

4,562 tonnes of recyclable waste were processed in the first six months of this year at our national recycling centre. In addition, food waste is sent for 'anaerobic digestion' and used cooking oil is converted to biodiesel for agricultural use.

Automated meter readers for electricity and gas, which provide half hourly consumption data, are installed in the majority of pubs to facilitate energy consumption reporting. We are now also commencing a rollout of 100 automated meter readers for water in our highest consuming sites.

Technologies such as Voltage Optimisation and solar are being trialled.

Bonuses and free shares

2 Excludes 2020, 2021 and 2022.

Length of service

Food hygiene ratings

Wetherspoon has always emphasised the importance of hygiene standards.

We now have 734 pubs rated on the Food Standards Agency's website (see table below). The average score is 4.99, with 99.2% of the pubs (all but 6) achieving a top rating of five stars. We believe this to be the highest average rating for any substantial pub company.

Property litigation

Press corrections

In the febrile atmosphere of the first UK lockdown, a number of harmful inaccuracies were published in the press. A large number of corrections and apologies were received, as a result of legal representations by Wetherspoon.

(https://www.jdwetherspoon.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Does-Truth-Matter_.pdf).

Pubwatch

Wetherspoon pubs are members of 532 schemes country wide, with 4 new schemes and 10 less schemes due to disposals.

The company also helps to fund National Pubwatch, founded in 1997 by just two licensees and a police office. This is the umbrella organisation which helps to set up, co-ordinate and support local schemes.

In our view, Pubwatch is integral to making towns and cities a safe environment for everyone.

World Health Organisation report

In contrast, the World Health Organisation (WHO) reported on its findings in 2022.

(see pages 54-56 of Wetherspoon News

Current trading and outlook

In the last seven weeks, to 16 March 2025, like-for-like sales increased by 5.0%.

As previously indicated, increases in national insurance and labour rates will result in company cost increases of approximately £60 million per annum, which amount to approximately £1,500 per pub, per week.

Since labour costs are around 35% of the pub industry's sales, compared to around 11% for supermarkets, increases of this nature inevitably have a disproportionate impact on pubs, exacerbating the already-wide price differential for customers between the on and off-trade.

The combination of much higher VAT rates for pubs than supermarkets, combined with increased labour costs will weigh heavily on the pub industry.

The company currently anticipates a reasonable outcome for the financial year, subject to our future sales performance.

APPENDIX 1 Extract from Wetherspoon FY23 Annual report, Chairman's Statement

Business rates transmogrified to a sales tax

APPENDIX 2 Extract from Wetherspoon FY23 Annual report, Chairman's Statement:

VAT equality

Supermarkets pay virtually no VAT in respect of food sales, whereas pubs pay 20%. This has enabled supermarkets to subsidise the price of alcoholic drinks, widening the price gap, to the detriment of pubs and restaurants. Pubs also pay around 20 pence a pint in business rates, whereas supermarkets pay only about 2 pence, creating further inequality.

.

APPENDIX 3 Extract from Wetherspoon FY23 Annual report, Chairman's Statement

Corporate Governance

APPENDIX 4 Extract from Wetherspoon FY23 Annual report, Chairman's Statement:

Property Litigation

In 2013, Wetherspoon agreed an out-of-court settlement of approximately £1.25 million with developer Anthony Lyons, formerly of property leisure agent Davis Coffer Lyons, relating to claims that Mr Lyons had been an accessory to frauds committed by Wetherspoon's former retained agent Van de Berg and its directors Christian Braun, George Aldridge and Richard Harvey in respect of properties in Leytonstone (which currently trades as the Walnut Tree), Newbury (which was leased to Café Rouge) and Portsmouth (which currently trades as The Isambard Kingdom Brunel).

As part of a series of cases, Wetherspoon also agreed out-of-court settlements with:

• Property investor Jason Harris, formerly of First London and now of First Urban Group who paid £400,000 to Wetherspoon to settle a claim in which it

was alleged that Harris was an accessory to frauds committed by Van de Berg. Harris contested the claim and did not admit liability.

Messrs Ferrari and Harris both contested the claims and did not admit liability.

INCOME STATEMENT for the 26 weeks ended 26 January 2025

J D Wetherspoon plc, company number: 1709784

STATEMENT OF COMPREHENSIVE INCOME for the 26 weeks ended 26 January 2025

Items which will be reclassified subsequently to profit or loss:

CASH FLOW STATEMENT for the 26 weeks ended 26 January 2025

1 Free cash flow is a measure not required by accounting standards; a definition is provided in the accounting policies within the 2024 Annual Report.

BALANCE SHEET as at 26 January 2025

1Restated 30 July 2023. See accounting policies in Annual Report 2024.

Other reserves contain net proceeds received for share placements which took place in previous periods. The other reserve is determined to be distributable for the purposes of the Companies Act 2006.

During the year, 1,840,000 shares were repurchased by the company and cancelled at a cost of £11.5 million (£2.6 million of which was paid after 26 January 2025 and has been treated as a current liability in the balance sheet), including fees, representing an average cost per share of 621p.

See note 10 for details on the hedging reserve.

As at 26 January 2025, the company had distributable reserves of £244.3 million (2024: restated £234.9 million).

NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

Revenue

Separately disclosed items (continued)

Operating items

Local government support grants

The company has not received any government grants in the period (2024: £14,000 associated with the COVID-19 pandemic).

Depreciation adjustment on impaired assets

An adjustment of £968,000 for previously under charged depreciation on impaired fixed assets has been recognised this period. In 2024, income of £4,139,000 was recognised due to an overcharge of depreciation relating to previously impaired fixed assets and right-of-use assets.

Other

Costs of £838,000 (2024: income of £203,000) have been recognised in the period, relating to:

• £568,000 (2024: nil) of employee settlement agreements.
• £139,000 (2024: nil) due to a historic VAT correction.
• £72,000 (2024: £517,000) relating to a contractual dispute with a large supplier which is now resolved.
• £59,000 (2024: nil) relating to property expenditure the company deems to be outside the usual course of business and therefore classified as separately disclosed items.
• In the prior period, other income of £1,402,000 was recognised relating to a settlement agreement offset by costs of £682,000 in relation to a historic employment tax issue and costs of £517,000, as mentioned above.

Property losses

Costs classified under the 'loss on disposal of pubs' relate to sites sold or surrendered during the period.

Other property (gains)/losses

Property impairment relates to pubs which are deemed unlikely to generate sufficient cash flows in the future to support their carrying value. In the period, the company recognised a total impairment reversal of £1,335,000 (2024: charge of £9,266,000).

Separately disclosed finance costs and income

The separately disclosed finance costs in the prior period of £636,000 relate to interest rate swaps.

A credit of £4,120,000 (2024: charge of £6,237,000) relates to the fair value movement on interest rate swaps. Income of £6,987,000 (2024: income of £176,000) relates to the amortisation of the hedge reserve to the P&L relating to discontinued hedges. No hedge ineffectiveness has been recognised in the period (2024: income of £5,425,000).

Included within separately disclosed finance income during the 26 weeks ended 28 January 2024 is the reversal of overcharged

interest relating to IFRS-16 leases, of £1,567,000.

Taxation

The tax effect on separately disclosed items is a cost of £1,131,000 (2024: income of £3,653,000).

Employee benefits expenses

The totals above relate to the monthly average number of employees during the period, not the total of employees at the end of the period.

Income tax expense

The taxation charge for the 26 weeks ended 26 January 2025 is based on the pre-separately disclosed items profit before tax of £32.9 million and the estimated effective tax rate before separately disclosed items for the 26 weeks ended 26 January 2025 of 24.3% (28 July 2024: 20.5%). This comprises a pre-separately disclosed current tax rate of 16.5% (28 July 2024: 3.9%) and a pre-separately disclosed deferred tax charge of 7.8% (28 July 2024: 20.5% charge).

The UK standard weighted average tax rate for the period is 25% (2024: 25%).

The exceptional current tax charge relates entirely to the tax on profit crystallised when terminating interest rate SWAP contracts. For tax purposes the profits are spread over the remaining life of the underlying hedged item which results in the high exceptional ETR in the current period. A deferred tax liability is recognised in respect of this item.

For periods commencing on or after 1 January 2024, additional reporting requirements will apply to ensure that the effective tax

rate will be at least 15% in all countries, subject to various complex calculations. This is in line with the minimum taxation rules

announced by the G7 and progressed by the OECD Inclusive Framework on Base Erosion and Profit Sharing. These rules have

been implemented in the UK via the Multinational Top Up Tax legislation during the year and will first apply to the accounting

period ending 27 July 2025.

Historically the company's effective tax rate has been above 15%. However, the company does operate in Ireland where the

corporation tax rate is below 15%. The group has assessed the exposure to Multinational Top Up Taxes and any impact will be

immaterial.

The company applies the exception to recognising and disclosing information about deferred tax assets and liabilities related to

Pillar Two income taxes, as provided in the amendments to IAS 12 issued in May 2023.

Earnings per share

Weighted average number of shares

Basic earnings/(loss) per share is calculated by dividing the profit/(loss) after tax for the period by the weighted average number of ordinary shares in issue during the financial year of 122,316,552 (2024: 127,671,463) less the weighted average number of shares held in trust during the financial year of 1,541,173 (2024: 4,618,943). Shares held in trust are shares purchased by the company to satisfy employee share schemes that have not yet vested.

Diluted earnings/(loss) per share is calculated by dividing the profit/(loss) after tax for the period by the weighted average number of ordinary shares in issue during the financial year adjusted for both shares held in trust and the effects of potentially dilutive shares. For the company, the dilutive shares are those that relate to employee share schemes that have not been purchased in advance and have not yet vested. In the event of making a loss during the year, the diluted loss per share is capped at the basic earnings per share as the impact of dilution cannot result in a reduction in the loss per share.

The non-cash movement in bank loans and the private placement relate to the amortisation of loan issue costs. These are arrangement fees paid in respect of new borrowings and are charged to the income statement over the expected life of the loans.

Assets held for sale

These relate to situations in which the company had exchanged contracts to sell a property, but the transaction is not yet complete. As at 26 January 2025, one site was classified as held for sale (28 July 2024: four sites)

Lease liabilities

The carrying amounts of lease liabilities and the movements during the period are outlined in note 11.

Asset-financing obligations

Asset-financing obligations relate to asset finance leases of equipment in pubs.

Variable-rate facility

The company refinanced during 2024 and now has a combined revolving credit facility of £529 million and term loan of £311 million (28 July 2024: combined revolving credit facility of £529 million and term loan of £311 million). There was no cash flow impact on refinancing, given that the new agreement was a continuation of the previous facility. As at 26 January 2025, £686 million was drawn down (28 July 2024: £626 million). There are 13 participating lenders. The current facility of £840 million matures in June 2028. The company has hedged its interest rate liabilities to its banks by swapping the floating-rate debt into fixed-rate debt, see note 10.

Unamortised bank loan issue costs

Unamortised bank loan issue costs primarily relate to refinancing, securing and extending the variable-rate facility.

Private placement

The fixed-rate facility relates to senior secured notes of £98 million. The notes mature in 2026.

The company has an overdraft facility of £10 million, which is undrawn as at 26 January 2025.

Financial instruments

The below table outlines the movements in fair value among the hedging reserve, comprehensive income and the income statement during the year.

At the beginning of the reporting period, the company had two interest rate swaps in place. No hedge accounting was

applied to these interest rate swaps. During the 26 weeks ended 26 January 2025, seven further interest rate swaps were taken out, designated as two relationships.

The hedge reserve of £6.8 million is made up of fair value relating to hedges which have previously been derecognised/discontinued (28 July 2024: £13.8 million).

Leases

The following amounts, relating to lease cash flows, were debited/credited to the income statement during the period.

The balance sheet shows the following amounts relating to leases. These have been reconciled in sections (a) to (d) below:

1Right-of-use assets and lease liabilities relate to leasehold properties occupied by J D Wetherspoon.

2Lease assets relate to leasehold properties sublet by J D Wetherspoon.

• Leases (continued)
• Right-of-use assets

£000

During the period, additions related to five new signed lease contracts and one new signed sublease contract. 12 were remeasured as a result of changes in the agreed payments under the lease contracts and changes in the lease terms. Exchange differences occur as a result of translating the capitalised leases in the Republic of Ireland. Five freehold reversions took place in the year, while there was one disposal. As at the time of this interim report, lease additions totalled £9,547,000 and depreciation £19,192,000.

Sublet lease assets

The incremental borrowing rate applied to lease liabilities and assets was 1.94 - 5.75% depending on the lease's length.

Set out below are the carrying amounts of the lease assets recognised and the movement during the period. The company sublets several of its leases, with lease assets being the capitalised future rent receivable from sublet sites.

• Leases (continued)
• Lease liability

Future rent payments could change as a result of open-market rent reviews or options being exercised to terminate a lease early. Any changes in the minimum unavoidable lease payments will be included as a remeasurement of the lease liability. The accounting policies within the 2024 Annual Report further describe the policy in relation to the termination of leases.

Lease maturity profile

Set out below are the remaining maturities (period between the balance sheet date and the end of the lease) of the lease liabilities and lease assets, which are undiscounted: