JD Wetherspoon sinks on tiering guidance

The price of shares in FTSE 250 pub landlord JD Wetherspoon (LON:JDW) dropped by 1.32% to 1,120p (as of 11:45 GMT) after the firm provided a trading update. The company said that 64 pubs in England and Wales would be operating under Tier 1 equivalent guidelines while 435 would be following Tier 2 rules. A further 366 branches will remain closed.

Tim Martin commented: “The company has campaigned for pubs to revert to the rules agreed between the pub industry, civil servants, local authorities and health officials, which were introduced when pubs reopened in July.

“These rules greatly reduced pub capacity and provided strict social distancing and hygiene standards but, with difficultly, allowed pubs to trade viably.“