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Summary
- JD Wetherspoon Plc (LON:JDW) on Thursday, 4 March, announced its plans to open beer gardens.
- Shares of JD Wetherspoon continued to trade in the negative territory after the announcement.
Watford-headquartered pub operator JD Wetherspoon Plc (LON: JDW) on Thursday, 4 March, announced plans to open beer gardens, patios, and rooftop gardens across various locations in England from 12 April. Under the countrywide reopening plan, the company will be restarting its 394 pubs.
Despite the development, shares of JD Wetherspoon continued in red, barring a momentary bounce in the morning deals. At around 1155 GMT, the stock of JD Wetherspoon was trading at 1,310, down 0.83 per cent from the previous close of 1,321. During the day so far, the stock touched a low of GBX 1,293 and a high of GBX 1,327.60 apiece.
The decades-old pub operator started the first pub at Muswell Hill, north London in December 1979. Later in 1991, Wetherspoon inaugurated non-smoking bars, followed by the opening of two pubs at Heathrow Airport in 1992. In the same year, the company went public by floating the shares on London Stock Exchange.
Opening schedule
Initially, the pubs at most of the locations will remain open for a 12-hour stretch from 9 am to 9 pm on all days, except for Friday and Saturday. The company has proposed to open the pubs for an additional hour on Friday and Saturday, i.e., up until 10 pm.
The pubs will be directed to close quite early in some of the jurisdictions, where there are several restrictions on closing times.
With the phased and calculative reopening of pubs, the menu offered at the eateries will remain limited. The reduced menu is likely to include breakfast, deli deals, pizza, burger, British classics, and fish and chips, JD Wetherspoon informed.
Due to the restrictive closing timings, the food will be made available between 9 am and 8 pm on all days of the week.
Ordering at pubs
- Wetherspoon staff will be deployed to take the orders from the customers visiting the pubs.
- Additionally, the customers can place the order through the mobile application of Wetherspoon.
- The bill payments will be done through both online and at the table, for the customers who are not using the Wetherspoon app.
- The toilets and outside area will be made accessible for all the customers visiting the pub.
- At the start, there will not be any booking system at the Wetherspoon pubs.
- Customers will be facilitated with hand sanitisers, and the test and trace will remain in operation.