No-frills pubs group JD Wetherspoon warned competition and Euro 2004 football would cause full-year profits to come in below expectations.
The Watford-based company, which owns pubs across Sussex, including Brighton, Hove, Worthing, Crawley and Chichester, said growth in like-for-like sales in the final quarter had slowed due to a stronger challenge from other pubs and supermarkets.
The football also had an impact, with only a minority of the company's 640 premises having televisions to show the tournament.
In the 11 weeks to July 11, like-for-like sales were flat, resulting in a year to date increase of 3.5 per cent. In a trading update before its full-year results on September 3, the group said it expected profits before tax and one-off items to come in slightly below the current range of analysts' forecasts.
Wednesday July 14, 2004
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