Major UK pub chain Wetherspoon is to invest more than £200 million in pubs and hotels over the next four years, creating around 10,000 jobs, the company has announced.
New pubs and hotels will be opened, and existing pubs across the UK and Republic of Ireland will be enlarged.
Most of the investment will be channelled into developments in small and medium-sized towns, but will also include larger towns and cities.
These are set to include new pubs in Bourne in Lincolnshire; Waterford in Ireland; Hamilton in Scotland; Ely in Cambridgeshire; Diss in Norfolk; Felixstowe in Suffolk; Newport Pagnell in Buckinghamshire; and Prestatyn in North Wales.
It will also be investing in major cities including London, Dublin, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Birmingham, Leeds and Galway.
Wetherspoon founder and chairman Tim Martin said: "We are looking forward to opening many more new pubs as well as investing in existing pubs over the next four years.
"We are especially pleased that a large proportion of the investment will be in smaller towns and cities which have seen a decline in investment in recent years.
"The fact that we will be creating approximately 10,000 jobs is great news too."
Wetherspoon operates 875 pubs and 58 hotels across the UK and Republic of Ireland and employs 44,000 staff.
