Tim Martin, founder of the JD Wetherspoon pub chain, does not do Davos – which is neat. The annual boondoggle in the Swiss Alps, which convenes again this week, is unlikely to deprive him of many of his regulars.
Still, while the pub landlord will be in the UK and concentrating on preparing for Wednesday, when the group will give its trading statement, it seems likely a similar topic might dominate both events.
Martin was one of the highest-profile businesspeople calling time on the UK’s membership of the European Union, and used his 800-odd boozers and the chain’s magazine to make his points. (“All the thousands of Davos men and women who have their jaws firmly clamped around the euro-teat,” as he once put it).
That made him even more unpopular with that particular set (they can occasionally be quite sniffy about his pubs) while his euro rivals rejoiced when the Brexit vote knocked the Wetherspoon shares.
Still, might Martin be about to have the last laugh? There are challenges in the sector, but last week All Bar One owner Mitchells & Butlers reported a “particularly strong” Christmas trading period, seemingly providing another riposte to the doom and gloom predicted by many Remainers. If Wetherspoon’s trading follows suit this week, expect some gloating.
A merry little retail Christmas
While the British drinker seems to be heroically buoying the pubs’ figures, their counterparts sashaying along our high streets have been performing a similar service for our shops.
Marks & Spencer has reported its best Christmas in six years, Morrisons its best in seven and Majestic Wine its “biggest ever”, while even dreary old Debenhams did better than expected.
This week we get a host more retailers reporting results, including Greggs, Pets at Home, Halfords and N Brown. There’ll also be data in the form of December’s retail sales from the Office for National Statistics, which curiously might show a slight slip.
Howard Archer of IHS Global Insight says the seasonally adjusted figures are expected to show that retail sales volumes dipped 0.4% month-on-month in December, although this would still see them up 6.6% year-on-year. Still, he cautions: “The serious concern for the economy – and retailers in particular – is that it looks inevitable that the fundamentals for consumers will weaken markedly over the coming months, with purchasing power being increasingly squeezed and the labour market probably weakening.” Developing.
Is Royal Mail pension still first class?
You might have missed last year’s Pension Scheme of the Year Awards, so here’s a recap: the Royal Mail scooped a hat-trick of gongs for: defined benefit scheme of the year (asset value of over £2.5bn); defined benefit communications (private sector); and best administration.
“Don’t worry, we’re not letting it go to our heads,” the Royal Mail Pension Plan gushed at the time. “While we’re thrilled to win these awards, our focus remains on continuing to improve member outcomes through improving our performance.”
Royal Mail staff will no doubt be soothed by those words as they study the group’s trading statement this week, which comes against the backdrop of a potential strike. The company has said it’s considering shutting its final salary pension scheme as, despite a huge surplus, the fund is supposedly running out of cash. So while the trustees might be dedicated to enhancing “member outcomes”, the firm is targeting the opposite.
Or as Terry Pullinger, deputy general secretary for postal at the CWU, puts it: “So we move from shadow boxing to the ring, and negotiations will now begin in earnest ... However, any attempt to introduce any unagreed change by the business would be met with an industrial action ballot.”
- This article was amended on 15 January 2017 to remove a typo from the headline.
