JD Wetherspoon to invest more than £200m on expansion

JD Wetherspoon has announced plans to invest more than £200m in expanding its pub and hotel estate across the UK and Ireland.

The four-year investment plan will see new venues opened and existing sites enlarged, with a focus on small- and medium-sized towns.

Areas signposted for openings include Bourne, Lincolnshire; Waterford, Ireland; Hamilton, South Lanarkshire; Ely, Cambridgeshire; Diss, Norfolk; Felixstowe, Suffolk; Newport Pagnell, Buckinghamshire; and Prestatyn, Denbighshire.

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."

The announcement follows a period of restrained growth from the pub group, which has been recently been focused on buying freeholds of pubs it was previously a tenant in.

Wetherspoon operates 875 pubs and 58 hotels across the UK and Republic of Ireland, employing 44,000 staff.