Wetherspoons’ Tim Martin shares nice pub secret and the way we will ‘reside fortunately ever after’

EXCLUSIVE: Things are far from perfect in the pub world at the moment and Wetherspoons boss Sir Tim Martin is far from optimistic about its future, but he does have a vison

Titan of industry Tim Martin knows a thing or two about making a pub purr.

The 69-year-old JD Wetherspoon boss bought his first pub in Muswell Hill, London, in 1979 and has since then built an empire nearly 800 boozers-strong with a presence in most British towns and cities.

It’s a complex business, balancing the demands of costly supply chains, tax, changing consumer demands and much more, but it is a challenge the brand has managed to navigate efficiently so far.

There’s a lot to it then, but he claims the trick to making a local tick comes down to one simple thing: people.

“We’ve always said, and it’s a slightly corny motto, it’s a people thing,” he revealed. “We’ve got an average of 10 people per pub who have worked in the pub for over five years and a few people at the pub who have worked over 10 years, so I think when you get a long-serving pub team that builds a relationship with the community that’s when they work – it’s a people thing, that’s our motto.”

Things in the pub industry are far from perfect at the moment, however, despite this being a well covered matter, the knight is far from optimistic about its future.

“I’m not very good at looking into the seeds of time, unless I’ve got a couple of pints of Abbott in me, which won’t be for another few hours yet,” he said. “A lot depends on the government, probably the next government , and the world economy.

“I think overall in optimistic, we live in a democracy, democracies have their ups and downs but we’re far better off than we, despite what people think, were 30 years ago, when we were far better than 30 years before that – wars depression, economic problems, but democracy is very good at overcoming those problems.

“With regards to the pub trade, they are very much the victim of the government, and I’m a bit more pessimistic that there aren’t more people in any of the political parties who have worked in private industry – they tend to regard pubs as a milch cow that they can impose taxes on with impunity.”

As is often the way when people have frustrations with the status quo, they have too an alternative vision, a utopia, which they would rather see in its place.

Again, Sir Tim’s is a simple one: “If I had it all my own way, food would be taxed in pubs in the same way as supermarkets which would bring the price of beer down, making pubs competitive. Business rates would match business rates per pint at the supermarket, which is lower, and we’d all live happily ever after.”