THE boss of pub chain JD Wetherspoon has said there is "no sensible reason" for the price of a pint to rise in Scotland if the country votes for independence next week.
Chairman Tim Martin said Scotland "could do very well on its own", batting away "a lot of nonsense" from retailers who have argued that an independent nation would become a more expensive place to do business.
"New Zealand has a comparable population and does pretty well. Singapore has a very small population and does very well," he told the BBC yesterday.
Mr Martin said prices could even fall if Scotland lowers VAT on food consumed in pubs, which is currently charged at 20 per cent across the United Kingdom and has long been the subject of protests from his company.
Chief executive John Hutson echoed his confidence in Scotland, telling reporters yesterday that "independent or not, it's a great place to do business".
Mr Hutson said that due to Scotland's separate licensing laws, the company is already well equipped to operate in the country, where it has 68 pubs and almost 3,000 staff.
Their comments came in the same week that retailers including Asda and John Lewis warned that prices could rise if Scotland votes for independence.
Executives claimed that companies would start to pass on the added cost of transporting goods north of the Border and price in the uncertainty on currency.
Wetherspoon yesterday reported a 10 per cent rise in annual revenues to £1.41 billion, while pre-tax profits increased by 3.1 per cent to £79.4 million. The pub group now makes 35.3 per cent of its sales from food, an area of growth that has been helped by the smoking ban, said Mr Hutson.
Like-for-like food sales were up 12 per cent in the year to July 27 after "a particularly good year for breakfast", while bar sales rose 2.7 per cent.
The average Wetherspoon pub now brings in £36,000 a week.
The company embarked on its biggest capital spending drive in a decade in the year, splashing out £154m on opening 46 pubs, revamping its toilets and kitchens, and buying properties.
In the coming year, Mr Hutson said the group will focus on upgrading its staff rooms and beer gardens.
Wetherspoon aims to eventually run 1,600 pubs across the UK, up from 927 this year.
The company is eyeing up new sites, primarily in towns and city suburbs.
Wetherspoon is also adding to the small number of hotel rooms it has near its pubs where the opportunities arise. In Newbury, the firm turned a listed cottage at the back of its pub into a two-room hotel, which led to 14 more rooms opening onsite this year.
However, the firm is not actively looking to open more pubs in motorway service stations, following its well-publicised debut on the M40 in January.
While the Buckinghamshire roadside site is trading in line with other pubs, albeit with higher food sales and lower takings from drink, Mr Hutson said the site is probably unique, with a site operator who was particularly keen to bring in the pub.
"Looking back we probably shouldn't have been surprised, but we were," he said of the outcry that greeted the launch, pointing out that Wetherspoon runs plenty of pubs on main roads that have not generated controversy.
The company repeated its criticism of the tax system for pubs yesterday, having calculated that it paid £600m in levies last year, or 42.6 per cent of its sales.
"We understand that everyone has to pay their way in a civilised society like ours. Our argument is more about getting the balance right, particularly on VAT," said Mr Hutson.
He claimed that a supermarket with the same sales volumes as Wetherspoon would have paid almost £100m less in VAT payments in the past year.
Wetherspoon is expecting like-for-like sales to rise about three per cent this year, though the first six weeks have brought 6.3 per cent growth.
Shares in the company closed up 8p, or one per cent at 770p yesterday.
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