A toast to Tim Martin and JD Wetherspoon. Anyone who knocks out a well-kept ale, a Coke and two hot meals in Fulham for under 25 quid and still makes a margin clearly knows his business. As a competently run organisation, ’Spoons has apparently prepared well for a hard Brexit . In today’s trading update, Martin boasts to the Brexit-sceptic City of how it has struck deals to swap French fizz and German lagers with alternatives from the US, Australia and the UK. But, even glossing over the fact that this prospect is in no way positive for his customers (they lose their favourite European tipples, and he could have offered Aussie lagers anyway), Brexiteer Martin’s latest gung-ho soapboxing about a no-deal departure neglects the most important point. He might have been able to prepare his relatively straightforward supply chains, but what of the thousands of more complicated, or less well-organised businesses that haven’t? The Institute of Directors says fewer than half of its members are ready for No Deal. What if they cannot simply and cheaply reorganise themselves if we crash out of our relationship with our biggest trading partner? What if foreign investment goes elsewhere, as it has been since the referendum, or the pound continues falling, further driving up the cost of UK firms’ raw material imports? These are the very businesses that employ Tim Martin’s millions of happy customers and are likely to lay them off or cut their hours if Brexit goes badly. You… [Read full story]
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