Earlier this year pub brand JD Wetherspoon announced that it was ramping up plans to work with franchise partners as part of its ambitions to grow to over 1,000 sites nationwide, specifically targeting hoteliers across the UK who are looking to maximise their profits and utilise spaces.
The initiative reflects a new approach from JD Wetherspoon, which over recent years has slowed growth in order to consolidate its pub portfolio around its top-performing locations and is now seeking to combine its ongoing appeal to cost-conscious drinkers with hotel locations where the arrival of a Wetherspoon pub could benefit both parties.
The strategy to align with hotels builds on a lesser-known part of the pub chain’s business but JD Wetherspoon has been steadily enlarging this quiet but strategically important part of its estate, focusing on hotels integrated with, or built directly above, its own pubs. It is no stranger to the sector, having actually opened its first hotel as far back as 1998 in Shrewsbury and it now has around 67 sites spread across the UK.
The first Wetherspoon franchised pub opened in January 2022 in Hull University’s student union, followed by a second at Newcastle University in September 2023, and a third at Haven’s Primrose Valley Holiday Park in Filey, North Yorkshire in March 2024. Now hotels are in its sight lines.
For its own hotel development the company has taken a consistent approach, with adaptive re-use of upper floors in prominent, often listed buildings where the company already operates a high-footfall pub, mirrored by the type of sites it is looking for with franchise partners.
Commercial opportunities for JDW
The commercial logic centres on a number of intertwined objectives for JDW as it seeks to continue its growth path, build on its brand recognition but also use a more capital light model in a strategy that could have wider lessons for hotel investors.
Hotel rooms add a complementary, non-cyclical day part to the pub, including breakfasts, morning coffee, and late-night trade from guests, which lifts the utilisation of staff, kitchens and utilities already in place. Rooms also dovetail with that trend by pulling incremental breakfast and hot beverage volume into sites that are already operationally efficient.
A large share of JDW’s estate is freehold or long-lease landmark buildings in prime town centre locations. Converting upper floors into rooms also captures trapped value, particularly where high street retail has receded and office demand is softer, while preserving the heritage that local planners often favour.
In terms of its pipeline, hotels can also be layered onto existing pubs can be phased and scaled, meaning JDW can proceed case-by-case as permissions arrive, re-scope to heritage constraints, and avoid overexposure to any single market cycle.
Adding rooms also lets it compete for short-stay demand against value operators such as Premier Inn and Travelodge, with the on-site pub as a differentiated amenity in consumer segments where price-sensitivity is high and location trumps frills.
JD Wetherspoon back to expansion
“After a period of reducing the estate by selling underperforming units, the group is back in expansion mode. A further 15 managed pubs are expected to be added to the 794-strong estate in the year to July 2026. Recent site launches have been focused on high-footfall locations such as airports and travel hubs,” Derren Nathan, head of equity research at Hargreaves Lansdown said.
“The rollout of franchised sites is also accelerating with openings expected to match those of managed units over the same period. We see this as a relatively low-risk and scalable route to growth,” it added.
While JDW’s franchising push is pub-first, it is strategically relevant to hotels because partnerships with accommodation operators broaden JDW’s pipeline of co-located food and beverage anchors and can seed future room conversions where JDW takes a freehold or long lease. It also provides an opportunity for asset-light growth as a complementary tool alongside its owned conversions.
“The strong brand perception holds it in good stead, helping build out its position as the most visited licensed chain in the country, where its value proposition is helping it increasingly steal custom from casual dining operators. That’s been driven by an ongoing pivot towards a younger and more family-oriented demographic, which explains the growing importance of food in Wetherspoon’s sales mix,” Nathan added.
JDW focuses on partner growth
This spring JDW also completed the opening of new sites with holiday park operator Haven at its locations at Cleethorpes Beach in Lincolnshire, Devon Cliffs in Devon, Kent Coast in Kent and Haggerton Castle in Northumberland as part of a £6.7 million investment.
In its pitch to potential partners, supported by UK agent Christie & Co, Wetherspoon said that franchise partners will have the opportunity to create a “highly effective bar/restaurant” through the “cost-effective conversion” of an existing space to become a Wetherspoon site, supported by the pub company’s design teams, supply chain, training, and marketing resources.
With a strong brand and value proposition, JD Wetherspoon is in an ideal position to leverage a diversified approach, building hotel facilities onto its own sites and working with partners, especially as it shifts towards a more family-oriented market and targets a bigger slice of the value family hotel market.