JW Lees maintains steady profits despite challenges

Pub operator and brewer JW Lees filed its financial results ahead of the New Year, delivering the same profits seen in 2024.

Profit before tax for the year ended 31 March 2025 was £7.1m (2024: £7.1m). Turnover for the year increased to £99.9m (2024: £95.8m), while the group’s net assets increased to £102m (2024: £98m).

The company invested significantly in its existing pub estate, completing £11m of CAPEX in the year (2024: £8m). The group sold one pub in the year, The Park in Wythenshawe, which generated a profit of £184,000 (2024: £689,000 profit on disposals). 

In its financial statement, JW Lees listed many challenging factors that it has had to absorb throughout the year, varying from global events to political decisions being made in Westminster. 

From wars around the world and National Insurance Contributions, to energy prices and the removal of 100% Business Relief, the William Lees-Jones-led business went into much detail about the barriers to successful trading it is experiencing. 

The latter, which allows family-owned businesses like JW Lees to be transferred from one generation to the next without a tax hit, has been a particular concern for the business. 

"We were lucky with the weather in the early part of the year, but we brew great beers and have great pubs run by great people and that’s why we’re out-performing the market," says Lees-Jones. 

"Our performance in our invested sites is particularly strong and we can see how much our guests enjoy the JW Lees pub experience with current guest satisfaction for the year running at 92%. That said, the increased costs which the chancellor imposed on us in her two Budgets mean that the business will inevitably be less profitable and so we need to be cautious and focus on productivity.

"We are calling on the chancellor to put measures in place to support hospitality and family businesses since we need incentives to invest and grow and at the moment we are spending too much time worrying about tax and succession rather than investing in our business and creating new jobs."

During 2025/26, JW Lees says will continue to grow predominantly by investing in its existing estate and, where opportunities arise, with the acquisition of new freehold pubs, inns and hotels in the north west, as the company continues to build to its 200th anniversary in 2028.

In the current year’s first 38 weeks commencing April 2025, JW Lees has experienced strong retail sales of +10.8% on the back of a hot summer, with overall bottom line up by more than 10%.  

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