UK pub profits hit by smoking ban

UK pub group JD Wetherspoon announced a further fall in profits today and revealed that trade had been tough at those pubs where it had banned smoking.

The group, which operates 36 of its 655 pubs as non-smoking outlets, achieved annual underlying profits of £46.1m (€67.6m), a drop of 15% on a year earlier after like-for-like sales dipped 0.6% in the year to July 24.