LONDON (Reuters) - British pub chain JD Wetherspoon (L:JDW) posted a 3 percent rise in full-year profit and said it expected a "reasonable" outcome for the current year after seeing an improvement in like-for-like sales in the first six weeks.
The firm, which has grown to over 900 pubs on demand for promotions like curry clubs and 'beer and a burger' bargains, said on Friday adjusted pretax profit for the year to 27 July was 79.4 million pounds, just beating market expectations of 77.3 million pounds, according to Thomson Reuters data.
Initiatives such as menu improvements and longer opening hours, as well as new openings, helped revenue grow 10 percent to 1.4 billion pounds, with sales at pubs open over a year up 5.5 percent.
Like-for-like sales in the six weeks to 7 September 2014 increased by 6.3 percent, it said.
(Reporting by Paul Sandle, Editing by Sarah Young)