Wetherspoon boss hits back at ‘Eurocommunist’ who criticised pub chain’s pro-Brexit beer mats

Wetherspoon boss Tim Martin has launched a scathing attack on a group that criticised the pub chain for spending tens of thousands of pounds on pro-Brexit beer mats.

In a 3,000-word diatribe delivered alongside Wetherspoon’s scheduled stock market update, Mr Martin also slammed “up the spout” corporate governance rules, which he said are causing British companies to collapse.

The staunchly pro-Brexit businessman also said he believed a no-deal departure from the EU would be preferable to the current agreement secured by Boris Johnson.

He then hit out at investor advisory group Pirc that criticised Wetherspoon for spending £95,000 on Brexit-related beer mats. Pirc suggested the outlay may have breached rules on political spending by public companies.

Mr Martin also launched a personal attack on Pirc’s boss, Alan MacDougall.

The Wetherspoon founder said: “MacDougall has questionable personable judgment, referring to himself on his Twitter account as a ‘governance expert’ and an ‘ex-Eurocommunist’.

“In my opinion, many people equate communism with fascism, since millions of Europeans perished or were imprisoned under its yoke.”

Mr Martin also used the update to express his anger at new rules that say non-executives should only serve on boards for a maximum of nine years.

Non-executives are supposed to be impartial and regulators believe there is a risk to their independence if they stay longer.

He said: “There can be little doubt that the current system has directly led to the failure or chronic underperformance of many businesses, including banks, supermarkets and pubs.

“I believe by vesting so much power in non-executive directors (NEDs), the system is also disenfranchising executives and the workforce – the people who have real expertise and are the cornerstone of business success.

“Another tectonic fault is that the institutions and advisers which oversee the code, as described below, do not themselves adhere to the rules they impose on others.”

He went on to attack companies that do not have employee representatives and more management on boards – Wetherspoon has a board of five executives and three non-executives – and complained that non-executives do not have enough experience.

“It is also common practice for there to be only two executive directors, the most senior of whom, the CEO, averages only about five years – managements and workers are thus absurdly under-represented,” Mr Martin said.

“A cursory glance at the board compositions of major UK PLCs underlines the issues.

“Tesco, for example, which has 450,000 employees and is the UK’s largest supermarket group, has only two executive directors, with total service of about nine years, and 11 NEDs with total service of 38 years. The overall average, including NEDs and executives, is only 3.7 years.

“This sort of corporate structure is mirrored in banks, retailers and pubs – where long-term performance, over recent decades, has usually veered between poor and catastrophic.”

HSBC, RBS, Barclays and Lloyds were also singled out for having no non-executives with any personal experience of the financial crash in 2008.

Attacks were also made on Wetherspoon’s largest institutional investor, Columbia Threadneedle, over its decision to not support the re-election of two non-executives at last year’s annual general meeting.

“As a result, three of our four NEDs felt compelled to offer their resignations – inevitably destabilising the company in the process,” he added.

Wetherspoon revealed sales were up 5.3 per cent in the 13 weeks to 27 October on a like-for-like basis, with one pub opened and four shut. The company aims to open between 10 and 15 pubs in the current financial year.

Bosses have also spent £43.3m on buying freeholds of pubs where Wetherspoon was previously a tenant, and a further £6.4m went on the company buying its own shares in an attempt to boost the price.

PA