JW Lees breaks £100m turnover mark and continues pub investment
The boss of family pub and brewing group JW Lees says his company has enjoyed a record year despite “little or no useful support from Government” – and says incoming prime minister Andy Burnham must give more support to the hospitality sector.
Managing director William Lees-Jones has announced that JW Lees saw revenues of £105.6m for the year to March 31 – up 5.7% on 2025. That drove pre-tax profit to £8.8m, up on last year’s figure of £7.1m, with EBITDA earnings of £12.3m.
JW Lees operates 138 pubs and is based at its historic brewery home in Middleton. Over the year, the group saw JW Lees core draught beer sales rise 3.7% – with sales boosted by the relaunch of Boddingtons Cask Bitter, which Lees brews under licence from Budweiser.
The group invested more than £10m in its pub and hotel estate over the year, with more than 20 major refurbishments. Since the end of the year JW Lees has bought two new pubs – The Royal Oak in Glossop and the Bull’s Head in Poynton – and is investing in them before reopening them in coming weeks.
JW Lees has also announced that it will bring together its Managed Pubs and Inns & Hotels divisions in April 2027 under the leadership of Chris Moulson as director of operations. Meanwhile Gary Stafford has become director of operations – pub partners and Lee Reeves has become director of people, with both joining the group management board from October.
JW Lees is run by the sixth generation of its founding family. William Lees-Jones has long spoken out for the interests of family businesses, and has led the charge against recent inheritance tax changes.
Earlier this year, he told BusinessLive those changes were an “act of self harm ” that will stop family firms growing. He said: “JW Lees will survive, because we’ll do whatever it takes, but in the short term it means less investment, less job creation, more short-term survival tactics. And that for me is an act of self-harm by a British government at a time when the government was elected on the principle of growth.”
Announcing the latest results, Mr Lees-Jones said: “It’s fantastic for JW Lees to report a record year both in terms of turnover and profitability. The long hot summer of 2025 was a great way to start the year and our teams pulled together to drive higher productivity at JW Lees to new levels.
“Brewing and hospitality are tough sectors right now and we continue to be impacted by above-inflation rises in labour rates, high business rates and little or no useful support from Government. We hope that Andy Burnham can change all that, with more favourable policies to help the hospitality sector which will also create new jobs.
“For family businesses like JW Lees the changes that Rachel Reeves brought in to change Business Property Relief (BPR) have made things even tougher since we are now having to plan for higher levels of inheritance tax for our family shareholders and this will inevitably lead to reduced investment in the business.
“At a time when the UK economy desperately needs growth it seems unfair that the Government has handed competitive advantage to overseas companies and private equity who are not exposed to these costs and this negatively impacts UK family businesses’ ability to invest with family businesses making up more than 50% of all UK private sector jobs.
“JW Lees will do whatever it takes to remain a family company as we approach our 200th anniversary in 2028.”






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