Punters shocked as popular Glasgow Southside Wetherspoons to shut down next month amidst wave of UK closures

A popular Wetherspoons pub outlet in the south-side of Glasgow will soon close.

The Sir John Stirling Maxwell on Kilmarnock Road in Shawlands is set to cease trading next month - with no explanation offered for the closure of the reportedly busy pub.

Bosses at Wetherspoons didn’t confirm a closing date for the premises, but revealed that the business will stop trading after March 26. This news follows as the pub chain, which owned around 900 boozers across the UK, announced nearly 50 closures of Wetherspoons bar and restaurants across the UK, including The Alexander Bain in Wick, and The Cross Keys in Peebles - the only other two ‘Spoons to close in Scotland.

A spokesperson for The Sir John Stirling Maxwell pub told the Glasgow Evening Times:“We can confirm that the pub will not trade after March 26.

“We cannot, as yet, confirm the final trading day.

“There will be no redundancies – all staff will be offered jobs at other Wetherspoon pubs.

“We appreciate that staff and customers will be disappointed with the decision, but Wetherspoon, does on occasion, close some of its pubs.”

No redundancies will be made - meaning staff at the Sir John Stirling Maxwell will be offered jobs at other Wetherspoons across Glasgow, like The Crystal Palace, Counting House or the Sir John Moore. However, along with any Shawlands ‘Spoons fans, they’ll need to travel all the way into the city centre or Rutherglen to reach the next closest Wetherspoons.

Bosses at the pub chain claimed the closures are being made as part of a ‘commercial decision’. Despite sales for Wetherspoons at the end of 2022 being far higher than the same period in 2021 after a particularly strong Christmas last December, the chain still isn’t reaching pre-pandemic levels of sales.

Lager baron and chairman of Wetherspoons, Tim Martin, said he feels the biggest threat to the hospitality industry is that pubs and restaurants are taxed unfairly, while supermarkets pay no VAT on food sales.

In a statement to the press, he said:“Supermarkets pay zero VAT in respect of food sales, whereas pubs and restaurants pay 20%. This tax benefit allows supermarkets to subsidise the selling price of beer.

“We estimate that supermarkets have taken about half of the pub industry’s beer volumes since Wetherspoon started trading in 1979, a process that has likely accelerated following the pandemic.

“Pub industry directors have, in general, failed to campaign for tax equality, which is an important principle of taxation.”

The Wetherspoons boss, who was also one of Britain’s most outspoken supporters of Brexit concluded that the pub industry is set to ‘inevitably shrink’ if those running boozers don’t campaign for ‘tax equality’.