Watford based pub chain JD Wetherspoon has seen a steady rise in sales in its second quarter of trading, boosted by non-smoking pubs.
The nationwide chain announced that in the 12 weeks up to January 2007 21st "like-for-like sales increased by 5.5 per cent."
Comparable sales in the year to date increased by 7.5 per cent, having "compensated for higher energy and labour costs".
In preparation for the July smoking ban in public places, JD Wetherspoon created 61 non-smoking pubs outside of Scotland which have "continued to show an improvement in sales performance in the period".
Scottish pubs, where the ban is already in place, have also seen growth in sales with an increase of 3.9 per cent in like-for-like sales.
Eight new pubs were also opened in this trading period while three were closed, taking the portfolio of the chain to over 670.
However, the company warned that despite the strong performance in the first half of the trading year, like-for-like sales in January have shown lower growth than in previous months of the year.
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