Pubs group JD Wetherspoon yesterday forecast annual profits towards the top end of expectations after good weather helped sales rally.
The chain, with around 650 sites, including the Square Peg in Corporation Street, Birmingham, said like-for-like sales increased 5.1 per cent in 12 weeks, resulting in an increase of two per cent for the financial year.
As a result, profits for the year to July 30 are likely to be in a range between £52 million and £57 million.
Wetherspoon reported a figure of £47 million last year.
Finance director Jim Clarke said: "The weather has certainly helped trading.
"When it's consistenly hot - as it has been over the past ten weeks - people tend to think about having a cold beer when they leave the office."
Mr Clarke also said the company overcame the impact of the World Cup by showing key games for the first time.
He said: "We held on to regular customers during the football so we did not see the kind of drop-off experienced in previous tournaments."
The televisions were introduced across the estate as part of attempts by Wetherspoon to break into the morning coffee market.
Across the 51 weeks of the financial year so far, the company said it achieved sales of £813.1 million, an increase of 2.3 per cent on a year ago. But yesterday's trading statement revealed the stronger performance of its Scottish pubs followimg the introduction of the country's smoking ban had faded.
The sites enjoyed a 3.2 per cent sales lift in the first month of the ban in April, but the following 12 weeks saw like-for-like sales decline 0.3 per cent.
The group, with 50 pubs in Scotland, used lessons learnt from its experiment to convert 49 English pubs into nonsmoking outlets.
The performance mirrors the experience in the Republic of Ireland, where sales rose initially following the introduction of a smoking ban before the industry suffered a downturn in trade.
Shares closed up 10.5p at 429.25p.
