Pubs chain JD Wetherspoon has warned the cost of preparing its pubs for the smoking ban in England would leave annual profits short of hopes.

The company, which has branches across Worcester-shire, said it had carried out more repairs to its pubs ahead of the English ban in July and increased non-smoking areas in its pubs to about 80 per cent of customer space, which hit bar volumes despite growth in food sales.

It said: "The scale of these initiatives will result in a short-term impact on profitability and the full year profits outcome is expected to be marginally below current expectations."

Wetherspoon, which operates 662 pubs, added that it had incurred extra costs from the temporary closure of all its pubs to install new beer and wine chilling systems, as well as increased energy and wage bills.

Wetherspoon said that it would be stepping up its marketing activity ahead of the English ban.

Overall like for like sales increased by 3.4 per cent in the 13 weeks to April 29.