JD Wetherspoon is to open 200 new pubs and create 15,000 jobs during the next five years, investing more than £400 million developing its new pubs across the UK and Republic of Ireland.
At present Wetherspoon operates 931 pubs and employs more than 34,000 staff.
The new jobs will be spread across the 200 new pubs, together with extra staff recruited for the company’s existing pubs and head office.
They will include management roles as well as jobs for bar, kitchen and front of house staff.
Wetherspoon chairman Tim Martin said: “We are looking forward to opening the new pubs, many of which will be in areas where Wetherspoon is not yet represented.
“We are proud to be creating so many new jobs.
“Wetherspoon paid more than £600 million in taxes in our last financial year and this will rise to approximately £1 billion in the course of the next five years.”