Customers of JD Wetherspoon, the discount pub operator, are eschewing strong lagers and spirits and opting instead for real ale, wine and coffee.

The company said yesterday that the introduction of the smoking ban had been accompanied by an acceleration in food sales at the expense of a sharp drop in bar takings.

John Hutson, the chief executive, said that wine, coffee and soft drink sales had risen in line with the growth in food sales. It sold more than one million coffees and teas over the Christmas fortnight.

At the same time, beer-drinkers were being drawn by the range, quality and price of real ales sold in Wetherspoon pubs. In a trading update, Wetherspoon reported a 3.2 per cent decline in like-for-like sales for over the key Christmas and new year trading period, slightly worse than expectations.

It added that, although it had made a smaller margin on food sales, it had seen a small improvement on the 0.6 per cent decline in the operating margin suffered in the first quarter.

The 3.2 per cent decrease in comparable sales for the 11-week period to January 13 takes the decline for the first 24 weeks to 2 per cent, with total group sales up by only 0.4 per cent.

Mr Hutson said that he remained “cautious regarding the outlook for this financial year”, but continued to believe that a smoke-free environment would boost business over the medium to long term.

He argued that the group's lower prices would help it to ride any downturn. Mr Hutson said that in the seven months since the introduction of the smoking ban in England, like-for-likes had fallen by 1 per cent, which he said was “not a bad performance”.

Shares of Wetherspoon rose by 11p to 304p as analysts shaved their earnings forecasts. Dresdner Kleinwort, its house broker, cut its pre-tax profit estimate from £63 million to £59.7 million against last year's figure of almost £63 million.

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