THE company planning to turn a Holmfirth cinema into a pub has unveiled plans to open 30 pubs, creating 1,200 jobs, next year.
Pubs operator JD Wetherspoon said the expansion was part of a £60m investment programme for 2007.
It said the move was in readiness for a predicted increase in demand following the introduction of a smoking ban in England and Wales in July.
Wetherspoon has sparked a row in Holmfirth by submitting plans to convert the historic Picturedrome into a pub.
Campaigners have launched a bid to save it.
Holme Valley parish councillors are urging English Heritage to make it a listed building.
Commenting on its expansion plans, Wetherspoon chief executive John Hutson said he hoped that the smoking ban would result in more people visiting pubs.
Wetherspoon, which has two pubs in Huddersfield town centre and one in Brighouse, already operates a smoking ban at some sites.
Said Mr Hutson: "Our non- smoking pubs have proved very popular. This has given us the impetus to open more pubs in 2007."
Wetherspoon opened 12 outlets in 2006, but will invest more than £35m in 30 sites next year, including ones at Sheffield, Bishop Auckland in Co Durham, St Austell, Cornwall, and Devizes in Wiltshire.
The company has 662 pubs.
Wetherspoon said it planned to invest a further £25m in its existing pubs, including creating outside smoking areas.
Most of the jobs announced today will be at the new pubs, which are each likely to employ 20 full-time staff and 10 part-time workers.
