Wetherspoon targets Munster in growth plan

The British pub group is planning new bar openings in Limerick, Waterford, Galway and Dublin as part of a ramped-up Irish expansion plan for when the hospitality sector reopens

Wetherspoon chairman Tim Martin said the company remains confident in its overall growth prospects in Ireland.

British pub group JD Wetherspoon is planning new bar openings in Limerick, Waterford, Galway and Dublin as part of a ramped-up Irish expansion plan for when the hospitality sector reopens.

With the company having previously said it would like to open more pubs in Cork – where it currently has one, in the form of The Linen Weaver on Paul Street in the city centre – Munster is likely to feature prominently in the expansion.

Wetherspoon chairman Tim Martin said the company remains confident in its overall growth prospects in Ireland, despite the current lockdown restrictions and lack of clarity over when and how the pub and hospitality sectors might reopen.

“Whereas a slow reopening increases financial pressure on all businesses, it hasn’t affected our expansion plans. We plan to open new pubs in Dublin, Galway, Limerick and Waterford in due course,” Mr Martin said.

“We’re confident about the bigger cities – Dublin and Cork have been very successful. We don’t know yet about smaller towns, where a lot of our pubs are located in the UK. Carlow is the smallest town we’ve opened in [in Ireland]. It had a slow start, but picked up before the pandemic,” he said.

Superpub

Wetherspoon is ready to open two new premises in Dublin – one being its superpub/hotel project on Camden Street – once the Covid restrictions are lifted and Mr Martin said plans for Galway and Limerick are “not far behind”.

At a development cost of €21m, the hotel/pub site – called Keavan’s Port on Camden Street – will be the group’s largest ever project anywhere.

Wetherspoon already has seven pubs operating in Ireland – five in Dublin, one in Cork and one in Carlow. It has a long-term plan to have about 30 operating here.

Mr Martin was speaking after Wetherspoon posted heavy losses for the first half of its current financial year. The group reported a pre-tax loss of £46.2m (€53.9m) for the six months to the end of February, compared to a profit of £57.9m for the same period last year.

Covid restrictions in Ireland and particularly the UK, where the group operates about 800 pubs, hit both its bottom and top lines – first half revenues falling by nearly 54% year-on-year to £431.1m.

Despite more clarity existing in the UK over an emergence to lockdown, Mr Martin called for an end to lockdown measures in that country, saying the future of the pub trade is at stake.

'Economic and social mayhem'

“The future of the industry, and of the UK economy, depends on a consistent set of sensible policies, and the ending of lockdowns and tier systems, which have created economic and social mayhem and colossal debts, with no apparent health benefits,” he said.

Last year, Wetherspoon was looking to hold off on investment plans until there was more certainty over reopening plans. The commencement of vaccine rollout programmes in both countries has led it to be more upbeat on future expansion plans.

The group has also previously said it would consider opening bars in Irish airport terminals as part of its expansion here. It has bars in six UK airports, including Gatwick, Heathrow and Stansted in London.