Watch out for one near you.
British pub chain Wetherspoons are set the double the amount of bars in Ireland in the next year to year and a half, Wetherspoons founder Tim Martin revealed today.
Speaking to the Irish Times, Martin revealed that plans were in place to open five or six new pubs in Ireland over the next 12 to 18 months to add to the five bars currently operating in the country.
Martin has been extremely pleased by the reception to the five existing Wetherspoons pubs in Ireland – The Three Tun Tavern in Blackrock, The Forty Foot in Dun Laoghaire, The Great Wood in Blanchardstown, The Old Borough in Swords and The Linen Weaver in Cork – and expects to double the Wetherspoons presence between now and early 2017.
“It’s still early days in Ireland with us just having opened four out of our five bars in recent months but there’s been an extremely good reception and it is obvious that people like our pubs,” Martin told The Irish Times.
“We’re delighted with the sites and with the sales so far and the only people who don’t seem to be excited by our presence in Ireland are Guinness and Heineken for whom I’m about as popular as Vladimir Putin is in Kiev.”
Wetherspoons don’t sell Guinness or Heineken in any of their Irish pubs, but it hasn’t seemed to do much harm to their business and Martin revealed that further details about their expansion plans will become clear at a later date.
“There might be a bit of a pause while we get planning permission and licensing together but we’re hoping to open another five or six pubs over the next 12 to 18 months,” he added.
Wetherspoons have already committed to developing a pub and hotel at the site of a former homeless hostel on Dublin’s Camden Street (above).
There are also plans to open new pubs in Waterford and Cork, leaving them on track to reach a previously stated target of 30 new pubs in Ireland in five years.
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