The British pub chain, renowned for their cheaply priced booze, caused quite the ructions when they arrived over to our shores last year. Mainly because local pubs felt they would lose punters as they couldn't bring their prices down as low.
The first of the Weatherspoons chain here are in Blackrock (Three Tun Tavern) and Dun Laoghaire (The Forty Foot) with both pubs performing "in line with, if not better than expectations", according to Wetherspoon founder and chairman Tim Martin.
Now it looks like they are doing what everyone figured they inevitably would, and are expanding, with two more locations opening up in Dublin this summer.
They are also taking themselves beyond the capital down to Cork, where a new pub will open there called 'The Linen Weaver' on September 1st. While the pubs in Dublin will be The Great Wood in Blanchardstown opening on June 23rd, and The Old Borough in Swords, which will open July 21st.
This may sound like bad news for pub landlords, but on the plus side, JD Wetherspoon are planning to invest more than six million euros on developing the new pubs and will create approximately 150 jobs. Also, you know, cheap pints are not to be sniffed at... even though we will probably be selling our souls.
Martin told The Irish Times; "Our first two pubs have proven extremely popular and we are looking forward to opening our next three pubs. We have also acquired a number of other sites in the Republic of Ireland and look forward, in due course, to developing and opening them as Wetherspoon pubs. We are also continuing to look for good sites across the Republic of Ireland,” he added.
The chain have also acquired a former homeless shelter on Camden Street and are planning to turn it into a bar and a hotel. (See what we mean about soul selling?) Weatherspoons will also open 30 pubs across Ireland over the next five years, to add to the 900 or so bars across Britain.
So yep, they're here to stay folks, pints are on us.
