British pub group JD Wetherspoon is planning to open new venues in Dublin, Galway, Limerick and Waterford as part of a ramped-up Irish expansion plan for when the hospitality sector is permitted to reopen.
As reported by The Irish Examiner, Wetherspoon chairman Tim Martin said that the group is confident about its growth prospects in Ireland, despite current COVID-19-related business restrictions and the lack of a reopening date for pubs and other hospitality venues.
"Confident About The Bigger Cities"
The Irish Examiner quotes Martin as saying, "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.
"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."
Planned Venues
Wetherspoon is ready to open two new venues in Dublin, one of which will be a so-called superpub/hotel on the capital's Camden Street called Keavan's Port, when COVID-19-related restrictions are lifted, and Martin said that plans for Galway and Limerick are "not far behind".
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