Wetherspoons is to open its first pub in mainland Europe to quench the thirst of Brits abroad.
Plans have been announced for a boozer at Alicante airport to cater for holidaymakers flocking to the Spanish hotspot and the wider Costa Blanca.
The pub, to be called Castell de Santa Bàrbera, will open in January next year and trade seven days a week, from 6am to 9pm. It will have nearly 1,000 square foot of customer space on one level, together with an external terrace with customer seating.
Wetherspoon founder and chairman Tim Martin said: “ We are very much looking forward to opening our first overseas pub. We believe it will be popular with people travelling home from Alicante Airport. We aim to open a number of pubs overseas in the coming months and years, including those at airports.”
Around 90% of what will be on menu will be the same as other Wetherspoon pubs, including fish and chips and an English fry-up but there will be a few local dishes, such as garlic prawn dishes and Spanish omelette.
When it comes to beer, it will serve Guinness, Stella Artois, local Spanish brews. One area where it will differ is on the floor, where the pub won’t have a specially designed carpet and instead will be piled.
It could be the first of a number of Spoons abroad, after founder and chairman Tim Martin previously said it made sense to have offshoots in Benidorm and Majorca.
And the pub is likely to be busy, with more than 2.6 million Brits visiting the Costa Blanca last year. EasyJet, Ryanair, Jet2, and British Airways all offer direct flights to Alicante.
Among Spoons’ competitors at Alicante-Elche Miguel Hernandez Airport will be the airport’s Enrique Tomás Experience, described as a tasting bar offering 100% acorn-fed ham and other traditional Iberian pork products, such as chorizo and salchichón sausage. The airport also has a Budweiser bar with and outdoor terrace, that’s open from 6am to 9pm.
Like the one in Alicante, and a growing number of UK openings, any overseas expansion is likely to be in the form of a partnership with franchise operators.
Wetherspoons was founded with one pub in Muswell Hill North London in 1984. It reached 955 outlets in 2015 but, following a decade in which it closed more sites than it opened due to cost pressures and changing customer habits, the chain is back to just under 800 across the UK and the Republic of Ireland. It has resisted opening branches elsewhere in Europe – until now.
The Alicante airport pub is part of plans to open around 30 pubs over the next year – its biggest expansion for a decade. Around half the 30 will be run by JD Wetherspoon itself, with the rest run by franchisees, creating 1,800 jobs.
One of Wetherspoon’s largest ever opened at a Haven holiday park in Devon in May this year. The pub, called the Red Rocks, can pack in nearly 700 punters, and can serve as many as 2,000 pints a day.
While other parts of the pub trade are in crisis, Wetherspoons has enjoyed bumper trading. Results out earlier this month showed sales rose 3.7% in the first 14 weeks of its financial year, to November 2. Bar sales increased 5.7%, and food by 0.9%. Profits in the year to late July grew by more than 10% to £81.4million.