An Isle of Wight beer festival in its second year is appealing to pubs and bars from Wootton to Sandown to help drive footfall around the area this May.
Organiser Rob Madigan, owner of The Star Coffee & Ale House in Ryde, is hoping that pubs across the Island will join the festival in an effort to increase footfall and give each venue an uplift.
Each venue will put on its own festival, whilst under the North East Ale Trail umbrella.
Rob, who took over The Star Coffee & Ale House in 2021, has said:
“It’s a great chance for these pubs to get onto this great Ale Trail as this is a very difficult time for hospitality.”
The festival and Ale Trail is to be held from the 14th-17th May.
If you’d like your pub to be involved, email [email protected].
Who would have ever thought we would have seen the days where
Coffee shops are more in demand than pubs.
Coffee is even more expensive per ml than booze
Maybe it’s time for pubs to convert from booze to coffee.
Less duty to be paid to the Government selling coffee than
booze.
It’s a no brainer.
I’ll drink to that, bottoms up.
Lol
Pubs aren’t losing trade because coffee suddenly exists. They’re dealing with higher energy bills, rising business rates, wage increases, supplier costs and alcohol duty, all while being expected to provide space, staff, security and licensing compliance. Selling coffee instead of beer doesn’t remove most of those costs.
Comparing drinks per millilitre completely ignores how hospitality works. A pub isn’t just a liquid dispenser, it’s a licensed social venue with overheads a coffee shop doesn’t carry in the same way. If converting to coffee was genuinely “a no brainer,” the market would have corrected itself already. It hasn’t, because the issue is far more complex than that.
Enjoy your anxiety and fried nervous system from caffeine
Personal jabs instead of counter points says it all. We were discussing hospitality economics, not your opinions on caffeine. If that’s the best you’ve got, I think we’re done here.
Coffee is King