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UK PUB GIANT JD Wetherspoon’s planned march on Ireland could be stalled after Heineken refused to supply its beers to the company’s latest venue in Dún Laoghaire.
The dispute, which led to Wetherspoon pulling the Dutch brewer’s products from all 926 of its venues, appeared to stem from the pub chain significantly undercutting rivals with cheap pints.
Wetherspoon had been charging €2.95 for pints of Heineken at its first Irish pub, The Three Tun Tavern in Blackrock.
The row leaves Wetherspoon’s without a major brand of Irish stout after losing Heineken brand Murphy’s only 6 days before the scheduled opening of its next venue, The Forty Foot Pub in Dún Laoghaire.
The pub chain has already resigned itself to trading without Diageo-supplied beers after claiming the brewer was charging a premium to supply Guinness in Ireland compared to UK prices.
Goodbody analyst Simon Matthews told TheJournal.ie that Wetherspoon’s dispute with Heineken highlighted the problems the pub company faced in making its strategy work in Ireland.
The would be effectively without an Irish stout, which is likely to be an issue for many Irish drinkers,” he said.
“Losing Heineken’s brands would be quite significant as, along with the eponymous lager, they would also lose Fosters which is their ‘known-value product’ in Blackrock at €2.50 a pint.”
Heineken is the best-selling brand of lager in Ireland.
Price cuts to lure punters
Matthews said Wetherspoon had been charging significantly higher prices per pint when they first opened in Blackrock, but they had been forced to undercut rivals to boost their patronage.
“The reason they’re at €3 a pint is because they weren’t getting the required footfall in that establishment,” he said.
I hope that Heineken UK are able to smooth out this dispute because it is in both parties’ interests – but whether the relationship continues in Ireland remains to be seen.”
Wetherspoon opened the Blackrock outlet under its banner in June and has flagged plans to open 30 pubs in Republic over the next 3 years, although its chairman Tim Martin previously said the company’s decisions would depend on how the first venues performed.
In July he told DailyEdge.ie, TheJournal.ie’s sister site, that prices were too high in Ireland and a lack of competition among suppliers was hurting the business.
Suppliers have got to start doing a lot more, and perhaps having another supplier or two in the market might help … I’m trying to be very diplomatic here,” he said at the time.
The chain’s first pub outside Dublin, the venue once known as the Newport Café in Cork, was also due to open soon, and it has spent about €10 million buying and developing 5 sites. It also recently bought the former Light Nightclub in Blachardstown and it planned to sink €3 million into the venue for the pub conversion.
No guarantees
In a statement yesterday, Martin said Heineken had recently asked for a personal guarantee for the first time in 35 years, despite Wetherspoon making a record profit of about £80 million (€101 million) in 2013.
“The refusal to supply Heineken lager and Murphy’s just before the opening of our new pub in Dun Laoghaire, which represents an investment by us of nearly €4 million, is unacceptable and hard to understand,” he said.
Heineken said it was looking for a quick resolution and it was “unfortunate that commercial issues in Ireland” had derailed the companies’ long-standing relationship.
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Is Charlie Flanagan still TD Ah here I give up
This government has managed to get the lifetime of their own government out of the Commission on the Defence Forces. It was lauded in the beginning as a template for change. That was in 2019. The public and others were invited to make submissions in 2020, With the report due for release that December. December came and went, and the report was finally released in february, the Govt sat on it until making the obvious decision to accept the recommendations of LOA2 in July, but with an implementation group who would report back in 6 months. We’ll not go to LOA2 right away though, we’ll do it in phases, increasing defence spending in increments equal to the cost of One military aircraft per year.Here we are now almost June 2023, with nothing substantial achieved apart from a few more high paid civil service posts filled.
Tanagan would have us fighting under the Union Flag if he could. Does anybody really care what he says in this day and age?
Ireland should be a respected neutral country with an army capable of defending the country. Personally I would like weapons that could kill lots of people, this would deter even the worlds biggest countries from invading us.
@Brian Boru:
Nukes…
@Gerry Dornan: whoopee cushions. Can you imagine Putin sitting on one?
Maybe he should get the black and Tans to help out
I’m surprised at Cathal Berry. He should know the one person that will slow this process down to a crawl on that committee. Waiting to appoint a Head of Transformation (there must be a civil servant due retirement)someone who will then appoint someone and hey presto it will be election time. The Sec of the Department was put there for a reason. To make sure Defence is treated at a snails pace. Give nothing to the Military at all costs. I have never seen a Secretary of the Department do or introduce anything constructive EVER. Thats why they are kept.
So the chairperson in charge of a committee for implementing modernisation after meeting 6 times says that a head of transformation is due to be appointed but that other measures are delayed because of the IRG group publication which delayed the development of an implement implementation plan, and that the establishment of an (enquiry) and development of the terms of reference for it and potential interface on both of those and ensuring that the implementation plan is comprehensive also delayed. Please read that back and realise why so much goes at the snails pace mentioned in the article
We should arm and uniform our new Irish brothers, that would be great for everyone.
So the notoriously thin-skinned Flanagan, who was rightly demoted after the last general election, is mouthing off again…
Yawn!
I have a copy of the Epstein Flight log…
go to http://www.realchiefpolice.com or
https://www.buymeacoffee.com/truther
@Real Chieflice Trump MAGA 2024:
Tosspot
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