The rhetoric & the reality. Wetherspoons goes beyond Brexit
Wetherspoon are set to open their first pub outside of Britain and Ireland in January 2026 when a Spoons will welcome drinkers at Alicante airport in Spain. The airport is heavily used by Brits returning from holiday and Spoons already have UK airport bars.
The pub will reportedly sell Guinness and Stella (and probably not real ale) and most of the food will be familiar from the British menu with the addition of garlic prawns, Spanish omelettes and a few other nods to the local cuisine. Perhaps the most notable change will be the use of Spanish tiles on the floor rather than the trademark Spoons patterned carpets.
The decision to open in Spain is clearly a business one, and Spoons has a duty to shareholders to maximise profits. The rhetoric of course has been very different. Tim Martin gave £200K to Vote Leave in 2016 and was a vocal supporter of Brexit and Boris Johnson.
Wetherspoons will run the Alicante bar from a new subsidiary based in Dublin to get around Brexit issues when dealing with the EU. That is quite a usual device for UK based companies but it also underlines that business and Brexit was more rhetoric than reality
Others have commented that there is/was a Spoons on the Isle of Man, which apparently isn’t part of GB. I didn’t know that until I googled it. Lol.
As a frequent visitor to Alicante Airport I shall check it out next time I’m there. I can imagine it will be well used!
Gill