PubRepublik website launched
A new websiste, PubRepublik, intends to help pubs and hotels reach a wider audience and to promote events and festivals in pubs to help entice consumers back to the on-trade.
The VFI warned recently that as volume sales and employment in the pub trade continue to decline, some 3,000 jobs in the on-trade have been lost in the first half of 2010 through the closure of pubs. It predicted that this year alone, some 550 will shut down.
In other pubs' revenues have collapsed by 60 per cent over the last five years.
Set up by Paul Upstone, himself the son of a publican, the website was initially launched in Cork but is now being rolled out nationwide.
"We hear of the doom and gloom, pub doors closing for good," explained South Tipp-based Paul, "Yet so many landlords are striving to provide better facilities and this should be celebrated.
"Even in today's climate, we all still love to get out and have a drink with friends and family.
"If I am going somewhere different, I sometimes like to know what is on offer beforehand and PubRepublik allows people to do just that," he explained.
The site functions as a search engine for Irish pubs and hotels and allows them to highlight their forthcoming attractions.
The VFI has warned that if the current crisis persists, job losses could reach the 5,000-mark by 2011.
In the Cork region, for example, 109 pubs have failed to renew their licence for 2010. This compares to a similar figure for the period 2007 to 2009.
"I have never seen anything this bad before in my lifetime — pubs are closing down all over the place," commented the VFI's Vice Chairman for County Cork Dan Dennehy of Bob's Bar in Kanturk's Percival Street, who pointed out that in Cork alone, 130 pubs have shut down over the course of the past year with 550 expected to shut down outside Dublin in 2010.
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