Licensed Wisdom XIX
“In Spain people tell me that they would love to visit Ireland but the wine is too expensive and we like to have wine with our food. To understand how they feel about the Irish market, imagine going to Spain and paying €18 for a pint of Guinness!” – Sergio Soriano Cano from Grupo Barón de Ley, the fourth-largest Spanish wine exporter in the Irish market.
“It appears that the Chief Medical Officer for England, Professor Sally Davies, was heavily influenced by the Institute for Alcohol Studies, which is funded by the Alliance House Foundation, whose former name was the UK Temperance Alliance. The alliance grew out of the temperance movement in the United States that campaigned for prohibition in the 20th Century.” – Beer writer and Editor of the Good Beer Guide Roger Protz in the UK trade newspaper The Morning Advertiser.
“In some instances the cost of carrying these extra channels can amount to up to 10% of the actual turnover of the pub” – VFI Chief Executive Padraig Cribben on the high cost of televising live sport in pubs.
“I sometimes think Dublin hoteliers are lazy. They’re not that innovative. And it’s worrying for us because Dublin is the driver for the country. But the offering for American tourists is the same old. There’s no authenticity.” – Bill Wolsey, owner of Ireland’s biggest hospitality group, the Belfast-based Beannchor Group, on his intentions to move into the Dublin hotel scene.
“Pubs are re-inventing themselves and reclaiming the ‘third space’ that the coffee shops have stolen. That’s where the pubs should have been all along but they didn’t keep up.” – Simon Stenning, Executive Director of MCA, at this year’s Bord Bia Foodservice Seminar.
