Research commissioned on behalf of the 2018 London Coffee Festival has revealed that by 2030, coffee shops are set to outnumber pubs on Britain’s high streets. In the UK, we’re currently seeing around 21 new coffee shops opening every week, while a similar number of pubs are shutting their doors for the final time. With the demand for housing increasing, pubs are often turned into housing…or even coffee shops, to serve the demands of a bigger community.
In the last ten years or so, the number of UK coffee shops has gone up from 10,000 as of 2007 to 24,000 today. Our pubs have reduced in quantity from around 75,000 to 47,000 over a 40-year period.
If this continues, the UK’s coffee shops are set to overtake pubs in the next 12 years. Current figures indicate that the UK’s coffee shop business is worth £9.6 billion a year, and as a nation we drink around 2.4 billion cups annually, an increase of 4% from 2017.
Around two fifths of us are drinking more coffee in coffee shops than we did a year ago, despite average prices being around £3 a cup. Around 20 per cent of us visit our local coffee shop at least once a day, keeping the UK’s 160,000 baristas on their toes.
UK coffee culture is becoming increasingly more advanced, with establishments offering a choice of everything from flavouring to type of milk with your drink. Although large chains such as Costa and Starbucks are still ubiquitous, there’s a rise in small, independent coffee shops as customers become increasingly savvy about what they’re drinking.
Here at the Wholesale Coffee Company we specialising in supplying a range of top quality coffee and accessories to the coffee industry, all at great wholesale prices. To view our full range and see how we can help your cafe, restaurant, office or hotel, visit our main website at www.wholesalecoffeecompany.co.uk.