From lager to latte: Coffee shops will soon overtake pubs

COFFEE shops could outnumber pubs in Britain by 2030, a study has found.

While 21 coffee shops are opened each week, between 21 and 25 pubs are closed, often becoming stores or homes.

The switch from lager to latte means the number of coffee shops has increased from 10,000 in 2007 to 24,000 today.

By contrast, there were around 75,000 pubs in the 1970s – compared with 47,000 now.

If these trends continue at the same rate, coffee shops will have overtaken pubs by 2030, according to research for the London Coffee Festival.

The study found that coffee shops, which employ 160,000 baristas serving 2.4billion cups a year, contribute nearly £10billion a year to the economy.

And as many as four in ten Britons said they had upped their coffee consumption in the last year.

The UK’s biggest coffee chain, Costa, was founded in 1971 in London and has now expanded to 3,400 stores in 31 countries.

Jeffrey Young, of London Coffee Festival, said: ‘For the industry to be contributing almost £10billion per year to the economy is an incredible achievement and shows how coffee has come to be the go-to drink for Brits – and how advanced coffee-shop culture has become.’