Whole lotta latte Coffee shops to overtake pubs

THE pint is losing the battle with the perfect cappuccino.

As the number of pubs keeps falling, a report reveals that more than 1,200 coffee shops opened in the past year.

If the trend continues there will be more coffee outlets than boozers by 2030 as our love of lattes keeps growing.

Jeffrey Young, founder of The London Coffee Festival, which is behind the report, said: “Even in the face of market uncertainty with Brexit, the UK’S love affair with coffee shows no signs of stopping.” There are around 24,000 coffee shops across the nation. However, the number of pubs has crashed from 67,800 in 1982 to about 50,000 in 2016 – with roughly 10 shutting down every week at the moment.

Festival’s upcoming report says we drink 2.4 billion cups of coffee per year from coffee shops – up 4% on 2016.

Almost two in 10 say they buy a coffee every day. The report adds the coffee shop industry is worth £9.6billion to the economy and employs 160,000 baristas.

Big chains Starbucks, Costa and Caffe Nero dominate the high street but the research says they only account for 19% of all coffee sales.

Taxes, rising costs, changing habits and cheap competition from supermarkets are among the reasons why so many pubs are being killed off. David Wilson, director of public affairs at the British Beer and Pub Association, said: “The number of UK pubs has fallen over the past 20 years, however in recent years the rate of decline has slowed and larger pubs with more floor space are opening across the country.

“However, pubs continue to face cost pressures, with British beer drinkers paying the third highest beer tax in Europe and our pubs paying disproportionately high business rates.”