{"id":317,"date":"2024-05-15T19:44:50","date_gmt":"2024-05-15T18:44:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/journalists.org.uk\/daniel-finch\/?p=317"},"modified":"2024-05-17T01:56:12","modified_gmt":"2024-05-17T00:56:12","slug":"jd-wetherspoon-partnership","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/journalists.org.uk\/daniel-finch\/2024\/05\/15\/jd-wetherspoon-partnership\/","title":{"rendered":"JD Wetherspoon partnership revives Newcastle University student bar"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Image: Dan Finch<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A student bar in Newcastle has seen unprecedented success after teaming up with JD Wetherspoon.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Luther’s Bar matched its previous annual profit in just nineteen weeks following its partnership with the pub chain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Newcastle University site announced the conversion in September 2023 before reopening its doors on Friday 15 September. The collaboration promised to offer an extensive food and drinks menu as well as more student job vacancies at the Union. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

NUSU<\/a> Commercial and Operations Director, Graham Hattam, said: \u201cIt was obvious after initial conversations that it had the potential to be very successful. The brand is known, pretty good value for money and it\u2019s just very simple. You know what you\u2019re going to get.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLuther\u2019s previously had to be explained to students, whilst now, you don\u2019t have to.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This comes after Wetherspoon undertaking a similar endeavour with Hull University’s Sanctuary bar in January 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conversations between the Newcastle and Wetherspoon teams developed following a visit by the former to the Hull venue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Luther’s seating area during the day. Image: Dan Finch.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Having never served food on campus before, Luther\u2019s owes a staggering proportion of turnover to its new culinary offering. Graham adds: \u201cFifty percent of our uplift is on food. That\u2019s where the growth opportunities are.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat we\u2019re seeing now is breakfast, lunch, afternoon, and evening trade all split pretty equally. We\u2019ve got consistency right across the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

“In nineteen weeks, we achieved what we did in the whole of last year.\u201d<\/p>\nGraham Hattam, NUSU Commercial and Operations Director<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Newcastle University students are benefiting from the well-known pub company\u2019s cheap alcohol and budget promotions such as \u2018Thursday Curry Club\u2019 and free hot drinks refills.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The prospects for students are not only limited to affordable lunches on campus. The previous staff body of 30 has well over doubled to 70 as a result of the bar\u2019s gain in popularity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Existing staff were able to continue their employment under the management of NUSU but underwent the same training and induction as Wetherspoon staff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NUSU<\/a> president, Shah Yaseen Ali, initially said: \u201cThe expansion of job opportunities within the bar will be welcomed by many of our students affected by the current cost-of-living crisis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe partnership will also strengthen our commercial endeavours and enhance the overall student experience.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
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Boneless basket (\u00a39.25)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Small Quorn\u2122 nuggets wrap (\u00a33.66)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Pepperoni pizza (\u00a310.43)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beth Gibbons, a third-year student, said: \u201cIt\u2019s very affordable which is good for students and I actually like the food as well. Last year, I had to leave campus if I wanted something cheap for lunch but now there is no need.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The difference in demand trends across the current and previous academic years can be seen both in profit levels and student opinion. Lucy Humphreys, a regular in her second year at the university, added: \u201cI came a couple of times at the start of my first year but never again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt has one hundred per cent got busier since then. Now, when I come here at lunchtime, it is packed and I can\u2019t find a seat.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Luther\u2019s Bar is open every day of the week between 8:00am and 11:00pm. Food is served until 10:00pm.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A student bar in Newcastle has seen unprecedented success after teaming up with JD Wetherspoon. Luther’s Bar matched its previous annual profit in just nineteen weeks following its partnership with the pub chain. The Newcastle University site announced the conversion in September 2023 before reopening its doors on Friday 15 September. The collaboration promised to offer […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wds_primary_category":21,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-317","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-campus"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/journalists.org.uk\/daniel-finch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/journalists.org.uk\/daniel-finch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/journalists.org.uk\/daniel-finch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journalists.org.uk\/daniel-finch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journalists.org.uk\/daniel-finch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=317"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/journalists.org.uk\/daniel-finch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/journalists.org.uk\/daniel-finch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journalists.org.uk\/daniel-finch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journalists.org.uk\/daniel-finch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}