Pub operator Fluid diversifies into coffee shops

A Newcastle pub operator is diversifying into coffee shops.

Fluid — which has just won the Best Operator for its seven Newcastle pubs in the Best Bar None Awards — runs the Central Bean coffee house in Gallowgate.

A second outlet is on course to open this year and the group is now "aggressively" looking for more sites.

Director David King said: "We thought we would be able to do a high-end upmarket coffee house and we went to the US for research. We want to compete with the big boys.

"It's going very well in Gallowgate and we're opening on Northumberland Street — the Hub — on the site of the old Metro station, all being well, in September.

"We will allow the coffee chain to become as big as we're comfortable dealing with.

"At the moment, it's part of the overall portfolio but I certainly see it as being far more than two. We are aggressively looking for sites."

The Fluid Group has taken the same attitude of steady growth to its bars — Barluga, Perdu, Fluid Bar, Pacific, The Mushroom, Quilted Camel and Blackie Boy.

"We're a quite slow burn sort of company. We move slowly and advance our portfolio of bars very slowly. It would become a little more challenging if you woke up in the morning and suddenly found you've bought 30 pubs.

"We don't have a brand or a chain in the bar side of things. To the outside world, one's a

community pub on the city, and another might be a glitzy pub in the city. We are very site specific."

The group, which has more than 260 staff in Newcastle, won the overall gong in this year's Best Bar None awards, a Home Office-backed scheme to promote safer drinking, as well as a silver award for Barluga in the best pub category and bronze for Perdu in the best pub section.