City Pub Co East is to re-launch a coffee shop it acquired in the centre of Oxford as a licensed café after a period of running the site as a pop-up, M&C understands.
The company bought Java Social from Oxford-based Java & Co, which now operates one store in Abingdon.
City Pub Co East chief executive Rupert Clark told M&C that he was currently exploring the potential for the business.
He said: “It was a traditional coffee shop, operating from 7am to 8pm. We have opened up another side of the business with the liquor licence and are working on the food offer. There is a very strong casual dining offer in the area so the pop-up gives us a chance to gauge where we pitch ourselves.”
Clark said the company was keen to showcase as good a coffee offer as its beer selection.
He said: “There are a lot of parallels with beer and consumers now have extremely high standards of what they are looking for. If we can harness that same spirit of being passionate about coffee as we have done successfully with beer then I think that’s very attractive for consumers.”
