Pontarddulais is a town in South Wales whose name translates literally to Bridge on the Black Stream.

In 1839, the Llanelli Dock Company built a railway line through the town to take anthracite coal to Llanelli from the Amman Valley (Sound familiar?)

When six tinplate works were founded, the town went from being a railway junction to an industrial community in its own right, attracting workers from as far as Italy to come and work here. Unfortunately, industry began to decline in the 1950s as more modern tinplate works moved into nearby towns, and Pontarddulais started to become the commuter town it is now.

Nowadays, Pontarddulais has a population of around 9,000 and is known for its beautiful scenery and warm community feel; and, now, for its coffee.

The café demonstrated the next phase of Coaltown Espresso Bars and set the blueprint for further locations to be developed in the near future.

Pontarddulais had long been a town we saw great potential in for opening our second espresso bar location. Like everyone else, Covid put our expansion plans on hold, but we remained confident that once life returned to a new form of normality, we would continue moving forward with this location.

The project was finally back in full swing at the beginning of spring 2023, with all departments of the Coaltown team involved in setting up the location, from aesthetic direction and café workflow through to visualisation and final installation.

The café demonstrated the next phase of Coaltown Espresso Bars and set the blueprint for further locations to be developed in the near future.