It's time to get your strategy in place for Christmas. By Phil Mellows.
Geoff Bradman, managing director of beer importer Hamana, sums it up succinctly. "Christmas is a unique time of year," he says. "There are more pub-going occasions and there is more emphasis on dining out. Consumers are willing to experiment as well as trade up and treat themselves to something special.
"Different venues may be visited with different friends on different nights of the week all of which add up to incremental business building opportunities for the licensee."
So there you have it. But you can't just sit back and wait for those festive tills to start jingling of their own accord. Preparation is all.
With a name like Spirit you would expect Britain's biggest managed pub group to be on the ball at Christmas, and director of drinks Andrew Villars is already confident that the company has everything in place to make the most of the festive mood.
"Christmas is a time when the whole company gets together to give us a real push," he says. It will properly start for us on November 24 when all our pubs will be dressed and our food-led outlets will be putting on the Christmas fare."
Spirit's managers have already begun to market their Christmas set menus to local businesses, not only with flyers but by cold calling offices and factories - armed with scripts prepared for them at Spirit HQ.
Specifications for preparing for the food will be sent out early in November and staff will start training, boosting their confidence by cooking the dishes before serving them for real.
Spirit customers will be tempted by different drinks, too."The challenge is to make the experience at our pubs something exciting and new, giving people drinks they've not seen before," says Andrew. "At this time of year you have to allow customers to treat themselves."
Christmas drinks will this year include a range of cocktails - alcoholic and non-alcoholic. The wine offer will be upgraded, champagnes and other sparklers will be put on the list and more liqueurs will be bought. Some pubs will have mulled wine and others will stage a cask ale festival featuring seasonal brews.
Spirit staff will get a taste of Christmas at their pubs through a roadshow which will stress to them the importance of service - and give them help to maintain standards as the bar gets busier.
All house managers will have a Christmas checklist to make sure the preparations are on track and 85 per cent of them will be staging some kind of themed party.
Prepare for a Sunday Christmas
Once again, Christmas will fall on December 25. But for licensees bored with the same old challenge it's on a different day of the week.
This time it's a Sunday, so pubs can expect a steady build-up of trade during the week leading up to it with a sharp peak on the Thursday and Friday when many workers will be starting the holiday.
With no weekend between Christmas and New Year you should also plan a strategy to maintain trade during the gap. Both Monday and Tuesday will be a bank holiday and there's a good opportunity to attract families for meals and lay on a more relaxed atmosphere before the action gears up again towards New Year's Eve.
But the great variable at Christmas 2005 will, of course, be the new licensing regime, which should be in force by November 24.
If you've got extra hours this will be an early chance to see just what difference they can make to your trade - but make sure you plan your staffing needs to take full advantage.
Greene King has Christmas covered
Greene King Pub Partners is giving its tenanted and leased pubs the best chance of a happy Christmas with an extensive package of promotions and marketing support.
Food-led pubs can take advantage of pre-designed Christmas menus and posters available on the brewer's extranet website. Licensees can print them off from their own computer or take up a deal with a designated print company.
Meanwhile, a spirits promotion called "Christmas All Wrapped Up" gives drinkers access to a huge sale on the Greene King and Argos online gift shop. For pubs holding Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve parties there are kits to make sure they go with a swing, including posters, invitations, party blowers and poppers, disposable cameras, hats and more.
Pub Partners has also developed a solution for licensees who want to make the most of the Christmas rush and get their customers back in January. A Christmas card bounce-back kit contains a set of cards personalised for each pub and includes six options for future rewards from money-off meals to free bottles of wine, from which the licensee can choose four.
By handing out the cards during December licensees can reward customer loyalty while ensuring business continues through the quieter winter months.
More on stocking up for Christmas:
- Get the drinks in: How do you decide what to prioritise at Christmas? Click here.
- Peggy's Pick of the Products: We persuaded Peggy to take a break from polishing up her sixpenny bits - for the Christmas puds, of course - to cast a professional eye over some of the seasonal fare on offer to the trade. Click here.
- Deck the halls: The run-up to Christmas presents many business-boosting opportunities in the shape of food offers. Why not take advantage? Click here.
- Them apples: Cider may not be the drink that immediately springs to mind when it comes to Christmas fare, but this year, at least, it has something going for it. Click here.
- Beer and food matching: Beer and food matching has really caught on over the past year, with publicans and chefs alike, and Christmas could be a prime time to give it a try. Click here.