Expert panellists at Publican Live spell out benefits of training

Training staff, offering deals on snack items and constantly monitoring the quality of your beer was the advice on offer to licensees at the Sell More Save More workshop at this year's Publican Live.

A panel of industry experts joined licensees Simon Tanner and Carlos Alfaro at the Publican Theatre for the first of a number of free seminars set to run throughout the three-day event at London's Olympia this week.

Tanner and Alfaro of the White Hart, Wiveliscombe, near Taunton in Somerset, were one of three sets of licensees to take part in the first Sell More Save More project, which saw 12 industry experts offer advice on how to increase sales and profits.

"It's been a great asset to us," said Alfaro. "Since we reopened six weeks ago the early indications are that we have increased our sales by 15 to 18 per cent, although my gut feeling is it is higher than that."

On the panel at the event were Carl May of child-friendly pub accreditation scheme Catered4thekids, Ron Colley of beer monitoring group Brulines and Phil Childs of Walkers Snacks.

May said that pubs must invest more time in training their staff on product knowledge and upselling. "This is an evolutionary period and the strong will survive. Those that sit there saying it's not like 10 years ago will go under."

Walkers' Childs advised licensees to stock a wide range of snacks aimed specifically at their customer base, and to ensure visibility.

"Seventy per cent of customers purchase on their first visit to the bar, so it's so important to have them on display."

Brulines' Colley advised that by monitoring beer temperature ands cleaning lines every week pubs could increase sales by up to three per cent.

For more on Sell More Save More, visit www.thepublican.com/sellmore​.