Sandwiches and hot drinks: easy money?

Pub menus are getting increasingly sophisticated and diverse, as we have seen elsewhere in this year's Food Report.

But there will always be space on most menus for the quick, easy to prepare and often profitable pub sandwich. The statistics bear that out, with only 14 per cent of respondents to this year's report admitting to not serving them up.

Many are also offering up filled baguettes (53 per cent) and filled rolls (29 per cent), while the wrap also appears to be creeping on to a growing number of pub menus, as pubs look to broaden their lunchtime offer.

And when it comes to what goes inside, there's a new star at the top of the charts this year.

While ham is still the most popular pub sandwiches, sitting alongside it is as the best-selling sarny ini 16 per cent of pubs bacon - or variations thereof, such as bacon & brie and bacon & stilton.

Next on the list come cheese (12 per cent) and chicken (8 per cent), while you have to go much further down to find the prawn sandwiches (3 per cent) so beloved of middle England.

Punch food development manager Alan Todd urges pubs to look around themselves and target their sandwich offer accordingly.

"Pub food is big business if you can get it right, which is why it is so important for pubs to research and plan their offer," he says. "They might be close to an office or business park where people need a fast and reasonably priced offer, or if close to country walks, ramblers may want hot snacks and sandwiches to go."

The beauty of the humble sandwich, and one of the reasons it remains so important to the pub trade, is that it can be prepared at any time, usually with minimal fuss.

"Traditional food serving hours of noon to 2pm and 6pm to 8pm in the evening are changing," he says.

"Pubs need to think about how they can generate sales and profit throughout the whole day. Ultimately they must deliver good quality, good service and good value consistently."

Wake up and smell the…​

Most people know that Wetherspoons is now one of the biggest coffee retailers in the UK. Chairman Tim Martin directly attributed a healthy rise in profits across the 700-strong pub chain announced in September to the combination of coffee with the other elements of the group's offer.

So why aren't more pubs selling fresh coffee in 2009? The Food Report data shows that, while 92 per cent are now selling tea or coffee, only six out of 10 (59 per cent) are selling cappuccinos, lattes and the other speciality coffees that can offer command relatively high prices and margins.

More than half of pubs (52 per cent), meanwhile, do not have a coffee menu, and appear to be relying solely on blackboards and word-of-mouth to sell the category.

Make no mistake about it - coffee is a high-margin activity, with the average cost of producing a standard cappuccino or latte around 25p, and the average selling price nudging £2.

Supplier Rombouts urges pubs not to overcomplicate their coffee offer, to present it to customers in as simple a way as possible, and to consider linking in cakes and sandwiches with price promotions.

Tea and other hot drinks should not be forgotten as well, with pubs urged to ensure they have a full range of alternatives such as decaffeinated and herbal options, alongside the more usual 'cuppa'.