Pub food: business boosters
Ideas for driving food sales at your pub
Coffee and cake offers
Where: Pivo bar, York, www.pivocafebar.com
The idea: Selling hand-made cakes and premium coffee, hot chocolate and tea, all day, every day in a relaxed Continental café bar-style setting.
What we needed: Manager Nikki Cameron says: "Storage and display space for cakes and the espresso machine have been worthwhile investments. Our staff required training in crafting the variety of coffee styles properly. We market via our website and networking sites such as Facebook. Word of mouth has been invaluable and a strong indication of our quality and service. More traditionally we use A-boards and give the products prominence in our beer menu."
Business benefits: "The offer encourages customers into the bar during the day who would ordinarily be unlikely to visit, giving us an opportunity to showcase our full product range. As we are off the beaten track we find people who happen to find us by chance during the day, attracted by our coffee and cake, often become regular evening customers.
Special deals such as coffee and cake for £3.50 make the bar an excellent choice for couples and groups who want to accommodate non-drinkers without compromising on quality. We market these products in tandem with our more traditional offerings, such as our pork pie & pint deals, which give us a broad base of appeal. On average we sell 100 hot beverages and 20 portions of cake weekly, which boosts beer sales indirectly by about 2% through repeat trade in the evening."
Top tip: "Customer experience and quality are key. Offer table service during the day whenever possible. Don't compromise on the quality of products."
Why do it: Tempting daytime offers will attract regular customers back in the evenings.
Village nights on a weekday
Where: the Royal Oak, Poynings, West Sussex
The idea: Manager Alex Tipping says: "We introduced our Village Night on Mondays in late October when weekday evening business began to slow down. As Monday was usually our quietest night, we wanted to attract the locals from Poynings and surrounding villages, and our plan seems to have worked. Village Night starts at 6pm: we offer a main dish for £5 and a dessert for £3. There is always a choice of a meat and vegetarian dish, using the freshest and most locally-sourced ingredients possible."
What we needed: "One good thing about Village Night is that no additional staff training is required. We simply print special menus to put on the bar from 6pm. To keep locals happy we provide a selection of retro board games, and plan to install a dartboard. We send a weekly email to customers on our database and write our menu every Tuesday for the following week. Village Night is also mentioned in our monthly newsletter."
Business benefit: "We used to do 15 covers on a Monday night — now we are doing 70. Since word got round that you can get a decent meal here for a fiver, we are gaining new customers every week. Takings are up nearly 50% on Mondays, and wet sales are way up as people are drinking again."
Top tip: "Give the locals what they want and they will publicise your event or promotion by word of mouth."
Why do it: There are plenty of rewards in giving something back to the community.
Sausage club
Where: Crown Inn, Waterside, Evesham, Worcestershire
The idea: Evesham Sausage Club. Licensee Sharon McCullough says: "Every day we offer a great selection of eight succulent award-winning sausages and serve a special guest sausage each month, such as the Vale Porker (pork & asparagus), or the Pershore (pork & plum). Our dishes cost £5.95 and come with a choice of mashes, vegetables and gravies. We also offer salads and other dishes featuring sausages."
What we needed: "We invited 30 people, including the mayor, to a successful sausage-tasting evening and served free glasses of local cider. We've extended our range of suppliers and now use four butchers in the area, each providing their speciality sausages. Advertising is mostly by word of mouth and we use a banner outside the pub, as well as our website, to promote the club. Seasonal sausages such as pork, Stilton and chestnut are very popular."
Business benefit: "Customers keep up to date with the sausage of the month by subscribing to our monthly newsletter via our website. Our loyalty card helps trade further: dining at the sausage club six times brings a free meal at the value of the lowest price on the loyalty card. Sales have risen about 40%, and it's fun for the customers to be part of the club."
Top tip: Ask customers personally for feedback and recommendations. They love feeling consulted and involved.
Why do it: The sausage club offers customers something different, yet familiar.
