Pub Snacks: Superior snacking

There was a time when a bag of nuts or a packet of ready salted crisps were the only foods customers could eat at most pubs. Today, with a huge growth in pub dining and the rise of the gastropub, customers now expect much higher quality and choice when it comes to pub food. Although many pubs have capitalised on this and adapted to provide high-quality meals, the key market of pub snacks has often been neglected.

Bar snacks done well can help add a vital revenue stream, stop customers leaving when hungry and even bring in new customers.

Although traditional bar snacks such as nuts, crisps and pork scratchings remain popular, customers tend to expect a little more than a few bags behind the counter.

Paul Purcell, owner of snack supplier Premier Pub Products, believes that the problem in the snack market derives from the way in which pub snacks are perceived. He says that years of stocking the same products and flavours, from the same suppliers, has meant there is little variation at the bar, preventing growth in the market. He says: "Most pub snacks are based on salt, but what interests people more is different flavours".

Purcell points to rapid rise of wasabi-flavoured nuts and wasabi peas as an examples of popular products that can help add variety to the bar snack offer. Purcell recognises that stocking different products could prove risky, but he says that just because customers haven't requested certain flavours, it doesn't mean they won't be successful if stocked and displayed prominently. "People don't ask for what you haven't got and what they don't need. You have to offer products before people will show interest," he says.

Nick Stuart, commercial manager at United Biscuits UK, which owns McCoy's crisps and KP nuts, agrees that barstaff can play a key role in introducing customers to new flavours. "Customers tend to ask for what they know but will often trade up to something different if it is pointed out to them," he says.

The way that traditional bar snacks are displayed also has an important impact on sales. Steve Harris, who runs hairybarsnacks.com, a website devoted to pork scratchings, says that some pubs seem to be embarrassed by bar snacks and tend to keep them hidden away beneath the bar or out of sight. He says: "Sometimes pork scratchings, for example, are treated like porn, or condoms at the chemist.

"There are a lot of pubs that, if they put them on display, they'd sell thousands. I really do think that if you clearly display them people will buy them."

Harris also believes that a lot of pubs that do display their snacks prominently lose sales once stocks run low, as they end up selling their display packets and not replacing them. "That's the selling point," he says. "If you ran out of Foster's, you wouldn't suddenly take the pump down and not replace it".

Purcell agrees and says: "Display is 90 per cent of sales. If products aren't displayed properly, you don't get sales penetration."

Munchie makeovers

Changing the way the products appear behind the bar can also change the way they are perceived. Charlie Martin, sales and marketing director at Welco foods, points to the trend of displaying nuts using jars behind the bar. "That is becoming ever more popular. The margin that the pub can gain from that is greatly increased compared with selling a packet. Buying bulk is obviously more cost-effective than buying pre-packed product, so therefore you are paying less per gram and therefore their margin is greater."

He says that suppliers like his company provide jars with the product name on, and they support that by providing table-top marketing cards.

Martin says that pubs cannot rely on selling well-known brands for high prices, because "everybody knows you can go to the local Tesco or garage forecourt and buy three packs for that price".

To counter competition from shops that sell crisps and snacks at cheap prices, Martin suggests that pubs should focus on brands that are not available elsewhere. "For example, we sell Pipers, crisps which aren't available in any supermarket, which gives pubs the confidence to stock them and command a premium price point," he says. "The secret is to sell things that aren't available in supermarkets for cheaper."

Alex Albone of Pipers Crisps explains: "This is why we don't sell Pipers Crisps to supermarkets - to preserve exclusivity".

Albone also points out that because his crisps aren't sold in supermarkets, the selling price isn't benchmarked, so customers have nothing to compare them with, giving licensees more power in setting prices.

An emerging market for bar snacks is that of customers who are not hungry enough or do not wish to bother with a full-blown meal, but want a little more than crisps and nuts.

Often this gap is plugged by take away food from nearby kebab or fish and chip shops, but a number of suppliers are now offering products which could help pubs to compete with takeaway outlets.

Pizza provides one option that requires relatively little effort to prepare, as it is simple to cook. Companies such as Chicago Town believe pubs could sell their pizzas to compete with fast food takeaways. Cheryll Snowden, foodservice controller for Dr. Oetker, which owns Chicago Town pizzas, says: "Pubs are offering pizza as a substantial snack to those who might otherwise leave to find a 'fast food' option between 9pm and closing time."

Micro munchies

Another emerging trend in the bar snack industry is mini-foods. One pub that is well regarded for its mini-foods is Youngs pub the Windmill in Mayfair, London. Owner Carl Smith, who also runs the Guinea pub in central London, says that these are "savoury, tasty morsels" and at his pub they come in the form of small versions of traditional meals.

In his pubs, Smith sells miniature versions of British food such as sausage rolls, fish fingers and pies, which he believes help to introduce customers to the food on sale in the restaurant.

Smith, however, cautions against being too ambitious and, rather than provide an enormous range of snacks, he argues that these type of snacks can be offered as starters in the restaurant. "It can be very fiddly when you're busy, so what we tend to do is double up those bar snacks as starters for our restaurant," he says. "It's all very well putting a great big offer on, but if you make complicated stuff it means you have to be quite labour-intensive and it's not always a good thing. So if you can use these things under various different guises, it means you save on that sort of thing."

A number of suppliers are beginning to offer mini-foods for pubs and these can come in various forms, often sold on a stick. For example, The Big Kitchen offers burger bites, lamb kofta and chicken satay. Commercial director Jonathan Ashmore says "offering a good mix of firm favourites and more adventurous options inspired by world cuisine will bring something different for bar menus and demand a higher price".

As a result of their size, mini-foods also tend to work well on a sharing platter. Licensees can offer snacks like onion rings and fried vegetables for a small group to share.

Jayne Hall, marketing manager at Moy Park Foodservice, says: "A pub visit is often a shared occasion when a group of friends gather together to enjoy drinks - so it makes sense to reflect that in terms of the food offering by featuring a range of sharing platters on the menu."

As the return from wet sales continues to decline, making a few innovations to the bar snacks on offer can help provide relatively simple but vital revenue stream for pubs.

The Duke of Cambridge, Islington, London

Snacks made in-house can also command a higher price and can help to advertise food offerings. The Duke of Cambridge in Islington, north London is a well-regarded food pub, and uses pub snacks to introduce drinkers to the type of food on offer in the restaurant, by selling organic nuts and olives served with