It's the pub experience that's key to success

Words from the recently crowned BII (British Institute of Innkeeping) Licensee of the Year Keith Marsden. Together with his wife, Diane, they took the title for their wet-only self-proclaimed “spit and sawdust boozer” in Moseley Birmingham.

And congratulations to the both of them, and their team, which apparently includes a mathematical child prodigy as a manager! No ordinary pub then, despite the couple’s claims.

And that comment about selling an experience, should, in my opinion, be fundamentally central to anyone running a pub — we need to be giving people a reason to come through the door and that isn’t going to be simply by offering cheap beer. We can’t compete with the likes of Tesco and others on price, so we have to find other ways to make our businesses compelling to the punters.

Consumers only have a finite amount to spend on entertainment, but they are craving experiences — things that they can’t get at home. If your business is offering little more than the pub equivalent of a cheap four pack and a night in front of Netflix, then I’m afraid you’re going to struggle.

Keith and Diane have taken a traditional business and put their own personal stamp on it. They’ve created the kind of place that people talk about, and recommend to their friends, and they’ve built a strong team, with a strong culture to drive that vision forwards.

And all of that built around drink, with barely a pork scratching in sight! We’re used to hearing how people have turned struggling businesses around with a compelling food offer, so to hear about someone doing that on drink shows there is more than one way to skin a cat.

But as Keith says, simply bolting on a food offer is not the answer: “If you can’t sell beer, you can’t sell food, it’s much more complicated. If you’re average at selling beer, you’ll be average at selling food.”

Essentially, food is not a silver bullet he says, and it is refreshing to see success based on a wet offer alone — although Keith does admit to selling the odd pork scratching.

But ultimately, the key to the Marsden’s success is their approach — they are running a business. It’s not a lifestyle choice, they have a business plan, they hold meetings and discuss strategy — something, I get the feeling, that is not always the norm in this trade.

So let’s celebrate Keith, Diane and their team — a well-deserved win.

Meanwhile, we’ve just embarked on the first stage of judging in the Great British Pub Awards, and it’s been exciting to see the number of great businesses there are out there. With all the uncertainty and strife in the trade, it’s easy to forget that despite all the challenges and problems we encounter on a daily basis, there remain some amazing, exciting and brilliant pubs throughout the country.

We need to celebrate those operators and allow them to showcase that the Great British Pub continues to not just survive, but thrive.