Brewhouse & Kitchen celebrates boost in ‘experience-led’ sales
Wet and dry like-for-like sales increased by 7% over the Christmas and new year period, which the chain said was helped by its offer of buffet food alongside a traditional three-course meal.
Party bookings saw growth on the previous year, with pre-booked covers up by 14%, thanks to the chain diversifying its food offer.
The group saw a 50% like-for-like increase in gift card sales over this period and said customers redeeming these gifts over the next few weeks will help bolster sales in the slow first quarter of the year.
Growth in gift card sales was propelled by popularity for its experience-focused offers such as its best-selling gift: a brewery experience day priced at £85 a head.
In total, Brewhouse & Kitchen’s sales of experiences increased by 22% year-on-year in 2019.
Strategic success
Chief executive Kris Gumbrell said the company would build on these results by further developing its experience offers over the course of the next year.
He added: “These are a robust set of results, the addition of more flexible Christmas party options and experience-led gifts have added another series of strings to the bow of our business.”
Head of marketing Matt Preisinger said many of the pub chain’s target customers were focused on experiences over physical gifts, inspiring a tailored offering.
He explained: “We developed new visuals for social media a suite of video work for digital advertising, TV screens in the brewpubs and a refreshed design on all promotional materials to help capture this market and these results demonstrate the success of this strategy and the hard work of the teams across the country.”
Gumbrell said the company expected a continuation of work party bookings this month for sectors that could not celebrate over Christmas.
He said: “We are very proud of our teams across the country who are continuing to work hard and deliver post-Christmas parties.
"We look forward to welcoming many retail workers, emergency service teams and others who didn’t get an opportunity to celebrate Christmas during December."
