Unlock the Editor’s Digest free of charge
Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favorite tales on this weekly publication.
Greene King is amongst a number of main UK pub teams launching or revamping loyalty programmes in an try to lure again clients, because the business contends with declining alcohol consumption and intense value stress.
The proprietor of the Chef & Brewer and Hungry Horse chains is growing an app-based loyalty programme for the primary time, which may supply clients reductions on meals, drink and lodging, in keeping with folks accustomed to the plans.
Greene King, which operates greater than 2,700 UK pubs, expects the scheme to be a key development driver, the folks stated.
Jonathan Lawson, chief government of pub group Butcombe, which is upgrading its loyalty programme this yr, stated the declining frequency of buyer visits is the largest fear for pub executives.
Enhancing that pattern had grow to be “sort of the holy grail” within the business, he informed the Monetary Instances.
Mitchells & Butlers, the group behind All Bar One and Harvester pubs, has informed buyers that certainly one of its priorities this yr is to trial a points-based loyalty scheme.
In the meantime, Fuller’s chief government Simon Emeny informed the FT the pub group was testing a loyalty scheme at 30 of its “vacation spot” pubs exterior London.
The flurry of funding highlights how pubs are having to rethink their methods to draw and retain clients.
Many older drinkers have both been chopping down or opting to purchase cheaper alcoholic drinks from supermarkets amid a protracted squeeze on disposable earnings. In the meantime, more and more health-conscious younger customers are ingesting much less than earlier generations.
Pub teams have additionally been hit exhausting by the rise to employers’ nationwide insurance coverage contributions, which got here into impact in April, and vital will increase to the nationwide minimal wage.
Stonegate, the UK’s largest pub group with about 4,500 pubs and venues, has spent roughly £2mn on its loyalty app, which was launched in November 2023 and includes a recreation the place clients can “spin to win” a free pint.
Chief government Simon Longbottom stated loyalty apps would grow to be the business’s “most essential advertising and marketing device”.
“Pubs have been a little bit behind the remainder of the hospitality business . . . We’re enjoying catch-up. However loyalty is now a scorching subject,” he stated.
Butcombe, which operates greater than 120 pubs, is introducing a 20 per cent low cost on drinks purchased on Friday evenings, traditionally the busiest time of the week for pubs.
The pub group additionally runs “beer golf equipment”, whereby clients obtain a free pint for each 5 pints of Butcombe beer bought. Purchases with loyalty playing cards equated to 22 per cent of Butcombe’s gross sales within the first quarter of this yr, Lawson stated.
Fuller’s, which operates roughly 400 pubs primarily in London and south-east England, is planning to focus its trial loyalty scheme on rewards — comparable to two-for-one meal offers or a free glass of Mirabeau rosé wine — and personalised provides.
Pub operators are following within the footsteps of the retail business, the place loyalty playing cards have been commonplace since Tesco launched the Clubcard 30 years in the past. The delicate schemes now operated by supermarkets yield huge portions of buyer knowledge, which they bundle up and promote to advertisers on an anonymised foundation.
Greg Johnson, an analyst at Shore Capital, stated loyalty schemes had been unlikely to be as profitable for the pub business, which is extra fragmented than the grocery store business.
Wetherspoons, which already provides the most affordable costs of any massive pub operator, stated it had no plans to introduce a loyalty scheme.
Nonetheless, loyalty schemes had been rapidly “changing into desk stakes” for top avenue pubs and people who didn’t supply one risked lacking out, stated Saxon Moseley, hospitality lead at accountancy and consulting agency RSM.
He stated operators had been searching for “any method potential” to develop their high line.