According to the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) 29 pubs are currently being closed a week across the UK. To provide support the UK government cut the beer tax for the third time in March. Marston’s strategy is to build new food-led pubs, increase the lodging rooms available and attract a broader demographic.
One of the most successful UK companies over the last 10 years has been Whitbread, which is the UK’s largest hospitality company. This is in no small part due to the growth of Costa Coffee with it now having 1,900 sites in the UK.
The CEO of Whitbread, Andy Harrison, has stated that: “People talk about the pub as a meeting point but pubs were more about males and the evening, coffee shops are [open] all day, more female [orientated] and certainly more family.”
A number of trends have supported coffee shops as social venues with one of these being the increased spending power of women. Increased online shopping has also freed up the weekend for people to meet up more.
Costa
Coffee: the UK’s largest coffee chain
Source: Google images
The British pub, meanwhile, has been in decline with one in five adults in the UK stating that they are teetotal in 2013. In 2004 the average UK person drank 9.51 liters of alcohol per year but in 2014 the figure was 7.76 liters – 18% lower.
British pubs have had to increase their focus on food to survive and also to up their game in coffee. They also need to attract a demographic beyond young males to include families, women and people in their forties and fifties.
This has been the strategy of pub group Marston’s and it appears to be slowly bearing fruit. The group’s average profit per pub has increased by 37% from 2012 to 2015 to reach £100k.
Marston’s sales in the financial year also rose by 7.4% to £846m and earnings per share increased by 10.3% to 12.9p. A sign of the improved business quality is that the return capital increased from 9.6% in 2010 to 10.8% in 2015.
Marston’s 101
Marston’s is a brewer, restaurant and pub group that was founded in 1834 by John Marston. The company is headquartered in Wolverhampton and its flagship beer brand is Marston’s pedigree, which is still brewed in oak casks.
Marston’s three divisions are Destination & Premium pubs, Taverns and Leased pubs. The focus…
