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"What’s your approach to managing your range of drinks on the bar?"

1

Big Focus On Low and No Alcohol

Chris Black FBII
BII Trustee & Ambassador, Director of Cornish Inns and Licensee of the Year Award 2021 Winner
We’re having a big focus on low and no products, working with both Lucky Saint and local brewers. We stock Lucky Saint on draught, as that’s more in line with drinking an alcoholic pint and it has worked really well for us. In London Lucky Saint is a well-known brand, we here in Cornwall it’s something tourists recognise. St Austell’s Proper Job IPA at 0.5% ABV has done really well too. We also stock more bottled beer, plus gins – we have a range of mocktails – along with ciders. We find that people are coming in and asking for low and no products, rather than coke or lemonade; we even had a conversation with the brewery about talking coke off tap and using bottles only, because we’re doing less volume. In our traditional pubs, we believe cask ale is an important part of our range, but we buy in the smaller cask sizes and mini kegs to avoid wastage. We’re heavily focused on stock-rotation – it’s part of our team training – and we do weekly stock checks. Stock checks are important if you’re to keep control, and that’s especially important with beer, because you don’t want to risk serving a bad pint.

2

Great Range of Beer For All Ages

Ed Manson MBII
Owner & Licensee of Whitelock’s group of venues and Fire Point Viewing
One of the big appeals of Whitelock’s is that we set out to be a modern, city centre, community pub that caters to all aspects of the community, At Whitelock’s Ale House, we have a range of 11 different cask lines, as well as keg, from independent local and craft brewers, as well as national brands. We attract the old boys in their 70s and 80s who will nurse a pint of John Smiths, as well as 18-year-old students, who are craft beer aficionados. Our real strength is in being a free house. We have a great reputation for cask beer. Two years ago we recognised the importance of low and no in our drinks range and we stock Guinness 0.0, Veltins, BRULO, an alcohol-free craft brand, and others. People like to able to have a pint of an alcohol-equivalent, when they’re out with their friends. We find there are plenty of young people who want to drink cask. To make it a success it partly comes down to investing in training, to increase the bar staff’s knowledge – they need to understand how to keep it, pour it and speak about it.

3

Guest Ales Are Key

Amy Devenish MBII
Gloucester Old Spot, Bristol
We’re part of the Stonegate Group, we won the Stonegate Pub Partners Pub of the Year at the 2024 Great British Pub Awards, and buy from a list, which includes local ales. We have regular guest ales alongside Timothy Taylor’s Landlord and Harvey’s Sussex Best, which literally fly out of the door. We also have Heineken 0.0, but I would like to see a better low and no alcohol range of spirits and wines and sell cocktails. We also sell our own range of gins, which goes down well. We pay a tie release on spirits, soft drinks and wines.

4

Avoid Waste

Kelly McCarthy CBII
Ye Old Sun Inn
As we’ve diversified our business and the pub is open less, we favour bag-in-box ale. It’s got a one-month shelf life and you can buy in 10 or 25 litre boxes, which allows you to have a good range but avoid waste. It’s still served by hand pull from the cellar, and we can still serve it with a sparkler for a traditional Northern head. It’s good to know that we will be able to get through it. “Forward planning is really important, as you need to be prepared for the quieter times, as well as having the stock when you need it. You also want to avoid having to pay the top prices for, say, no and low products in January and February. It’s good to utilise the offers when they’re available.

5

Be Affordable

Khara Schrijvers MBII
Royal Oak, Brandon in Warwickshire
We are tied to Admiral, but even so, the choice is very good and our range is constantly changing. As we’re in the Midlands, we like to have a more affordable lager on tap, Carling, while Madri and Cruz Campo are our equal best sellers. We also stock cask, with Doombar and Tribute, plus a guest, which we buy through SIBA. We find having guest ales makes many more people come in over the weekend. It’s a great way to attract people to the pub. I’m not an ale drinker, so didn’t know much at first, but with Cask Marque training I’ve learnt a lot, gaining knowledge from the experts. We also have a good spirits range, with 12 flavoured gins, plus port and sherry, as many of our customers are older. We’ve also got Gordon’s zero gin and have Guinness 0.0 – people love it and I only wish we’d got it sooner.

6

Diverse Range And Good Options On Price

James Nye
Anglian Country Inns
We’re food-led, so we sell as much wine as we do beer. But we need a broad range to cater for our everyday drinkers and those who come in for our food. Accessibility is really important, having a price range that accommodates those who just want to drink and those who want to spend more. We like to have a diverse range, but when it comes to all the trends, it’s important to make sure bread and butter brands don’t disappear. People always need recognisable brands, a safe landing space. Low and no alcohol is really important too, although it’s not a massive part of our sales mix. Pubs are more than just places to drink these days. It’s about the socialising and the connections. I’d say that the pub has never been more important than it is today – a place to connect with fellow humans and forget about all the bad news in the world.

7

Charging the Right Amount

Justine Bedford MBII
The Royal Dyche
I had a lot of products that were very under-priced, so I’m changing that and putting my premium products up from £4.50 to £5.00, but I don’t think customers will mind paying £5 a pint for brands like Madri, Moretti and Guinness. For this Dry January, I’m stocking more non-alcoholic options to capitalise on this opportunity. I’ve seen a big hike in Guinness 0.0 sales recently, so we will do more POS around the range for Dry January. I remember years ago, I was very anti Dry January, as I thought it was damaging to pubs, but if customers are buying a pint of Pepsi or lager, the GP is actually better on the Pepsi. We’re focused on enhancing the range and getting more footfall into the pub. We’re also looking at any products that haven’t been selling well – I incentivised the staff to get rid of certain brands ready for the New Year. We’ve got to keep up with the times, by stocking more craft beers, Hooch or whatever, and keep reinventing ourselves and the range.

8

Delivering Great Value

Dennis Forsyth FBII
Cheers Cafe Bar & Tavern, Fraserburgh, Aberdeen
You’ve got to be different and original in January and February to incentivise people to come out. We’re successful because of the perception of value. You don’t need to be a young person’s venue to sell cocktails and shots. We engage a lot on Facebook, which is used by the older generation and predominantly women, which is a demographic we work towards. “In January and February, we encourage people to come to us for a not-too-expensive experience. We offer promotions on high margin drinks, like our popular Barbie Bomb – think Jagerbomb, but with Smirnoff Ice or VK and Sourz. We offer five variations, with different Sourz flavours. It costs us 43p per bomb, and we sell it for £3-£3.50 usually, but on promotion we sell it for £2. That perception of value is massive, and it’s a lot lower in terms of alcohol too, compared to a Tequilla shot. We also do 20ml test tubes for £1 each, which gives us an 80% margin, using liqueurs to make the cocktails, which don’t have to be measured in 25ml servings. We make up a cocktail mixture and serve it in test tubes. Again, the perception of value is fantastic and the alcohol is much lower. It’s not a strong shot, so people will stay for two, three or even five. People don’t understand about strengths of alcohol, they presume a shot is going to be high – it’s something I have to explain sometimes.

9

Investing in Training

Ben Abrahams
The Parker Pub Co
Having more low and no alcohol drinks options behind the bar is something we’re incorporating into all of our community pubs, as well as low calorie and price-sensitive choices for our customers. We’re encouraging our staff to take more ownership of our bar menus too and after Christmas we’re investing in more staff training in this area. We’re excited about the results this will bring to our drinks offer. As a champion of neighbourhood pubs, we’re also doing more to support local brewers which again will have an impact on our menus this winter.

10

Something a Bit Different

Linda Cole MBII
We like to have some nice zero percent gins on offer, and we’ve also extended our zero range of beers. We find in January that the local locals will still come in and drink because it’s their social thing to do, and while some do Dry January, others drink as normal. For our dining customers, we like to do something a bit different and will offer a range of non-alcohol cocktails, but mainly we find it’s the drinkers rather than the diners who do Dry January. Over the last 12 months we’ve seen higher sales of zero alcohol products and we now sell three gins and a range of bottle/canned products: Guinness 0.0, Lucky Saint lager and Lucky Saint Hazy IPA, Ghost Ship, Heineken 0.0 and Old Mout Berries & Cherries Alcohol Free. We also have three real ales on the bar. We’ve always got London Pride and HSB, alongside a seasonal/guest beer, and I like to look for something a bit different in terms of style and ABV to Pride and HSB. I’m often surprised by how many people will ask about the percentage of alcohol in a beer before they buy it. Should our ale sales fall off a cliff in January, I will probably just keep to the two beers, to keep the volumes up – whereas in the summer, I might get a fourth beer on. For the last two years, I’ve always thought ‘oh my god, things are going to be dire’ in January, when in fact I’ve been pleasantly surprised. But this year, I’ve really felt the impact of my higher energy bills and I can just hope that things will be okay. We’re in an affluent area, which helps. I will use this quieter time to have a look at things and promote the pub and products a bit more. We’re lucky in that we attract our oldies in at lunchtime, and while the evening trade might drop off a bit, they will continue to come. Even when the weather is bad, they still want to come to the pub – it’s the thing they can always do. We also promote ourselves as a warm space, so people can come in and use the pub, have a cup of tea and warm up.

This interview can be found in the Winter 2025 edition

Read the full issue

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