English Pub Retailing – Why so few Brands?

Quick! Name a Pub Brand

Quick - name any high street retail brand. How about a convenience store brand? Hotel brand? Restaurant brand? Now name a Pub brand? Not quite so easy, but Wetherspoons comes to mind and then perhaps some of the Restaurant / Pub crossovers like Toby carvery or Brewers Fayre. The Old Brewers like Marstons and Wadworths are beer brands slapped on Pubs but they don’t communicate or promise anything much about the Pub itself.

Why is there such an apparent dirth of brands in the UK Pub sector? I think it reflects of how far behind the UK Pub sector lags behind the rest of the retailing World; and fundamentally I think it is reflective of how backward the major landlords have been in their thinking about how our sector needs to develop.

If for a moment we crudely split up the Pub owners into the - big PubCos; the big managed house operators; the smaller regional brewers and the pure independents and small chain owners; and then look at where the innovation has been. The Managed House operators have developed a successful plethora of brands but this has almost exclusively been around turning Pubs into full service restaurants.

The Regional’s – Like their Own Brands!

The regional brewers have largely stuck to individual Pubs around their tenants. I would argue with a few exceptions this sector is probably the most backward in its thinking and most cherishes the individuality of Pubs; but its more paternal approach also tends to more successfully nurture the traditional style Pub tenant landlord. My guess is there is both a cultural mistrust of ‘Outlet style brands’ and a lack of retailing knowledge in these businesses. This position is in odd contrast to their understanding and need to build brand image around their beers.

The independent sector is of course awash with innovative food driven Pub solutions and developments, however evidence of brand development is limited. One successful example might be Brunning & Pryce who got up to around 13 sites before being swallowed up by the Restaurant Group; although ‘Brunning and Pryce’ brand is still being developed apparently tentatively by Restaurant Group.

Missed Opportunity

The real missed opportunity both for the sector and ironically themselves is that the PubCos haven’t explored or developed any ‘franchise’ brand opportunities within their leased estates. Why was this? I guess when they arrived in the late 90’s it was relatively speaking a boom time and it was all about securing property assets as quickly as possible. To their credit the likes of Punch channelled a lot of development capital into the sector but in their rush to invest no one apparently stopped to think about the need for a branded Pub solution. (Even more sadly Punch in particular rolled out many repeated and often inappropriate interior solutions but failed to come up with the Operating model/ menu/ drinks to give their ‘Partners’ a full solution).

Operator Resistance

I guess we must also acknowledge that as a sector a vast majority of Pub Managers/ leases are drawn to the individual nature of the businesses and firmly believe their own ability to stamp their personality on their respective pubs; and that efforts by Punch, Enterprise et al to sell in these off the shelf concepts I’m thinking of would have been quickly rebuffed.

Addicted to Brands!

I think now might be the time for a fresh look! And in particular I would suggest that for Punch and Enterprise it might be the only viable route out of what is otherwise a downward spiral. For even as the economy begins to grow again ( whenever and however slowly that might be) I would suggest the independent Pub sector is least well placed to capitalise and will benefit the least from growth, which rather like the wider UK economy Punch and Enterprise badly need to straighten out their balance sheets. Because very quietly over the last few years the UK Public has become more and more addicted to and seduced by and most of all reassured by brands.

And Punch and Enterprise leased divisions have none.

Corner Shops

Corner shops long ago embraced a brand – largely as a buying group excercise but in themselves the names Londis, Spar etc all have a promise and its mostly delivered inside the shop. So successful has this been for the convenience store sector that the big boys like Tesco have reversed into it with Tesco Express.
Brands Don’t have to be like McDonalds.
A brand doesn’t have to mean all garish colour and golden arches (although that one does seem to work quite well). Brunning and Pryce very successfully combined consistent interior design, menu solution and product control to create a really strong but quite understated brand product. I’m only slightly saddened Restaurant Group seems reticent about rolling them out.

The Time is Now

Pub leases/ operators need help. And local government subsidies or lower rates won’t do it. They need product solutions to help them fight back against the growing and real threat from the branded restaurant and (Pub) restaurant multiples. The local Pub eatery now competes with Nandos, Frankie and Bennys and the local Indian. All of whom sell beer!

We need to stop focusing on the false spectres of cheap supermarket booze, the beer tie (its about the whole rent /profit split package not just that bit), smoking ban and any other whinge we read about every week in the trade press. The huge challenge of our sector is the size of building we are supporting when compared to a high street lock up unit. We need much bigger profits to grow and sustain and we need a real C change in approach, and frankly abit of re-working of corporate strategy gobble-de-gook at Punch won’t do it.