Continental Copa

Greene King pub Copa has taken the controversial step of destocking cask ale and replacing it with continental-style niche beers, reports Ben McFarland.

People are staying at home and taking advantage of the scandalously low cost of beer in the off-trade which means that, to pull in the punters, many high street retailers are pricing their pints lower than a rattlesnake's belly.

Sidestepping A-boards advertising BOGOFs (buy-one-get-one-free), happy hours and other rock-bottom drinks promotions has become a hazard for town centre drinkers.

But, as has been well-publicised, knocking out booze at high volume and low prices is not big and not clever and is often at the root of all kinds of anti-social behaviour. With new licensing laws looming, retailers are under pressure to adopt a different strategy.

Greene King has taken a rather bolder approach than most in the shape of its new Copa concept in Oxford. On a two-tier site, formerly a low-performing and rough round the edges "chart 'n' tart" venue, Copa represents an audacious move on behalf of the Suffolk-based pub company.

Funky décor, a bright and open layout and a relaxed atmosphere are all there. But where Copa differs from its high street rivals is that it bucks the discounting trend by focusing on niche, speciality beer brands. Its intention is crystal clear as soon as you walk in.

More than a dozen porcelain fonts adorn the bar top with brews sourced from the four corners of the world. They tower over the usual suspects such as Stella Artois, Foster's and John Smith's Smooth and give the venue a continental feel.

A pint of one of these niche beers in Copa would set you back around six of the queen's finest - yes, six quid. Not two, not four but six. If you could buy a pint, that is. Martin Bates, operations director for Greene King's high street division, believes that customers are prepared to part with their cash in the quest for quality not quantity so a half pint of Erdinger or Warsteiner is set at between £2 and £3.

"If someone asks for a pint we'll only serve it in two half-pint measures," he says. "People thought we were crazy to ask for £3 for half a pint but that's how it's done on the continent and that's what we're intent on doing here. People don't think in terms of pints, they think in terms of drinks, and £3 is not far off what you'd pay for a glass of wine or a bottle of Budweiser.

"If you go abroad, the beer is served properly in a small glass and not sloshed in a pint pot. The beer stays cold to the bottom, there's a decent head and no small amount of theatre."

Each font, and there are 15 of them, has a sparge facility. It's a dirty-sounding word that ironically means "the act of sprinkling or splashing water" and, in this case, refers to what is basically a continental glass rinser. After a good old spargeing, the branded and lined glasses are filled with beer, served with a frothy head big enough to stick a Flake in and placed on a branded doily.

This so-called "theatre of dispense" - it's a marketing term, honest - is a key factor behind the decision to stock the speciality beers on draught and not, as most pubs choose, in bottles. "If you serve the beer in bottles, all your marketing is confined to the chiller," says Martin. "But if you do draught you create a hell of a lot of theatre. The porcelain fonts are impactful and provide a massive wow factor for the customer. What's more, you can make more money."

Despite the high number of beers on the counter, Martin claims there are no issues with quality. "A lot of these beers are in 30-litre kegs rather than 50-litre and they're bomb-proof in terms of shelf-life," he explains. "This gives you huge flexibility."

Copa's rule of thumb when choosing which beers to stock is simple. "If the average customer has heard of the beer and knows all about it then we don't stock it," declares Martin. "We want there to be a feeling of discovery with our beers and as soon as these products become readily available elsewhere, especially if it's by the pint, we take them off."

Authenticity is a further factor and stocking beers that are brewed at source is an important, although not an essential, condition adds Martin. Erdinger, Leffe Blonde, Leffe Brune, Bitburger, a Belgian kriek beer, Warsteiner and Nastro Azzurro are just some of the beers available at Copa but one name conspicuous by its absence is Greene King. Copa doesn't stock any Greene King beer. There's no cask ale at all - and in choosing to snub British beer in favour of its continental counterparts, feathers within the Greene King Beer Company were ruffled.

"It was a difficult decision but the profile of the customer didn't really fit cask ale and with more than a dozen draught beers to choose from already, throughput would have been an issue," says Martin. "We're getting a huge 103 per cent yield on the speciality beers and we would struggle to get that with cask ale."

That Copa is confident of getting £3 for half a pint of German lager but not for a half of real ale represents an imbalance that domestic brewers such as Greene King are working hard to redress.

But the retailer side of the business is sticking to its guns. Sales of speciality beers in Copa represent 15 per cent of sales and are growing. "We've seen the speciality beers transform the product mix in the pub," Martin says. "It grows other areas of the business that also boast high margins, such as food and wine."

Following the success of Copa in Oxford, a second is due to open in Cardiff and a further three are in the pipeline.

Martin concludes: "In any pub there's room for two or three speciality beers on the bar - people's palates are changing and they want more choice. But whatever you do you must hold your nerve and only serve the beers in small glasses - that's where the margins lie."