World Cup warm-up: Plan your strategies

Top tips to increase your profits during the World Cup.

Licensees are looking forward to busy bars when the FIFA World Cup hits pub screens. Carlsberg calculates that average spend shoots up by at least 20 per cent on a night when football is shown - and the favourite order will be lager. The brewer's research shows that lager makes up 60 per cent of total sales on match days compared to 43 per cent on other occasions.

So you should plan for the big kick-offs in advance and make sure you've got extra stock in. There are also various methods of improving your service that not only eases the workload on staff but can increase your sales even more.

Here are just some of the ideas provided by the Carlsberg Academy, the scheme set up to help licensees make the most of sports events such as the World Cup.

• Plan your campaign well in advance. Get your staff organised so they know what their role is on the big day. Check you have enough stock and glasses and make sure your posters are in the hottest spots.
• Advertise games in your pub with clear and simple posters and make sure you keep them up to date. Outside communications using flags, banners and A-boards should be high, loud and proud. Pubs that advertised Euro 2004 inside and outside outperformed pubs that didn't by 34 per cent.
• Give some thought to match day pricing - rounding up a pint to the next 10p can speed service as well as increase take.
• Have a "directors box" with best seats to reward loyal customers.
• Put a couple of keen members of staff on floor service to reduce congestion at the bar and increase your sales. Offering pitchers can also boost your take and getting staff to go for "tactical top-ups" 10 minutes before the end of a match can keep punters in for longer.
• Improve atmosphere by dressing your venue and staff with flags, hats and face paints, and playing music and videos before the match.
• Prepare hand-held food for the fans and promote with beer. Salty and spicy food will increase your lager sales still more!

Case study: the Bricklayer's Arms, High Wycombe​

They're serious about their football at the Bricklayer's Arms. On the day of a big match take can treble from £1,000 to £3,000. So it's only right that Trust Inns tenant John Atkin looks after his customers.

The community pub, in Downley, near High Wycombe, Bucking-hamshire, has a big screen in the main bar and a 42-inch plasma screen near the dining area. The plasma is attached to the wall with a special bracket, supplied by Vogels, which enables it to be swung out into position for the game and pushed back against the wall after. It projects out about 18 inches from the wall and we can make sure people in the bistro area of the pub have a good view," explains John.

Experience gained during Euro 2004 means John is well prepared for bumper crowds for the World Cup. "We are very sport-oriented here, the people we get in aren't plastic supporters - they know their football and will watch any team play," he says. "We're hoping the World Cup will be huge for us.

"We'll be putting bunting up, dressing the barstaff in World Cup T-shirts, using hotspots around the pub for point-of-sale and advertising on A-boards outside that we're showing live games."

On match days John will be selling beer in pitchers to ease the half-time rush and lighting up the barbecue to serve the pub's own-recipe Brickie Burgers as well as curry jacket potatoes, hotdogs and a finger buffet.

"We've got a barn door at the back and open it to let the barbecue smells waft in," he says. "That usually helps sales!"

Stock up on refreshment​

With the World Cup happening in the summer, people are going to be looking for extra refreshment while they're watching the game, and that not only means higher beer sales, it means other drinks can benefit, too.

Beverage Brands, maker of WKD, is encouraging publicans to focus on their ready-to-drink (RTD) brands, for instance, and pay particular attention to their back-bar fridges.

Chiller merchandising will become an important factor and help licensees cope with heavy demand for cold drinks, says marketing director Karen Salters. Not every football fan will want to drink lager. There is also a massive sales opportunity for the RTD category.

"Licensees should keep chillers fully stocked with brand labels facing customers and place all flavours of the same brand together for maximum impact," advises Karen. "It can take up to eight hours to chill a bottle from room temperature so make sure you stock up well in advance of the key games.

"Allocate the most facings to the best-selling lines because there will be strong demand for them."

Beverage Brands is steering clear of price promotions, however. "We are not price promoting WKD with the World Cup because that is precisely what everybody else will be doing!" says Karen.

"We don't want to get lost in the promotional clutter that inevitably surrounds major sporting events. Ultimately this approach can be self-defeating because a brand can get swamped by the sheer weight of activity.

"We are adding value for publicans, though, through World Cup point-of-sale, inflatable bars to help cope with the half-time rush, bottle carriers and other giveaways to drive rate of sale."

Games machines cash in on match days​

It's not just your food and drink sales that can benefit from the influx of trade you can expect in the World Cup. Machine take, too, is there to be maximised.

Last year leading gaming and amusement machine operator Gamestec carried out research on FA Cup Final day, using its remote management system MIDAS to demonstrate the positive effects of sporting events in pubs and bars.

Findings revealed that takings soared throughout the course of the day and confirmed that machines are huge profit growers.

"The World Cup is a fantastic opportunity to increase earnings in pubs and bars and Gamestec will have a number of football- themed games as well as running our regular networked tournaments," says Rolf Nielsen, managing director of operations.

Gamestec has also provided licensees with a 10-point plan to help them get the best out of their machines during the World Cup.

• Fit a note acceptor to all your machines
• Ensure you have the correct mix of machines for your pub
• Locate machines in prominent positions
• Take security measures and locate machines within sight of the bar and staff
• Maximise play time by ensuring machines are switched on prior to opening time and left on until closing time
• Make sure machines are clean, tidy and presentable
• Experiment with different games and machines to create interest
• Report service issues to your operator immediately
• Educate barstaff on new games and machines so that they can answer any questions
• Ensure change is available to encourage play.