Football free pubs report good return

Related tags Food sales Public house World Inn

The Three Arrows in Middleton, on the outskirts of Manchester, is seeing soaring food sales with a range of promotions. Giving free bottles of wine...

The Three Arrows in Middleton, on the outskirts of Manchester, is seeing soaring food sales with a range of promotions. Giving free bottles of wine with every two main courses is successfully keeping customers in the pub. Licensee Stuart Norman said: "It's been good for trade as food sales have gone up. We've actually had a full restaurant both weekend nights this week."

Finding a gap in the football-saturated market has also gained the pub coverage on the local TV station, Channel Manchester. Mr Norman said: "Offering something different has got us lots of attention."

A recent survey by The Publican revealed that 37 per cent of pubs were planning on remaining World Cup free zones during the tournament.

The Swan at Monks Eleigh, near Ipswich, is also rejecting the furore surrounding the world's favourite ball game. Licensee Carol Ramsbottom said: "We're a small community pub and if we showed football here it would be against what our customers expect. We're predominantly food-led, so we're using this time to run some food promotions. We've got a special menu running which has been very well received."

Steve Watson, director of fancyapint.com, which features a list of footie-free pubs in London on its site, said pubs showing football were still the ones winning business. He said: "We have had more enquiries from pubs about our 'footie-free' area than we had for the World Cup area, probably because it is free! However, our statistics show that users are much more interested in pubs that are showing the football."

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