Help yourself to more trade

In this climate it defies belief that any publican would not use every avenue available to them to grow their business. Yet many don't. It's time to stop asking 'what's the point?' and start asking 'why not?', advises Pete Brown

"One day I'd like to retire and run a pub."

It's a phrase you hear a lot in idle chat among disgruntled wage slaves, and one that sounds increasingly bizarre - surely it should be 'retire or run a pub'?

But this simple sentence reveals a deep truth. There's a big problem in addition to the credit crunch, smoking ban, duty rises and everything else that currently besets the pub. And that problem - in some corners of the pub world - is publican apathy, a sense that in some way running a pub is different from running any other successful retail business.

I noted recently in a Publican column that the proportion of people in the pub trade supporting the Axe the Beer Tax campaign is tiny compared to the proportion of MPs (now one in three) who have signed the Commons motion urging the Chancellor to scrap planned tax rises.

Some readers responded that the campaign would not solve the real problems facing them, which may be true in some cases but still begs the question: what harm could it do to support it anyway?

At the time of writing it's Cask Ale Week, an event that's prompted a similar attitude. Six thousand pubs are taking part. The big pubcos - so often seen as part of the problem by struggling licensees - are organising their own promotions to tie in with the event.

The whole initiative is designed to drive traffic into the pub. Early feedback from participating pubs is positive, and Cask Marque will be undertaking research to demonstrate what effect the initiative has had on business.

But what about those pubs not taking part? We spoke to several licensees who have chosen not to participate and, much like the Axe the Beer Tax campaign, their response was: "I don't see the point. I don't see what this will do for my business."

Some said they already did good cask ale business. Others said that, this being Easter, they would be busy anyway. Fine. But it's difficult to think of another business that would say: "We don't need to attract any more customers. We already have enough, thanks." Particularly in a recession.

A question of identity

"Pubs are businesses. And any business needs to identify what it's offering and who it's targeting. Often it seems that pubs don't," says Cask Marque's Paul Nunny.

"Cask ale is a proven driver of footfall and attracts affluent customers to the pub. Every business has to promote itself, and these days the leisure pound is being squeezed and can be spent anywhere. Pubs have to give a reason for people to visit them."

The proof of cask ale's ability to do this is in Cask Marque's own performance. Accreditations are up 19 per cent year-on-year, despite the fact that such discretionary spending is often the first thing to be cut in hard times.

"We can see from our membership that cask ale pubs are not closing," says Nunny.

"It's extremely rare for us to be contacted by a member to be told he has to de-accredit because he's closing. And it's almost unheard of for one of our assessors to turn up at a member's pub and find that it's closed."

The logic is simple. To keep cask ale up to Cask Marque's standards, you have to be a good publican. And there are very few of these good publicans among the 2,000 casualties since last year's duty increase.

But as Nunny points out, a good pub has to identify its target customers and cater for them. Cask ale drinkers are not the only potential target, and cask ale is not the only way to attract a thriving customer base.

Give people a reason to go out

In the 1970s, when supermarkets really started to grab a significant share of the drinks market, the pub industry was asked how it could expect drinkers to pay prices that were so much higher than the off-trade.

The response was that in the pub, the drinker pays for 'the total package', a combination of service and ambience that could never be replicated at home. The popular quip among drinkers in the months after the smoking ban - that the main problem with the absence of smoke was that you could now smell the toilets - suggests the 'package' argument is on shaky ground.

In the last 10 years alone, the home has been through a TV-inspired interior decoration revolution. Jamie and Nigella have taught us how to cook for friends, we've acquired giant plasma screen TVs, X-Boxes, DVDs, and high-speed wireless internet connections that, among many other things, mean we can now 'talk' to our 'friends' without leaving home.

Whereas apart from a lick of paint, many pubs still look the same, and have the same offer as they did before any of this happened.

Competing on more than price

Pubs must compete on more than price - and good pubs do.

The White Hart in Stoke Newington, London, has a couple of handpulls on the bar, but they're not called into action very often. This is not, as a rule, a cask ale clientele, yet this community pub is always busy.

The food is reasonably priced, unpretentious, and is replaced by an outdoor barbecue on hot summer days. The Sunday roast is excellent.The free, reliable wi-fi connection means quiet afternoons always see one or two of the area's freelance workers tapping away on laptops. Thursday nights host a comedy club upstairs. The big projector screen only comes out for headline sporting events, but the pub is always rammed when it does. The music is laid back during the day, louder and rockier by night. Tellingly, many members of staff have been there for several years.

Licensee Andy Potter is modest about how he runs the place. "We're part of the community. We just listen to what the community wants and we do it. We've had an excellent start to the year, and last summer, despite the terrible weather, we broke all records for our takings," he says.

Of course there will be some excellent publicans who suffer during the recession because of circumstances beyond their control. And of course it's extremely difficult for someone already working long hours to deal with the basics of running a pub to raise their head above the parapet to do some long-term planning. But pubs are retail businesses, and must behave as such if they have any chance of surviving.

When this recession finally eases, it's a safe bet to assume that the survivors will be those who, when an idea for protecting or driving business is presented to them, naturally ask 'why not?' rather than 'what's the point?'

Pete Brown is an award-winning beer writer and regular Publican columnist​