The beginner's guide to food...

Pub food - it ain't rocket science.

While thousands of pub chefs would object, Punch food development manager Alan Todd and the hundreds of licensees who have taken up the pubco's Table Top food offer to date would surely agree.

Launched at the beginning of the year in conjunction with four of the country's biggest food wholesalers - 3663, Brakes, Woodward and Hopwells - the service offers selected Punch pubs an easy route into basic food.

Offering five set meals including fish & chips and sausage & mash for sale at one set price , the offer doesn't even demand a pub chef, requiring only a microwave, grill and a fryer - and a freezer to keep the stuff in.

Table Top is being communicated to lessees at the series of Punch roadshows taking place throughout the UK starting last month.

Speaking at the Punch Roadshow in Twickenham, Middlesex catering and development manager Alan Todd says: "When it comes to food there is an opportunity in every pub - whether it's a hot dog or a slice of pizza, or something more.

"We thought there was a massive market for just giving licensees a box and a simple solution to starting food - and so it seems."

More than 700 pubs have joined the Table Top scheme since it was launched at the beginning of the year - and now the package is entering a new phase with a new offer, Simply Pub Food, offering more flexibility and benefits to publicans.

Pure and simple

Simply Pub Food takes the fixed-price, easy-to-prepare concept and writes it large, with an offer developed with Brakes and 3663 including six starters, 15 mains and four desserts, as well as a range of jacket potatoes.

Offering licensees three PoS styles to choose from, and four suggested price points, new dishes include rump steak and an all-day breakfast. It goes on trial with 20 lessees this month.

"They just need the same equipment as with Table Top - a fryer, a grill, a microwaver, a freezer and a fridge," says Todd. "Add a little bit of extraction and away we go!"

He claims the offer could ultimately generate between £1,000 and £5,000 a week - and with margins of up to 65 per cent, on prices that are guaranteed by Brakes and 3663 for six months, the offer could make a huge contribution to a pub's bottom line.

"The only commitment we ask from licensees is that they use the PoS in the box," continues Alan. "We're not going to force them to buy from Brakes and 3663 - but I've got to make the offer so compelling that they don't want to go anywhere else."

Andrea Chapman, licensee at the Famous Crown, Didsbury, Manchester, is one of the licensees taking on Simply Pub Food offer after finding success with Table Top. In her case the range, which she has been selling for £3.99, has complemented her own unique menu offering, which includes a 'pint of chips'. "Table Top worked for us," she says. "It's simple food, easy-to-cook and straightforward for us to cook and people to order. Now we want to be able to give them something more."

Todd firmly believes that the new offer, in combination with Table Top, have the potential to go to as many as 4,500 pubs, with bolt-on additions in the pipeline including Sunday lunches and kids menus.

"We're trying to think like a managed pub company and learning from Punch Pub Company [the pubco's managed arm]. Believe in us, 3663 and Brakes and we will deliver."

Some promise - but then again, it aint rocket science.