Mixed pub football fortunes
Pub operators say England's match with Slovenia drew the biggest crowd of any England game — but opinions on the tournament overall have been mixed.
The MA contacted eight operators for a post-mortem on the World Cup, now the expected boom period of England games is over.
Six agreed that last Wednesday's Slovenia game represented the biggest sales uplift, with the 3pm kick-off meaning workers rushed to pubs rather than home.
Orchid Group reported a 5% uplift during the tournament. England v Germany on Sunday was the best in terms of cash, while the Slovenia game boosted sales by 60%. Sales jumped 175% at its freehouses and 40% at its Fresh Dining sites.
David Evans, who runs two Sports Bar & Grill outlets at Victoria and Marylebone stations, said revenues were up 40% overall. The group contacted foreign embassies, language schools and even German banks and car manufacturers.
Nick Pring, of London's Realpubs, said the Cup had "beaten expectations".
Charles Wells Pub Company noticed "the number of emergency deliveries in-creased over the past couple of weeks, which suggests the combination of football and sunshine did drive people into pubs".
Andrew Crawford, operations director at Pub People Company, said its 30 foot-ball-focused pubs put in a "good performance, but not spectacular".
Nick Griffin, boss of the 10-strong Pleisure Pub Company, said its Eastbourne venue, the Counting House, had a big screen in the garden and sales were 96% up on Sunday.
But sales were down 1% overall in the period as many Pleisure pubs didn't show games.
"It was disappointing all round," said Michael Kheng, managing director of Kurnia group, who said numbers were down "massively" for England v Germany.
At Loungers, managing director Alex Reilley said revenues dropped between 25% and 60% across its 14 pubs. "We have no TVs, so on match days it was pretty horrendous."
View from the snug-out
Nick Pring: "Each England game was worth £500,000 profit to us, so going out now has cost us quite a bit."
Alex Reilley: "As a patriot I'm gutted we're out, but from a business perspective I'm glad it's over."
Nick Griffin: "It wasn't the great big money-making extravaganza we were promised. Supermarkets clearly cleaned up, while small landlocked pubs lost out."
Michael Kheng: "I think it was weather dependent — who would visit a pub at 3pm on Sunday on the hottest day of the year when they could have a cheap home barbecue?"
Andrew Crawford: "One more England game would have suited us just fine."
