Britvic: working on a warmer welcome

Hospitality ought to come naturally to a publican. Making people feel at home, encouraging them to stay longer, inspiring them to come back. But it doesn't always happen, and it's certainly something the pub trade can improve on.

It's an issue to which Paul Linthwaite, who for the past four years has looked after the licensed trade for Britvic Soft Drinks, repeatedly returns.

"In a recent survey pubs lagged behind supermarkets for hospitality," he says. "The take-home trade has worked hard to build customer loyalty, to keep them coming back. It's about providing a level of service that makes people believe they belong there. And that's something that's often missing in pubs."

Yes, but what's that got to do with a soft drinks supplier?

Earlier this year Britvic announced a partnership with the BII (British Institute of Innkeeping), ostensibly around a soft drinks training programme. For Linthwaite, though, it goes further than making sure you put enough ice in the glass.

"The BII is committed to excellence so we have a joint interest there, and the training programme wrote itself really. But it's about how to sell more soft drinks, and there is a focus on hospitality as part of that.

"Hospitality isn't something we can create ourselves, but we can provide the kind of solutions that can help pubs help people feel good about spending time in them."

Training​

Specific initiatives will be unveiled as the year goes on. Linthwaite believes that staff can be trained in hospitality — "It's partly a way of talking to people," he says — and there are also practical tools.

In America, he points out, customers are offered free refills on draught soft drinks. Giving stuff away is something the British publican might balk at, "but it encourages

people to stay longer," he says. "As a customer you feel you're getting something back.

"Using pricing and promotions to create more value — to encourage people to spend more — is another thing the take-home trade is good at, and there are real opportunities to do more of that in the on-trade, especially with soft drinks.

"Lots of people will buy a soft drink, but sales per visit, at one and a bit, are the lowest of any category. Pubs still regard the soft drinks drinker as someone who can't drink anything else because they're driving or have some other reason. But soft drinks can be a more positive choice for consumers."

It's clear from this why soft drinks have potentially a big part to play in developing

pub hospitality, in adding value to the customer experience. For obvious reasons, says Linthwaite, "a pub's ability to offer more when it comes to alcohol is limited. But you can create offers around soft drinks that are cheap for a pub to do and actually have a high perceived value."

"Typically soft drinks are drunk on group occasions, and you have to think of the whole group. Building dwell time is something we've done with the Robinsons Fruit Shoot free activity packs. Parents just want their kids to sit quietly, so it keeps the kids and mum and dad happy."

Pub background​

Linthwaite knows the pub trade well. He started his career at the Webster's Brewery in Halifax, West Yorkshire. But his experience is also broad, covering on-trade and off-trade.

"The only thing I've not done is wine," he says. "I always want to come back to the on-trade. It's an easy business to love. It's the people. They're colourful, sociable, open. You can do business with them on an amicable basis. You feel that anything is possible.

"There is quite a bit pubs have still to learn from the off-trade, but it's a great place to do business."

Some parts of the industry, though, are greater than others when it comes to soft drinks. Britvic's traditional strength has always been in the managed chains. Now it's aiming to create strong partnerships in the freetrade.

"It's always been a part of our approach and we want to build on that and bring the freetrade the right solutions at category and brand level.

"Managed retailers have understood soft drinks for a long time,"

he goes on. "In a food-led managed pub soft drinks could be 40% of the net take. In the freetrade it's a different story.

"Licensees say they understand, but the trick is to connect that with action — to what they do about it."

Since January Britvic has expanded its force in the field, using a 150-strong technical services team to reinforce marketing messages, as well as mend the taps. Linthwaite estimates that it means the company will be reaching 8,000 more pubs a year.

J2O success​

Around 73% of UK pubs are Britvic customers, thanks in large part to the success of J2O, the adult juice drink devised as a product the on-trade could have to itself, a notion pubs eagerly seized upon.

It was a real breakthrough for soft drinks. But J2O's sales are now falling.

"We believe it's to do with the price of packaged versus draught soft drinks. People will take that into account in a recession. So we need to re-energise the brand, to make it more relevant.

"People have got to really desire the product. Making it available is not enough now. It has a fantastic bar call and was distinctive in that it brought together two flavours you couldn't get before. It was — and still is — a treat. But we have to give people more reasons to buy it."

Linthwaite promises "an exciting year ahead" for the brand. It's already carrying its first ever on-pack promotion, new television ads are hitting the screen this month (May) and, in case you were worrying, the Christmas special edition is nearly there, a suitably sparkly number called Glitter Berry.

He's also feeling excited about Lipton Ice Tea, which will soon be appearing in glass bottles to make it more relevant to pubs.

"We have a good reputation for bringing new formats and innovations to the pub, and there are further opportunities beyond juice drinks and cola, category gaps to innovate in," he says.

"But it's also about how to innovate. In take-home the customers always know there's something new. It's supported. The on-trade could get behind innovations more, and brand managers could work better with retailers on that."

Research is being done on something new for pubs, another J2O perhaps, that will be unveiled within the next 12 months. Linthwaite gives away a few clues to his thinking.

"We have gone through a pub customer's decision-making process to find the gaps in the market, and what's been really interesting to us is the over-35 female market — we feel we can reach an increasingly important consumer group that other categories struggle to get at. It's the wife of the family who makes the choice of where to go for a meal, so that's really important for pubs."

Driving force​

Linthwaite wants Britvic to become the driving force in the future of soft drinks in pubs, "and that's about how we help the trade grow the category through giving it practical solutions," he says.

"I'm an optimist. In five years I believe we'll have a thriving on-premise sector giving consumers a great experience. There are some really terrific, dynamic operators and there's lots we can talk to them about to get them to focus on the category.

"And there's great opportunity for growth. Soft drinks are under-developed in many respects, but consumers are going that way and it's actually easy for licensees to do.

"The really massive retail challenge, though, is around hospitality. Our role in that lies in supporting the trade — and that we're very passionate about."