Pubs get the takeaway bug
Caffeine addiction
Many people cannot start the day without a tea or coffee and high street coffee shop chains have taken advantage of that with one on every corner to grab people as they go to work. However, pubs can tempt customers to enjoy their morning caffeine out of home too.
All Drake & Morgan’s five London pubs offer takeaway coffee. As a pub group in the big city, the sites are ideally placed to capitalise on this.
“We sell our takeaway coffee and tea all day, from 7am to close,” says Paul Loebenberg, the general manager of the Folly. “Customers can take away any of the teas or coffees from the menu, but we find that cappuccinos and lattes tend to be the most popular.
We have many regulars who drop in every morning before work, as well as people who happen to be passing by.
“Every month we do offers that are available by a scanning QR (quick response) code and these often include a hot drink promotion. For example next month we’ll be doing a buy-one-get-one-free offer. During these offers we tend to see a peak in takeaway coffees.” Takeaway hot drinks are served in hot weave paper cups with a ribbed cardboard outer layer for better insulation.
Equip your pub
Black Rock Grill (BRG) has launched the Roxy combi — a unit with BRG’s trademark volcanic rock for cooking meats and vegetables, but also with a stone-baked pizza deck. The 27-rock BRG deck enables caterers to introduce a hot menu or provide an efficient takeaway service. It is the ideal solution for small or medium-sized venues as it fits neatly on counters. It is also easy to use with consistent results and minimum wastage.
Combined with the pizza deck, which holds 4x9-inch or 2x12-inch pizzas, the Roxy Combi temperature settings run on electro-mechanical thermostats allowing operators to bake a range of dishes at the same time. The package includes 27 rocks, 27 porcelain platters, branded disposable bibs and support in marketing, menus and staff training.
For more information visit www.blackrockgrill.com.
Curry fever
The nation’s love affair with curry shows no sign of slowing and independents and pub groups alike have jumped on board the curry-night bandwagon, to great success. Alan Vaughan of freehold the Countryman Inn, Shipley, West Sussex, is one licensee who has reaped the benefits. He puts on a monthly themed night, which attracts 85 to 100 people to the 75-cover pub every time. However, now pubs have got the hang of themed nights, introducing a take-away option is the next step to maximising profits.
A Dorset pub has seen a 20% increase in takeaway sales since buying a traditional Thai tuk-tuk to deliver meals to local residents. The vehicle, an auto rickshaw widely used as a method of urban transport in Thailand, has appealed to the customers of the Nelson Tavern in Mudeford. Peter Lyon, licensee and chief tuk-tuk driver, decided to introduce the colourful three-wheeled vehicle to give its delivery service a more authentic Oriental feel.
“We think it is a novel addition to our marketing efforts, dedicated solely to transporting our delicious, authentic Thai cuisine takeaway meals to our customers,” says Lyon. “It’s top speed is around 31mph and we deliver up to three miles away.”
Chips are down
When licensee Mike Huda noticed he was losing trade to the cheaper fish and chip shop in the same village of Horrabridge in Devon, he decided to introduce his own takeaway offer to compete.
The London Inn now offers beef burgers, chicken grills and barbecue pork ribsteaks (all 4oz) to take away or eat in. The pub uses Big Al’s Flamecooked Range pre-cooked products, which are selling well — up to 300 burgers alone are sold each week, netting a profit of around £600.
Huda sells the products at £3.50 each, regardless of eating in or away, under his own banner of Cheap as Chips. He garnishes and adds chips to all, serving them in disposable semi-plastic containers. They need just a minute in the microwave before serving.
“Anybody who is not selling the Big Al’s range, if they have a high-street pub or are located in an area with high footfall, is definitely
missing a trick,” says Huda.
“Even factoring in the cost of the container — which you can buy from any food supplier or cash and carry — the salad garnish, the cheese, the mayo and the barbecue sauce, plus burger buns, I still come out of any sale with a gross profit of £2 per unit.”
The takeaways are served from 12noon until 11pm and Huda also reports an increase in drinks sales as people wait for their takeaways to be prepared.
Buffet takeaway
Putting on a buffet takeaway option is not just for the big chains — any pub can put on a similar offer if they have a small carvery unit. Lee Carlton of the Bell Inn, Evercreech, Somerset, won a carvery with Bernard Matthews and the Publican’s Morning Advertiser last year and has seen his Sunday covers more than double since starting to use it.
The next step is to introduce a takeaway offer. Mitchells & Butlers brands Harvester and Toby Carveries have recently introduced a buffet takeaway system. The move rolled out across all 180 Harvester sites in April and the brand is selling around 100,000 take- aways each week.
The menu includes grills, burgers, salads, sides and a range of sauces as well as desserts. Prices start at £5.89 for a main course and £3.69 for sundaes.Toby Carvery is trialling a similar offer in 18 sites where guests choose from the standard carvery deck.
Pizza to go
According to Mintel, pizza is eaten regularly by 68.1% of the population and the sector is in growth in and out of home (with a total value of £2.1bn).
“Offering pizza to take away for those who might otherwise leave to find a ‘fast food’ option between 9pm and closing time is a great idea,” says foodservice controller for Dr Oetker, Cheryll Snowden.
“Essentially it’s a low-skill solution for pubs at a time when food is no longer just a useful income stream to increase customer traffic, but a means to financial success.”
This idea can be particularly effective for smaller venues that may not have space for a big operation.
Dr Oetker has launched its Chicago Town pizza range into the foodservice. The range, which can be served as whole pizzas or individual slices, comprises four cheese, Inferno, pepperoni and chicken supreme. All have a sauce stuffed crust and take six to 12 minutes to cook from frozen.
Punch Taverns’ leased division of over 6,000 pubs sells Chicago Town pizza after the kitchens have closed. Catering development manager Alan Todd says: “Offering pizza in those kitchen down times, proactively selling the take-out idea by going round at 10.30pm to ask if customers fancy a slice, is a great solution, especially when your average punter will visit a take-away house after they’ve been out drinking.”
The pubs sells a slice for £1 and display the pizzas in a glass warmer cabinet on the bar to attract customers. Todd recommends putting good PoS material in place to encourage people to impulse-buy.
Moleface pub the Lord Nelson in Burton Joyce, Nottingham, installed a pizza kitchen last year. As well as catering for diners, the pub is selling around 30 takeaway pizzas a week at 70% profit.
Pizzas include the full English with bacon, sausage, black pudding, mushrooms, tomato & egg (£9.95) and Deano’s New Meat Feast with smoked bacon, sausage, chorizo, BBQ sauce, chillis & Mozzarella (£9.95), named after general manager Dean Thacker.
Winter warmers
The weather is getting colder and the nights are drawing in and that means people have soup, stews and other comfort foods on their minds. Huhtamaki produces containers ideal for serving takeaway chunky soups, rice and noodles and pasta meals.
The ‘mmm’ containers are premium quality and disposable with good heat retention to keep contents hotter for longer. The containers are supplied with tight-fitting plastic lids across four sizes — 8oz, 12oz, 16oz and 32oz. Each size is a different colour to help speedy serving. More information is available at www.foodservice.huhtamaki.co.uk.
Picnics & Christmas hampers
Kate and David Deacon, licensees of the Shoulder of Mutton in Kirkby Overblow near Harrogate, North Yorkshire, saw a gap in the market for a convenience store in their small village of 400 residents.
They added a small Shoulder Shop next to the Enterprise Inns pub two and a half years ago that sells convenience goods such as bread, milk, wine and dog and cat food. They also make sandwiches fresh every morning and take a delivery of pasties, pork pies and steak pies three times a week.
“We are the only shop in the village,” says Kate. “We go through busy phases and it is obvious that people have less money in their pockets, but we still get around 50 customers a day and up to 80 at weekends. The pasties are a good seller, especially with the workman in the village — they come in every day.
“Christmas is coming and that is always a boost. We also sell hampers, either made up or made to order from £10 to £100. People usually request chutneys, pickles, jams, good teas, coffees and biscuits to go in them as thank you presents.”
The Deacons sell 50 to 60 hampers over the Christmas period alone, providing a great boost to trade in the winter months.
Jon and Paula Briscoe of the Jolly Farmers in Reigate, Surrey, put a shop inside their pub six years ago and it is still going “extremely well” with plans for expansion. It sells speciality cheeses, meats, home-made cakes and chutneys, among other products, and is open from 9am until the pub closes around 11pm. They also do hampers from £10 to £50.
“People will visit the pub and wander through the shop and vice versa, but we get around 100 visitors to the shop in its own right each week,” says Jon. “Most people who pass through will spend £5 or £6, although we get people spending £70 in one hit, particularly at Christmas.
Dessert dining
Enterprise pub the Hare at Roxwell in Essex runs a very popular cake servery. Leaseholder Gary Downham has spent a lot of time across the pond and the American influences he picked up are present in the pub, for example the cake servery, which is similar to the Cheesecake Factory in the US.
The pub is quickly becoming known for its cheesecake offer of 30 varieties that are rotated regularly. The cakes are cut into 14 slices and sold at £5.50 to eat in and £4.50 to take away. Less indulgent cakes are also sold, including standard chocolate, Victoria sponge and carrot cakes. A slice of these costs £2.95 to eat in or £2.45 to take away.
Assistant manager Jason MacNicol says: “We sell around two or three to take away a day and more at weekends. We package them in polystyrene boxes and little brown paper bags.” Customers can order on the phone, but they must collect the cakes in person.
