Top Tips: Selling food with coffee

Allowing a customer to walk away holding just a coffee is a wasted opportunity. Matt Moggridge provides some tips on how to tempt them into buying something extra to eat as well

Coffee is an easy extra for any publican to add to their pub’s offer and make a big margin on the product. It is less easy to encourage snack sales, but combine the two and you’re in with a chance. More than 30% of UK adults eat their lunch out-of-home at least once a week and 26% of food-to-go shoppers visit outlets ‘every day’ or ‘most days’, according to Delice de France.

A trend towards convenience and on-the-go snacking has grown the lunch and food-to-go market to £12.4bn, so there is an opportunity to exploit that. Coffee addicts need their caffeine fix, so will always buy the drink, but publicans can increase spend per head by displaying cakes, biscuits and other hot drink-friendly snacks on the bar and convincing customers that they need a bite too.

Elaine Higginson, managing director of United Coffee UK & Ireland, says: “We know that what food is on offer can influence consumers when choosing where to go for a coffee.”

A third of consumers buy something to eat when picking up a coffee, so it is vital that publicans get it right on both counts.

Hot tips on combining food with coffee

Barry Kither, sales and marketing director at Lavazza Coffee UK, provides some insight into making a coffee offer work in pubs

Is it important for pubs to sell food around coffee?

It’s absolutely critical. The fact that pubs sell food makes coffee viable and a pub with a good food business really should have a good coffee business too.

What sort of food products should be sold around a pub coffee operation?

Breakfast is by far the best as anybody ordering breakfast will have a tea or coffee. Then it’s ‘morning goods’, such as croissants and pastries, which have become very important.

For some consumers, a coffee and a bun or cake is a meal replacement and they don’t mind spending £6 for it. Anyone can do morning goods, it’s so easy and there’s no reason why it can’t be of a reasonable quality.

Packaged products are also worth considering. What Costa does well is its range of pre-packaged products, which cannot be bought anywhere else. They’re not selling a Mars bar for 30% more than in a sweet shop. Publicans should do their homework where pre-packaged goods are concerned. Check out Beyond the Bean and Espresso Warehouse as they sell all the bits that go with coffee.

Should pubs copy high-street coffee operators?

No. They haven’t got a chance, but they should cherry-pick the good things about them, such as a relaxed atmosphere, and put their own spin on it. Providing a ‘coffee zone’ is the best bet as it allows pubs to separate their outlets into two distinct areas. A lot of pubs offer decent quality coffee dispensed from a proper machine and are ideally placed to undercut high-street operators.

Where the food and coffee is concerned, what is important to pub customers?

Value for money, even in gastropubs. Consumers are looking for restaurant-quality food at below-restaurant prices. They’ve got to feel it is good value for money.

What tips would you offer any host setting up a food-based coffee operation?

Keep it simple, local and fresh, and offer a limited menu.

There’s nothing worse than an over-ambitious pub menu. If you can’t cope with a full coffee menu, offer filter coffee, but do it well. Keep your menu within the capabilities of your staff.

Are food and coffee good bedfellows?

Luckily, yes. Pubs must rely upon food and that’s good news for coffee roasters. Coffee is the icing on the cake and it offers the highest margin.

Tips on how to upsell food around coffee

Create a coffee food menu with suggestions for coffee and cake/snack partnerships.
Use blackboards, A-boards, table talkers and other PoS material to ensure customers are aware of what is on offer.
Train your staff to upsell food by suggesting an item that complements each drink.
Make sure you have plenty of healthy options available and consider including some items that appeal to customers with special dietary requirements, such as gluten-free cakes and diabetic-friendly biscuits.
Only offer snacks that are freshly made or vacuum-packed if you want to avoid getting a reputation for stale food.
To attract coffee drinkers, approach groups and offer your pub as a venue for local coffee mornings. Offer a discount on snacks bought with coffee and consider a loyalty scheme, whereby customers get a free cup of coffee after a set number of purchases.

Source: Keith Parsons, customer marketing manager, Scottish & Newcastle Pub Company