Publican Awards Winners: Best Late Night Operator, sponsored by Jagermeister - Stonegate

Having recently acquired Walkabout, there are plans underway to develop the Aussie-centric brand and bring it in line with Stonegate’s wider estate.

The previous financial year saw the company’s like-for-like sales grow significantly, with profit up over the past two years. It invested £2.6m across 13 sites during the course of 2016. Gay pride was a smashing success, with one site, the Two Brewers, in Clapham, taking £68,000 in one day. 

The company constantly innovates the myriad drinks offers across its portfolio, including the introduction of ‘smoked and steep’ cocktails at Missoula and new, tiki-style cocktails at Popworld bars. These are designed to capitalise on current trends without alienating existing customers.

Stonegate puts on regular nights across its late-night venues, often working with sponsors, as well as one-off events. It recently opened DAO, a new concept in Chester which was shortly rolled out to Exeter, and has opened Play Dirty, an indoor games-room concept, at its Slug & Lettuce in Wimbledon.

Stonegate brands engage heavily with their customers via technology and social media: the group averages around 7,300 Facebook likes per site with average pan-social impressions in excess of 5m per week.

Last but not least, Stonegate takes an active role when it comes to dealing with licensing and security issues in its sites – senior management make themselves available 24 hours a day and there are regular, thorough health and safety visits at all of its sites.