St Austell donates 800 bottles of soft drinks to front-line NHS staff

The operator of a 170-site stable of pubs and hotels across the south-west joined forces with Pub Grub – based at St Austell tenancy the Victoria Inn in Threemilestone, Cornwall – to complete the free-of-charge bulk delivery.

“We were delighted to donate our stock to the hard-working staff at Royal Cornwall Hospital – it’s the least we can do for our friends at the hospital,” Steve Worrall, managing director of St Austell Brewery’s pubs, inns and hotels said. 

“Thanks to our tenants at the Victoria Inn and the sponsors of their Pub Grub service – Ocean BMW and Ward Williams Associations – for making this delivery possible.”

The brewer and operator, which has cancelled rent for April​, announced plans for a temporary staffing structure on 30 March to weather the Covid-19 emergency, which saw it use the Government’s Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme to furlough more than 75% of staff​ across its pub estate, St Austell Brewery and Bath Ales’ Hare Brewery, which it acquired in 2016.

Discussing the delivery of 800 bottles of soft drinks, including energy beverage Lucozade, to front-line staff, Pub Grub founder and Victoria Inn tenant, Mark Holden, explained: “I’m so proud of our entire team for their continued commitment and hard work, in making our new service possible. 

“Pubs might be closed but we’re very proud to be able to do our bit during these difficult times – delivering a little bit of comfort to our local community and key workers. NHS staff can use their ID to claim 40% discount on takeaways from the pub too.

“We were enormously proud to help the brewery by delivering 70 cases of soft drinks to the Knowledge Spa (the centre of excellence for the delivery of education and training at Royal Cornwall Hospital) this week. I’d like to thank Ocean BMW and Ward Williams Associations, who have lent us three BMW i3 electric cars, to help us with our service.”

Last month, St Austell Brewery announced that it would be providing NHS staff free-of-charge accommodation at its 33-bedroom County Arms hotel in Truro – located a matter of minutes from Royal Cornwall Hospital – for the duration of the Covid-19 emergency.

What’s more, alongside fellow operators Admiral Taverns and Greene King, St Austell pledged to equip its pubs with the digital tools to sell staple groceries to their local communities while pubs are shut via new digital platform mypubshop.com​.