The Brighton-based business was up against strong competition from some of the UK’s longest established family brewers, including Robinsons, Wells & Co and Fuller Smith & Turner, but managed to edge ahead of the pack.
Operating a managed partnership model, Laine was established in the mid 90s in Brighton and now operates 54 sites across the South and as far north as Birmingham, with plans to expand further also in the pipeline.
App creation
This is a company that’s stated ambition is to create a “next generation” pub, both in terms of recruiting new partners into the business to bring fresh perspective, but also to attract the next generation of consumers into spaces that resonate with their changing needs.
One key area of success for the business has been the creation of a special app which has enabled their partners to better engage with customers.
The PUBBL app was launched just over 12 months ago, but has seen huge take up across the estate, signing up more than 50,000 users in a very short space of time. The app allows partners to boost loyalty and footfall, offering personalised rewards and promotions while also providing key insight to the operators.
Excellent innovation
Training has also seen some excellent innovation with the launch of a new dedicated training platform, offering gamified learning in bite sized formats which has really resonated across the estate with a 90 percent take up. The company has also invested in specialised training, working with actors from hit programmes like Bridgerton to provide bespoke confidence coaching for both partners and head office staff.
On top of this, impressive and healthy investment into the estate and a strong focus on culture development, which is seeing the business grow partners internally, as assistant managers make the step to partners, puts Laine at the front of the pack and well positioned to achieve its aim of creating the next generation pub operation.