With increasing competition for the leisure pound and the pub industry facing a growing challenge to draw in those wishing to dine out, Punch Taverns is focusing on helping as many of their licensees as possible introduce or improve their food offer.
Punch is the only pub company to employ a team of dedicated catering executives, whose specific role is to provide free support and advice to licensees on developing a food offer that is just right for their pub and local market.
Just over 12 months ago, 67% of Punch licensees offered food. A year on, the team of 8 catering executives have helped ensure that three quarters of Punch’s leased estate of 7,600 pubs now have a food offer in place. The team has helped over 1200 licensees introduce a new offer or develop their existing offer in the last year alone.
Punch licensees recognise this as an increasingly important area. In a survey of licensees who have a food offer in place, 87% said that they believed this was important to retaining their customer base.
As a result, Punch has doubled the number of catering executives in the last year. There are now eight based across the country, aligned to each of Punch’s regional territories. Their aim is to help even more licensees introduce and develop their food offer this year and next.
Punch’s network of business relationship managers (BRMs) will identify any licensees that would benefit from catering support and arrange for a catering executive to visit.
Alan Todd, Punch’s catering development manager, who heads up the team explains: “The catering executives are all experienced catering professionals and bring years of experience. They provide an advisory and consultancy service on any area of the food industry and that service is completely free to our licensees.”
Alan continues: “They will visit the licensee for an initial session to assess their specific needs. It might be a pub that has no capacity for a kitchen and so the catering executive will look at alternative ways for them to offer food, for example with a pizza oven.
“Or it may be that a licensee has a food offer in place, but their margins aren’t quite right. The catering executive will look at everything from getting better deals from suppliers, menu design and re-launches through to kitchen hygiene and identifying any relevant training programmes,” adds Alan.
The team are currently ensuring that pubs are geared up for Christmas with a range of offers such as Brakes Food Service supplying the products and Punch’s Design and Print team designing the menu.
The support they are receiving from their catering executive is also attracting some positive feedback. Bel Crompton of the Blue Lion in Marlborough was visited by catering executive Karen Peacock. She said: “All of the menus and flyers are very attractive and our food trade is definitely improving following Karen’s visit.”
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