Over half of publicans (62%) are doing nothing to encourage sales of soft drinks in their venues, while admitting tap water consumption is on the rise, new research shows.
The survey, undertaken by Freedrinks with HIM!, questioned 100 licensees last month.
“It concerns me the number of pub and restaurants I go into and how easily I can just get a tap water without anyone recommending anything else to me. That is a lost sale,” said Freedrinks MD, Martin Hall.
Just over 250 consumers were also questioned as part of the research, and half of them said they “would never” pay for water in a pub, while 68% said they felt bottled water was too expensive.
Of those questioned, 59% said cheaper prices would encourage them to switch from tap water to soft drinks in pubs and 51% said free refills would.
“Given that one in four drinks sold in the on-trade are soft drinks and more people are reducing their alcohol consumption, licensees can increase revenues and increase dwell time by promoting natural low sugar alternatives to tap water,” said Hall.
“When I say promote, I mean train staff to offer alternatives, to proactively suggest them when drinkers are looking at the bar or wondering what to have at the table and not just put it in the fridge and hope the consumer will eventually ask for it,” he added.
The survey results suggested that consumers wanted more adult style soft drinks; a wider choice of brands, more natural drinks and more low sugar options in pubs.
Freedrinks launched Zeo, a new soft drink earlier this year and a £4.2m ad campaign in June.
Comment by Robyn Black, Publican’s Morning Advertiser drinks editor
It is astounding that 62% of publicans currently do nothing to encourage soft drinks sales in their venues (see story, here), in a climate where consumption of tap water in the on-trade is rising.
It is less surprising that 68% of them say that tap water is bad for the future of the pub industry, but then why aren’t they tackling the problem?
Part of the issue is that tap water consumption previously has not been measured (as there’s no brand owner to pay for the research) and as a result rates have crept up almost imperceptibly.
Another issue is cost, and this was backed up by the survey which showed cheaper soft drinks would encourage 59% of consumers to switch from tap water.
And the final problem is that the support just isn’t there - 42% of licensees said they suppliers could be doing more to help them sell soft drinks.
Of course brand owners will point the finger of blame at the pub trade itself. Stocking policies are too conservative, they say and licensees are too concerned with beers, wine and spirits.
Nonsense. The fact is that, thus far, soft drinks producers have failed to give consumers drinks they want to drink and licensees support to sell.
Whether Freedrinks itself, which commissioned the research and has just launched the “Interesting Soft Drink” Zeo, has managed to address some of these issues only time will tell.
