Punch Pubs & Co: ‘Fireside is a chameleon concept’

Farrow & Ball colour palettes, katsu curry croquettes and mimosas – Punch Pubs & Co’s new Fireside concept is channelling all that and more as it looks to tap into a more affluent demographic.

Born out of lockdown, the 1,300-strong pub company launched the concept in April last year and has just opened its 26^th Fireside Pub – The Crown in Sunridge, in Bromley – with plans to open another 10 to 15 over the next 12 months, as part of a £42m investment in its overall estate in 2022.

Forming part of its management partnerships model, Fireside Pub Co sites are more heavily weighted towards food than its other concepts, which are predominately wet led. Mighty Local has a 15-18% food mix, Our Local is 20-25% food and Our Local Destination pubs edges up to the 35% mark. The mix at Fireside pubs is more of an even split.

“Over lockdown we had the opportunity to upweight our data and insights, and really look at where the opportunity was going to come from in the future,” Punch’s director of marketing and strategy, Russell Danks, explains. “We segmented our estate accordingly and looked at how we could maximise those opportunities.

The area of the market that was going untapped as far as Punch was concerned was what it calls its top right-hand space – “a higher proposition, in more affluent areas”. “We looked at what our competitors were doing and how we could create a genuinely authentic local pub experience.”

It all started with data

Its proof-of-concept site, The Dog House in Kennington, south London, looked to achieve Punch’s aim of offering authentic British pub cuisine, where the classics are done well but with a twist, with the food menu complimented by a curated wine list, cocktails, tipples and aperitifs. The offering at The Dog House – which is now classify as a Fireside Urban pub, alongside its Fireside Destination sites – resonated really well with customers, Danks says.

Buoyed by the feedback, the pub company then “had a proper go at it”, investing nearly £1m refurbishing a site in Brockenhurst called The Filly, which it had the opportunity to take on. Situated in the New Forest, the site has seven letting rooms in order to take advantage of the tourism trade.

“It was a brilliant opportunity to try the concept out. It really started with data and insight telling us that we were missing a trick in the market… and since then it has been on a growth journey.”

The main difference between the Urban and Destination Fireside Pubs is that the specials at Destination pubs change on a more regular basis. The Urban pubs may also have a particular upweighting, in terms of a sport of entertainment offering, but it’s about tailoring each pub according to its location.

Fireside is a bit of a chameleon

“The beauty of having a concept is that they are not consumer facing brands. We have the ability to play around and dial up or down as much as we like,” Danks says. “What we are finding is that the Fireside business can be quite a chameleon and can offer a variety of different solutions for the market.”

The interiors of these pubs are designed to showcase classic pub décor, but with “a decadent twist”. Punch uses a lot of Farrow & Ball colour palettes and looks at where it can reuse or restore original features like bar tops. But each pub has its own character. The Pied Bull in Newton-le-Willows, near Warrington, has a lot of original and quirky artwork, for example.

The food offering is more consistent across the sites, with menus operating on a three-monthly cycle, but with operators having a bank of 15 specials they can choose from in order to keep their menus fresh. The dishes are very much focused on British seasonal classics but often with a small twist. For example, Punch has teamed up with a London street food business called Noughts and Croquettes which produces more innovative variations on the classic snack, such as chicken Kiev or katsu curry croquettes.

The menu also features dishes such as panzanella salad, made with Heritage tomatoes from the Isle of Wight, pan-fried trout with sauteed potatoes and vegetables – which has been an unexpected big seller – through to classic Sunday roasts, southern fried chicken strips and fish and chips.

In a nod to its more premium food credentials, Punch recently entered into a partnership with the Queen’s butcher Aubrey Allen, which has been supplying meat to its Fireside pubs since the beginning of the year.

The pubco is also looking to introduce a woodfired pizza offering, alongside a training academy. The stone baked sourdough pizzas will be introduced across five of its pubs later this summer, with the view to extending it to all Fireside and Our Local Destination pubs in the future. Varieties will include classics such as Margherita and a base topped with white sauce, salmon, dill and capers.

Taking a pub-by-pub approach

Although the concept currently has a bit of a southern bias, it does have some sites in the north, such as The Ship at Elswick, near Blackpool, The Pied Bull, and Barony Bar in Edinburgh, and Punch is keen to tap into key tourist locations, whether that is the New Forest or the Derbyshire Dales. “There are definitely a few more (sites) on the radar for next year where I think we are getting a little braver in terms of site selection,” he adds.

“Traditionally we do have quite an equal spread of where we invest our money up and down the country – this year £42m is being invested into our pubs – but the reality is that Fireside has had more of a southern bias due to the density of where people are coming from.”

As well as investment in the outdoor spaces at these sites – think fire pits and stretch tents – Punch is also looking develop the accommodation side of these venues. Currently around eight of its Fireside pubs have rooms, but the business is working on a strategy over the next 12 months to maximise the opportunity for people on holiday or visiting the area. And there are also opportunities to develop pubs that have already opened, such as The Crown – a former curry house – which at the moment is only open on the ground floor but has potential on the upper floors for redevelopment.

Ultimately the proof of the concept has also been in the takings. In the early stages of Fireside’s launch Punch was aiming to achieve average sales of £14-15k a week at those first few sites. “Now these are taking £26-20k a week, so they are a really sizeable business and really taking up the overall sales for Punch,” Danks explains.

The company does not have a set target it is working to in terms of the expansion of the Fireside concept, but it does see the opportunity to expand it further. “One of the things Clive (Chesser) is very keen on is making sure we still carry on with very much a pub-by-pub approach – and that does work well for us.

“We are not talking hundreds, but we are talking about creating 10-15 over the next 12 months, and each one of those will be taken on its own merit.”