SA Brain, the Cardiff-based brewer and leisure group, anticipates achieving 48% for total food sales across the business in a year’s time.
The figure includes 31-strong brand Coffee#1 with all hot beverage sales. The brand sells ‘grab and go’ food items and retail director Philip Lay says the company is looking at more options to increase the offer.
“Food has become a significant income stream for us and we are constantly looking at how we can grow that,” he said. “We have no plans to introduce more menu oriented food so it will remain a ‘grab and go’ offer.” Consisting of savouries and cakes, food sales at the site account for around 30% of sales.
Food accounts for 38% of the core estate and remains in 4% growth per annum and Lay expects it to break through the 40% in a year’s time. Meanwhile, accommodation accounts for 3% and is 5% up while wet sales are 1% down. Including Coffee#1 in the figures means food sales account for 45% of the whole company.
“There is a clear move towards different occasions in the business,” says Lay. “Coming to the pub tends to now be a dining occasion rather than a drinking one. We are seeing different trends in different pubs - in sites without food (of which there are not many) we are suffering an 8% decline since September against 14% growth at premium food brands such as Grape & Olive and Greenwood & Brown.
“The economy is Wales is becoming more challenging with an underlying lack of confidence. People are still very much coming out when there is an occasion and we get a significant uplift whenever there is a game. Half term was £4,000 short of a record breaking week for us. The business is polarising - weather remains very important and we have really good sales when people have a reason to come out, often for a food-led occasion. Coffee is almost the opposite - sales go up in the pubs in sunshine but down in Coffee#1. The broad portfolio works.
Focuses for the next year include providing value for money, sourcing produce with provenance.
