Beer & Coffee Co operates a range of food and drink outlets across Warwickshire, including five pubs under its Pug Pubs branding.
Owner Matt Crowther had seen steady growth across his venues in challenging conditions. But he was open to advice on how to improve to better overcome the difficulties of the UK hospitality market.
After working with Nina Bale, account manager at the Coventry and Warwickshire Growth Hub, Matt was introduced to Business Ready. This is a business support programme run by the University of Warwick Science Park on behalf of Warwickshire County Council.
Matt was paired with business support adviser Steve Tipson, who specialises in digital marketing. Steve was able to help Matt, and tap into some of their existing customer data to better market new events.
“There were plenty of quick marketing wins for us that we were missing out on,” said Matt. “For example, we regularly take customers’ email addresses when they would make a reservation. But we hadn’t actually used their addresses to market new events to them directly. We were sitting on around 45,000 potential repeat customers.
“Steve was able to show us the best way to create a marketing plan around those leads, and we saw results almost instantly in terms of people attending new events.
“We also really appreciated the advice he gave to our marketing manager around website management, which has given him more autonomy and has enabled us to increase visitor numbers to our website.”
Since working with Business Ready, Beer & Coffee Co has seen impressive results, with its Warwick pub The Black Pug taking a record turnover in recent weeks.
The icing on the cake was The Black Pug winning the Star Pub of the Year at the Great British Pub Awards, in recognition of its success.
