Culture shift in the pub trade & responding to consumer trends

  • by Sam Lewis 

Interview with...

Peter Sheehy
CV:
Pub landlord
Business name:
Sekforde Arms
Goods/services:
Pub
Location:
Clerkenwell, London
 

Peter Sheehy on thinking about your customers' needs...

"We've got everything just about right. You have to look carefully at your customers and the customers you want.

"The mistake some people make is to do what they like. For example, if I were to like jazz music it doesn't mean I should put it on at lunch time, because you must look at what the customers want.

"I think we've got that just about right at the moment - right menus, right products, right pricing. I believe you should think about your customers."

The idea of flat caps and whippets and people drinking cask ale up north has radically changed in recent years

On the growth and geographic shift in the cask ales market...

"Twenty-five percent of all cask ales in Britain are drunk within the M25, so it's very much a south-easterly thing. The idea of flat caps and whippets and people drinking cask ale up north has radically changed in recent years.

"The Morning Advertiser is a trade paper which comes out twice a week and that's full of useful information about cask ales and how it's a growing sector, especially round here."

On the shift in pub culture witnessed in recent years...

"A lot of pubs have closed down which probably should have closed down anyway because they weren't being used. Food has become much more important, our style of drinking has changed.

"We don't actually have a cafe culture like the government would like us to think, but it has changed a lot. Pubs have become a lot more female-friendly, but opening hours haven't really changed, which surprised everyone with the advent of so-called 24-hour licensing."

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