Exhibition season has kicked off and on Tuesday 5th February we visited Pub 19, the only dedicated show for the UK pub industry. The two-day show at Olympia offers the opportunity to network with suppliers and to share ideas and inspiration. We have seen the likes of JD Wetherspoon being one of the early adopters of ordering and payment technology since the launch of its Order and Pay app in 2017, so we were keen to learn about the latest trends from across the pub sector and how many of these trends are driven by technology.
The first session from The Pub Theatre kicked off with some positivity from Karl Chessell from CGA Insight. Karl spoke about current research in ‘The British Pub Market: Reasons to be Optimistic for 2019’ report. The research reveals that despite a testing couple of years, there is reason to believe that the future for the pub sector is much rosier than some might think. One of the reasons why the outlook is positive is that the general consumer trends that we are seeing are a perfect fit for pubs. Consumers were asked what they look for when they go out of home to eat and some of the key trends such as health, localism and veganism are all things are suited for pubs and what pubs can offer.
Karl also highlighted that the growth in casual dining stole some of those consumers from pubs, but after a turbulent year for the restaurant industry, the pressure is now on pubs to win consumers back and respond to what consumers want:
Cosy (Appealing 52%)
Local (50%)
Family Friendly (34%)
Familiar (31%)
Modern (25%)
Interestingly, a quarter of consumers value the modern style of a pub, showing that not everyone wants their pub to stay the same. The role of technology and payment apps within the pub industry is coming into its own with the rise of the cashless pub. For pub operators keeping abreast of what consumers want is key and pub operators will have to get savvy to technology.
In the exhibition hall, there were plenty of technology providers. One of those was our partner Yoyo Wallet, showing how its award-winning payments and loyalty platform can transform a business – especially when used in conjunction with digital pre-ordering. There were also plenty of POS providers including our partner Tevalis demonstrating its integrated POS technology.
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See our flyer to learn more about how Preoday can help pubs and bars.
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