Pub of the Future: How pubs are energising and innovating in venue activity to drive more footfall and appeal to a new on trade consumer

Pub & Bar have teamed up with HEINEKEN UK for another round of the popular series, Pub of the Future, where we speak to operators leading the way on the trends set to define the future landscape of the UK pub and bar sector. In this issue, we have spoken to Dave Henning, Director of Code Sheffield, which includes Molly Malone’s Irish Tavern in Sheffield and Derby.

“People aren’t going out for the sake of going out anymore,” Dave Henning explains, speaking in his pub garden in Sheffield. “The era of going to the same pubs every weekend is a thing of the past. Now people need a reason”.

Molly Malone’s Irish Tavern in Sheffield, is leading the charge in keeping customers entertained and in venues for longer, offering a different deal or activity every night of the week. “On Tuesdays, we do the Big Fat Quiz – a smartphone-based quiz where it’s fastest finger wins. It’s really interactive, with screens all around the venue, and the students love it.” To really get people interested, they even have four ‘Chasers’ from the ITV gameshow The Chase come and host the quiz for the first few weeks of term. “Those nights are superb. We have people playing outside on the pavement because they can’t get into the pub”.

Molly Malone’s picks up the tempo towards the second half of the week with Irish Bingo – with a musical twist. Around these two activities, Molly Malone’s also offers highly competitive drinks deals throughout the rest of week – including Fridays and Saturdays, where the emphasis is heavily on the ‘Craic’ – Irish slang for good times. These good times are taken very seriously, “we do one initiative called ‘Craic the Tap’, where customers can go behind the bar and pull as many pints as they can in one minute. Most of them haven’t worked behind a bar before, and there’s no glasses being tilted. It just goes everywhere; it’s carnage”.

Has Dave noticed any differences in how his customer base is drinking? Outside of the student crowd, he has seen a rise in popularity around No and Low Alcohol options. “10 years ago, we wouldn’t sell anything alcohol free. Now we’ve got a big range of alcohol-free beers, and they sell really well. Heineken ® 0.0 is the closest to the real thing and is the best out of those”.

Prizes are a big mechanic for Molly Malone’s and its around this offering the regular events format that Dave feels HEINEKEN UK really support. “If I go to my rep and ask for prizes for a quiz series we’re running, they will support as much as they can”.  As pubs continue to battle with a challenging landscape, it’s venues like Molly Malone’s that are continuing to fight the good fight – and keeping the students of Sheffield highly entertained in the process.

HEINEKEN UK has launched eazle tools®, a digital platform open to all in the UK pub and bar industry as a one-stop shop of resources. To find out more, head to https://tools.eazle.co.uk