Marston’s, the leading independent brewing and pub retailing business, is to be found at the heart of thriving local communities, operates over 1,800 pubs in the UK, and is the world’s largest brewer of cask ale.
Now, Marston’s is joining forces with the UK’s biggest selling newspaper – The Sun – to future proof its pubs and ensure they remain relevant to future generations of pub-goers.
Of course, this initiative should be of benefit to Marston’s business – perhaps giving it significant competitive advantage for a period – but it’s one that will be watched with great interest by the hospitality sector, and their customers.
Evolving the pub experience to suit changing needs
As Marston’s is one of the largest pub groups in the UK, they want to take the lead and look to the future and evolve the whole pub experience to suit changing needs, ensuring pubs remain an integral part of those communities for future generations.
The campaign will look to recruit a “Pub of the Future Board” of volunteers, who will work together over a 12-18 month period to create a vision of their ideal pub of the future.
The Sun partnership will launch on 17 July when readers will be invited to submit their creative ideas as to why they should be selected as a member of the Marston’s “Pub of the Future Board”. The brand will incorporate readers’ best ideas into one of their new pubs of the future. The Board will meet several times over the 18 months, and will focus on specific areas of the pub landscape including pub design, menu, drinks and even uniform design.
Roger Devlin, Chairman of Marston’s commented: “When I was young, my social life revolved around the pub. Everybody used to meet there. I began wondering what would bring young people back to their local pubs? After all, the pub is the original social network. This is where we thought up the idea of recruiting The Sun’s readers to help us design The Pub of the Future.”