Boosting the pub industry: is it simply a matter of time?

As a landlord, what can you do in order to boost business? Here are some ideas you might consider: running some promotions, improving your pub’s interior, or lobbying to change the time zone of the UK. Not expecting the last one? Neither was I! Here at BitterSweet Partnership, we spend lots of time thinking of ways to ignite a love of beer in women – however, changing the clocks had never crossed our minds as a viable method until we read in the Morning Advertiser that the British Beer & Pub Association are backing a proposal which claims that by lengthening the days, the leisure and tourism industries will receive a boost from customers out to enjoy the extra time.

I have to say, I admire their thinking – it takes a certain kind of guts to suggest that we change something that you’d think was set in stone. And to add to that, our survey found that women are most likely to drink beer when they’re at a festival, suggesting that longer days and an outdoor setting do encourage more women to choose beer. So an extra hour might be good news for the beer industry. However, given the miserable summers we’ve experienced in England lately, it seems like a change in the clocks alone probably won’t be enough. After all, it doesn’t make much difference whether it’s a thunderstorm in August or a hailstorm in November – we’re not really going to want to go out either way.

Instead of trying to add hours to the day, I think that it’s time for some pubs to make more of an effort when it comes to attracting female clientele. Initiatives like introducing more appealing glassware and improving your food menu are surely much easier than shifting an entire nation’s timeframe!