Warning over pub rush to food

Pub companies should be wary of rushing towards food as a revenue stream, according to the founder of Sapient Corporate Finance.

Peter Hansen, a partner at the independent corporate advisory and strategy advice company, said it was easy to understand why so many companies had been tempted into offering food — because of the £5bn that had been spent on it by the consumer in the past five years.

But he told delegates at M&C Report's Future of Pub Retailing (FOPR) 2008 he could see the rush for food turning out like the rush to the high street of the mid-1990s.

"When a market turns, when there is excess capacity, it turns very quickly," Hansen told audience at the Andaz Hotel in London.

"My concern is we are going that way with food. There is an over capacity. It's going to end up like what we saw on the high street."

He also said that the more the pub industry relies on food for revenue the more the British supermarket is going to take notice and, "they are not going to just sit there."

Hansen added: "I don't care if you are the Rafael Nadal of the pub industry, you are not going to take on the two tonne gorilla which is Tesco.

"There has to be change — because 20,000 pubs serving pie and chips just isn't going to work."

The strategy advisor also warned against all-you-can eat offers saying they were a "backwards move".