Star Pubs & Bars is increasing its cask beer range to over 300, giving it one of the most comprehensive beer choices for licensees of any pub company.
Rolling out to all 2,900 pubs, the bolstered cask beer range complements the Society of Independent Brewers (SIBA) deal agreed last year and will mean licensees will be able to choose the very best range of beers from around 900 breweries, for their customers and type of pub, which will help them grow their businesses.
Lawson Mountstevens, Managing Director for Star Pubs & Bars, said, “Great beer is at the heart of great pubs. And cask beer is completely unique to the on-trade giving it a huge point of difference for drinkers. Every pub in our estate is different which means our entrepreneurial licensees can tailor their beer offering to their customer, whilst adding value to their business.”
Star Pubs & Bars is also working with Marston’s to provide category leading advice on maximising value from cask beer. The category building advice complements Heineken’s ‘Greenpaper’, which provides actionable category insight to boost the on-trade by up to £1 billion over the next three years.
Mountstevens continued, “With 2,900 pubs from Penzance to Stornoway, and Great Yarmouth to Holyhead, getting beers from breweries all over the country, this is hugely positive news for millions of consumers, thousands of licensees and the entire brewing industry.”
Pete Donne (pictured), licensee of the King & Queen, a small Cask Marque accredited former Punch pub in Wendover, said, “It’s clear that the Star Pubs & Bars Foundation List is much more extensive than what we had access to previously. Several key breweries have more representation as well as some breweries who weren’t represented before. With the rotational ales, Star’s approach is different, and I believe better than what we had before – monthly rather than six weekly.
“There’s a good range of gravity and style of beers which is important to me as is the continuation of access to SIBA beers. With our rotational ales we try to have a balance between traditional and more craft-oriented dynamic beers. Cask is the flagship of British pubs and vitally important part of our offer. Ours is one of six pubs in the village so my aim is to be as distinctive and individual as possible.”