Punch Taverns licensee Tracey Harvey from the Roebuck Inn in Brierley Hill made history when she placed the 400,000th online order via the company’s award-winning Punch Buying Club website. To celebrate the milestone, Tracey has won her average weekly order.
She said: “I’ve been running the Roebuck for almost seven years and regularly go onto the Punch Buying Club a couple of times a week to place my orders as its really easy and convenient.”
Launched October 2009
Since launching the Buying Club in October 2009, Punch Taverns has seen a significant cultural shift, with the majority of orders now placed online. Around 3,150 of the company’s partners are now registered and the site typically sees 7,000 visits a week.
The Buying Club is an ever-evolving project and many new features have been added in response to partner feedback.
Drinks, and much more
As well as providing an online ordering portal for drinks and other products, the website now offers specialised training and business support, promotes a Whisky Club and a Wine of the Month Scheme, provides quiz downloads, communicates via a fortnightly e-newspaper, facilitates peer-to-peer networking, and offers a creative hub where users can order site-specific menus, flyers and banners.
The company has also used the strength of its buying power to launch ‘Marketplace’ – a non-drinks online market place offering huge savings on a range of items from cheaper utilities to card processing.
In addition, the website gives Partners access to paperless invoicing, and pub-specific i-draught and beer line cleaning data, while a revamp in June added a new machine reporting function, so that they can check the performance of their gaming machines.
Saving partners time and money
James Goldsworthy, who manages the Punch Buying Club website, said: “At Punch Taverns, we see the Buying Club as a great business tool for our partners which saves them time and money. By ordering online, our Partners are able to browse a wider selection of drinks and promotions, as well as read a comprehensive range of guides and resources, at their convenience – it really has become a one-stop shop.”
Judges at the Publican Awards in 2013 recognised the Club’s achievements by awarding Punch Taverns Best Business Initiative of the Year.