Retail standards rose 3% across the Star Pubs & Bars estate in the first half of 2015 with coffee quality surging ahead by 13.4% according to an independent retail audit designed to improve Star pubs’ customer service and performance.
The average score across all areas of the customer experience was a record 83.7% with pubs achieving 4.08 out of 5 for their coffee quality.
The results follow Star’s restructuring of its BDM call cycle to focus the whole company simultaneously on raising retail standards in 2015.
Chris Jowsey, Star pubs & Bars trading director, also credited the company’s groundbreaking coffee supply agreement with Kimbo launched in 2014 with improving Star pubs’ coffee offer.
Rewarding lessees
To reward lessees for great standards Star is giving the top scoring 10% of its estate a choice of 12 months free marketing support, ranging from website creation, social media support to local ad campaigns, worth £150,000.
Chris Jowsey commented: “The results of the retail audit show the push to improve the quality of coffee in the estate and company-wide focus on improving retail standards are proving effective. This is great news for customers, our pubs and for Star as quality drives sales.
“Traditionally the leased pub industry has lagged behind managed pubs when it comes to service. Our intention is to challenge that giving customers a winning combination of excellent retail standards in a unique environment.”