A ground-breaking new national initiative will enable pubs to trade as food shops and transform into ‘click and collect’ havens, helping to give their local communities access to essential food items.
Powered by StarStock, mypubshop.com will give pubs nationwide the ability to take and process orders online, providing them with a valuable income stream whilst offering their local community a way to access essential household staples such as bread, eggs and milk.
The service is launching in partnership with Brakes, Budweiser Brewing Group, Coca-Cola European Partners and Use Your Local, and is open to pubs across the UK. The initiative has already won the support of Admiral Taverns, which is making mypubshop available to its 1,000 pubs; Greene King Pub Partners, which operates a tenanted and leased estate of more than 1,000 pubs; and St Austell, which operates an estate of 170 pubs, predominantly in the South West.
The partnership with Brakes, the leading food wholesaler, will also open up the service to the 15,000-plus pubs it regularly supplies. It will offer participating venues a food shop ‘starter kit’.
Each transaction made via mypubshop will accrue a 2% fee to cover operational costs; however, the venture is being run as a non-profit, with any surplus revenue donated directly to the NHS.
Sam Ulph, Founder & CEO of StarStock, said: “We are all aware of what is happening around us, and in these exceptional times this is a vital way for pubs to stay connected, offer an essential service and to secure an income stream during a period when they are unable to trade in their normal way. It will also help to alleviate the pressure on other grocery shops and the supermarkets.
“This initiative is much more than an online pub service. It’s entirely focused on helping communities and we hope that it will drive positivity for pubs and champion the people that run them as the local heroes they are.”
The mypubshop platform will give pubs the ability to host a web shop. Licensees will be able to select items for their shop ‘inventory’ and provide an online payment service. Once orders are placed by customers, pubs will operate a collection service from their venues.
Joby Mortimer, Head of Sector for Pubs, Brakes UK, said: “We are delighted to be involved in such a meaningful initiative supporting pubs, and helping their customers access essential food items in these challenging times. The pub has been the cornerstone of communities for hundreds of years, and long may that continue – and we hope this initiative will maintain the connection between the pub and their customers, whilst also engaging even more consumers with the Great British local.”
The mypubshop service launches this week, is available nationwide and pubs can register to use the service at www.mypubshop.com.
Of the decision to make mypubshop available to Admiral tenants, CEO Chris Jowsey said: “We are doing everything we can to support our pub operators through this extremely challenging period, and partnering with StarStock to give our licensees the opportunity to introduce the mypubshop concept was a no-brainer. Our pubs sit at the heart of their communities, so we’re expecting a good take up of this service so that many of them can act as essential goods stations and support people as best they can.”
Greene King Pub Partners managing director Wayne Shurvinton added: “Publicans care deeply about their communities and in this current crisis it has been uplifting to hear time and time again about pubs going above and beyond to give so much back to their neighbours and friends. We have been working around the clock to offer support to our partners, and now teaming up with StarStock to introduce mypubshop gives our publicans who had maybe wanted to help – but weren’t sure how – the tools to step forward to help their communities. We couldn’t be more proud to support this excellent initiative.”
