Pubs not facing last orders yet

Indeed, thousands of pubs have shut their doors over the last decade, with as many as four landlords hanging up their bar towels every single day.

But there is another school of thought – that this grand old institution is alive and well, built on a foundation of new principles and a change in the type of customer that comes through the door, and what they want to buy.

There's little doubt that the world of the pub has changed dramatically in the last few decades.

With the smoking ban and the rise of eating out, the typical boozer has had to change or die – but there is a growing belief that many are all the stronger for being forced to adapt to the brave new world.

Since Marston's began producing beer and running pubs from its main brewery in Wolverhampton over a century ago, the industry has altered dramatically.

But senior director Peter Dalzell believes that even the gnarled old drinkers who frequented local hostelries when they were thick with smoke and packed to the rafters every night, would find plenty to recognise in the modern pub.

"A good pub is still at the heart of its local community," he said.

"Whether it's a traditional real ale pub or a pub-restaurant, it's got to have close links with its local area.

"And it's got to have a bar. Too many pub restaurants have started taking out the bar. What they end up with is a box where people go to eat. A proper bar means it is still a pub, it gives it character."

Peter's views count. He is managing director of Marston's Inns & Taverns, the company division that owns and runs 500 of the group's 1,800 pubs nationwide.

He says it is Marston's traditional links to making beer that gives the company and its pubs their particular character.

The company was not knocked off track by the World Cup, its latest figures have revealed.

While customers ate less in pubs during the football, higher sales of beer helped make up the shortfall. Fans settled down to watch the matches with their Banks's Mild, Marston's Pedigree and Wychwood Hobgoblin.

Over the last nine months, sales in Marston's top pub-restaurants were up 4.1 per cent, with another 27 new outlets due to be completed in the current financial year.

At its Taverns arm, including 550 franchised pubs, sales were up by three per cent, while at leased pubs profits are expected to be up three per cent on last year.

The company, which has its headquarters at Marston's House in Brewery Road, now runs around 1,800 pubs and six breweries across the country, employing 13,000 people – around 1,000 in Wolverhampton.

While serving food has become the major area of growth for the company, it has not forsaken the pub for the restaurant. And the bars remain at the heart of the 25 to 30 new pub restaurants Marston's is now opening every year.

Around Shropshire these have included the new Grazing Cow pub that makes up part of the new Lawley Village and the Featherbed in Shrewsbury, while the company is building another, to be named the Fallow Field, at Hadley Park.

Those have added to the plethora of Marston's pubs up and down the county, from the Squirrel in Ludlow to the Highwayman in Oswestry, and from the Crown or the Bandon Arms in Bridgnorth, all the way over to the new Smithfield Bell in Welshpool.

At the same time, the company has been selling off hundreds of more old-fashioned, "wet-led" pubs – as the industry calls them.

These are smaller, often in urban areas, where there is little room to expand to offer cooked food alongside their beer. That makes it tough to make a profit, unless they are one of the rare breed of excellent pubs that trades on a wide range of good beers.

Peter said: "Old school boozers can succeed if they are run well, with a good landlord or landlady and craft beers, and they make themselves a community pub with strong links to their local area.

"But we have seen a complete reversal in behaviour. With the availability of cheaper alcohol in supermarkets people are now drinking more at home, but eating out far more.

"I think Marston's have done a good job coming to terms with that.

"We are still a brewer at heart. We have done a good job to move our business and have become a major pub operator, but unlike other operators we still have that link, although there is just us and Greene King now as national pub operators and brewers.

"And I think we celebrate it more. I think it gives a heart and soul to a pub business."

In cold cash terms, Marston's could probably dispense with its brewing, sell it to one of the big multinationals such as InBev or SABMiller, and make a hefty profit concentrating on its successful pub-restaurants. But it chooses not to.

It's confidence in its model of pub restaurants saw it push ahead in the face of the recession of 2008 to 2010.

"We had the confidence to push ahead and start investing in new pubs," said Mr Dalzell.

"Our new pubs are creating 40 or 50 jobs each, serving around 3,500 covers a week and we are seeing a return of about 16 per cent on our investment. They are turning over £3 million a year as successful small businesses in their own right.

"It means that our biggest competitor these days is the sofa and the TV. If we can persuade people to get out of the house, we believe our pubs offer something different from just another restaurant box on a trading estate.

"A bar counter, draft beers, a pub garden, a menu with something for everyone – from a 15-year-old to your granny – and room to breathe. You have to create some space, it helps make it a pub, gives it bit of character, not a square box."

"I think we offer exceptional value, with meals for two for around £15, and last Christmas showed that."

The company served a record 55,000 festive meals at its pubs on Christmas Day to families who decided against roasting their own turkey – a figure that would have been unimaginable30 years ago.

One of Marston's rivals in the eating-out stakes is Birmingham-based Mitchells & Butlers. Although the name comes from the historic Wolverhampton and Smethwick brewery, it has never produced its own beer. It was created to run pubs and restaurants in 2003 from part of what used to be Bass.

Since 2012 it has been run by Alistair Darby, head-hunted from Marston's to be chief executive.

It is going to open or convert another 35 pubs this year and recently announced it was buying 173 pubs from its smaller rival Orchid. It is to convert 96 of them – several in the West Midlands – to its own brands.

"We are a business that wants to grow and Orchid was a very attractive acquisition. It had got a lot of unbranded food pubs that we could convert to brands like Harvester and Toby Carvery," he explained.

He predicts that the market for pub restaurant dining will continue to grow steadily over coming years and expects diners to start trying new flavours and more exotic foods.

"Our top five best sellers are exactly the same as they were 10 years ago including fish and chips, steak and ale pie and sirloin steak."

Pub restaurants are also benefitting from an increasing amount of "big occasion" dining.

"People are going out less for special meals but when they do they want it to be really good," Mr Darby said.

"We are seeing Miller and Carter take off in the same way as was seen in the revolution over coffee. People see going there as a monthly treat and reward for doing a good job.

"What people like about pub restaurants is that they get solid style food, but it has got to be brilliant."