Scotland’s historic return to the World Cup may not have progressed beyond the group stage – but their involvement in the tournament still proved to be a triumph for bar and pub operators across the country, with customers staying up late to watch the games in licensed premises.
Ahead of Scotland’s opening match against Haiti, the Scottish Beer & Pub Association had predicted the event could lead to as many as 120,000 extra pints being sold in Scottish premises, worth around £600,000 to the trade.
Steven Watson, senior marketing manager for Malones Group, which operates Malones bars in Glasgow, Haymarket and Leith, said the Scotland games had been ‘a great boon for business’.
“We’ve been at capacity for every match across our three central belt venues,” he said.
“The late-night kick off times didn’t stop people from coming out, but compared to other sports fixtures we found that a high level of customers wanted a booking (arguably due to late kick-off times.)
“We’ve been receiving enquiries since Scotland made it through, and hit our maximum bookings for Scotland games at the end of April.”
Watson said that footfall spiked around three hours before kick-off for all three games.
Louise Maclean, business development director for Signature Group, said the company’s efforts to maximise the games paid off.
“Making the football feel like a real occasion made all the difference,” she said.
“Alongside screening every match, we launched our limited-edition Super Swally Lager, brewed specially for Scotland’s World Cup campaign, and dressed our venues with Super Swally-themed bunting, while staff wore themed uniforms and we sold Super Swally bucket hats and T-shirts to help everyone get into the spirit. Customers arrived early to secure a table, stayed throughout the game and often remained afterwards, boosting dwell time and spend.
“Familiar drinks like lager, Guinness and cider proved to be the biggest winners, while premium beers such as Cold Town Baltic IPA also performed well.”
Maclean added that the extended trading hours ‘were a real positive for the later kick-offs’.
“Rather than customers having to leave shortly after the final whistle, they could stay on to celebrate or discuss the game, creating a much better atmosphere and extending trading later into the night,” she said.
“It allowed venues to make the most of the increased footfall that Scotland’s matches generated, with guests spending longer in our venues and continuing to order food and drinks well after the games had finished.”
In Milngavie, Billy Milligan said his Fullbacks and Charlie’s Loft venues were busy for the first two games, with business falling off a little on the midweek game against Brazil.
“All in all it’s been good,” said Milligan.
“We were having a conversation this morning about how busy we think it will be for the final. We usually find that for Champions League and European Cup finals we are really busy. I was saying the other day I actually think the World Cup final will be busier than it was for the Scotland Brazil game. We’re a sports bar and we’re successful so we’re always quite busy for the big games.”
And in Glasgow, Superlative-owned sports bar The Clubhouse reported the games were, overall, a success – with ‘great feedback’ from guests – although there were some no-shows across all three games, which manager Peter Milne attributed to transport issues.
