Tom Kerridge stars at inaugural PUB15 trade show

Man-of-the-moment Tom Kerridge was the headline speaker at the first ever PUB15 trade show, which drew large crowds at Olympia London last week.

Kerridge, the TV star and chef-owner of acclaimed pubs The Coach and two Michelin-starred Hand and Flowers, shared his hard-earned advice on ‘DIY pub management’, nurturing team talent and cheffing as a lifestyle, not a job.

“Be prepared to do everything yourself. Running a pub is a marathon, not a sprint,” Kerridge said during his address.

“The ‘open the doors and they will come’ philosophy is long gone. You have to give people a reason to come to your pub, which means you have to be proactive and attack it.”

PUB15 – billed as the only dedicated trade show for the UK pub industry – featured 164 suppliers from across the pub trade, specialising in everything from bar snacks, spirits, beers, wines and soft drinks, to refrigeration, EPoS, finance, marketing and training. Building on Kerridge’s insights, profitability featured as a strong theme in the on-stage interviews, as well as in the panel discussions in the ‘thriving local’ that was the Business Theatre.

Elsewhere within the show, leading beer sommelier Sophie Atherton provided publicans with barrels of advice on the best brews in the UK right now at her pint-pulling pop-up, Sophie’s Bar, where old favourites met lesser-known gems from breweries including BrewDog, Goddards Brewery, St Austell Brewery, Meantime Brewing Company, Dark Star Brewing Co. and more.

“We’re elated with the response to PUB15 in its first year,” said PUB15 event director Luke Perry. “The industry response has been hugely encouraging with over 3,100 visitors eager to hear and see new ideas and discover techniques and products for helping improve their pub offering and their profitability.

“We designed the show specifically for multi-site and independent operators, aiming to create a face-to-face networking event that would deliver tangible value. Early feedback suggests this was successful and we look forward to developing and improving our offering ready for 2016.”

PUB16 takes place from 9-10 February 2016, returning to London’s Olympia West.