Insights
Summer is the season for cocktails, refreshing long drinks and exotic mixers, whether your guests are drinking alcohol or not. So, we’ve come up with some show-stopping serves to help your business make the most of the coming season.
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Cocktail culture is alive and kicking in Britain’s pubs, clubs and restaurants. Sales of cocktails spiked by 132% to hit £686m in 2022, as we explored in our 2023 Britvic Soft Drinks Review. Now, with cocktail season upon us, it’s time for licensed operators to up their game.[1]
Britvic’s here to help. From mid-July, we’re helping venues give guests more reasons to visit and celebrate summer with our Festival of Flavour. We’ve created refreshing alcoholic and non-alcoholic serves – from house shandies and coolers through to fruity cocktails and highballs – and are distributing free point of sale kits to help give sales a kick this summer.
Festival of Flavour POS KitThere’s certainly plenty to play for. 62% of Brits now say it’s important that pubs offer cocktails and, despite the squeeze on people’s finances, 32% say they’re spending more on them. 92% of cocktail drinkers say they are choosing drinks that are better or the same quality since the start of the cost-of-living crisis.
Offering a wider range of cocktails, mocktails and other mixed drinks can pay handsomely. Spirits and mixers hold the highest average selling price in Britain’s bars and they’re highly profitable, offering an average margin per typical outlet of more than 80%.
It’s not just alcoholic mixed drinks that are offering operators opportunities to add value. More and more people are consuming less alcohol or cutting it out altogether, with one in three British adults now never or rarely drinking. Low and no alcohol volumes are expected to surge by 48% between 2022 and 2027, with higher average prices driving value up 69%.
It’s crucial to move with the seasons when it comes to cocktails and mixed drinks. 62% of drinkers say they prefer different flavours at different times of the year and 43% change their go-to serve depending on the season.[2] So, what should you be serving up this summer? Here are five picks from our Festival of Flavour recipes to whet appetites:
Taken from our new range of house shandies fresh for summer 2023, this fruity twist on the pint is sure to be a hit with guests looking for refreshment when the mercury is rising. The Mathieu Teisseire range features nearly 100 syrups, allowing bartenders to get creative and pep up everything from pints to coffees with adventurous flavour combinations.
Take me to the recipeWho says people don’t want their drinks to have the ‘wow’ factor just because they don’t contain any alcohol? Not us! We’ve devised a line-up of attractive and Instagramable House Coolers to help venues keep the summer crowds refreshed and coming back for more (and raise average spend) over the coming months.
Take me to the recipeTall drinks are in high demand in Britain’s licensed venues, particularly when the sun is shining. Our House Highballs are quick and easy to create and impress, appealing to the growing number of drinkers who are looking for more than a standard mixed drink on nights out.
Take me to the recipeThe J2O range provides a perfect base for exotic mixed drinks, allowing operators to appeal to the cocktail crowd without having to invest heavily in staff and ingredients. The Mango Passionata is our quick and easy take on Britain’s most popular cocktail, the Pornstar Martini.
Take me to the recipeWe’ve devised a line-up of refreshing mocktails based on the J2O range, allowing our partners to inject excitement into their non-alcohol drinks offerings and encourage their guests to splash out a little more when abstaining from alcohol.
Take me to the recipe[1] All stats from 2023 Britvic Soft Drinks Review unless otherwise stated
[2] CGA Mixed Drinks Report April 2023 - https://cgastrategy.com/cocktails-strategies-for-summer-and-beyond/
