Marstons Plc
Based in Wolverhampton, Marston’s Plc has been involved in brewing beer for over 180 years and today is a leading independent brewing and pub retailing business with sales of £1.14m, £104m profit before tax and 14,300 employees (Marston’s, 2018). Marston’s Plc is listed on the FTSE all share index.
Marston’s is one of the UK’s top pub businesses with traditional locals, family pub restaurants, and fashionable town centre bars. The company operates six breweries producing a large portfolio of branded beers. Pubs are popular for great value food and Marston’s offer a range of branded destination pubs including Two for One, Generous George, Milestone Restaurants, Pitcher and Piano and Marston’s Inns with food and accommodation.
Marston’s CEO Ralph Findlay said:
“I am pleased to report continued growth across all segments of the business. Our Taverns wet-led community pubs have built on the strong trading performance last year and it is particularly encouraging to see our food-led pubs once again achieving increasing momentum in profitable like- for-like sales growth. Our leading Brewing business goes from strength to strength, winning new distribution contracts and continuing to grow market share. We remain focussed on our strategic objectives and want our customers to come back time and time again” (Marston’s, 2019).
The Marston’s business strategy includes operating a high-quality pub estate, investing in premium pubs and destination pub restaurants, investing in more inns offering food and accommodation to achieve a balanced business model. However, Marston’s also aims to reduce its debt by £200 million to £1.2 billion by 2023 by reducing its new-build investment to about £25 million per year from 2020 onwards, the disposal of up to £90 million of non-core assets and cash flow improvements (Express and Star, 2019).
You have been appointed as an external Marketing Consultant to Marston’s Plc and have been asked to prepare a three-year marketing plan (2020-2023) for its Inns business like the Spread Eagle at Gailey, Staffordshire, offering the atmosphere of a traditional pub with comfortable accommodation and great food.
Task 1. You are required to produce a summary and analysis of the current marketing environment for Marston’s Distinctive Inns
Task 2. Identify two new target market segments for Marston’s Distinctive Inns in the UK market. This must include justification for the selection of each target market, customer profiling and market positioning versus the competition. LO2 (35% weighting).
Task 3. Develop a clearly differentiated marketing mix for each of the target markets identified in Task 2. This must include marketing objectives, strategy and control sections for each marketing mix. All recommendations must be fully justified. LO2, LO3 (45% weighting)
Your report (6000 words excluding references) will need to meet the learning objectives and assessment criteria, as part of a three-year marketing plan. Please refer to the case study material on Canvas.