New ‘Virtual’ Pub Brand Delivers Tasty Food to Homes Across the UK

Bull & Bird – a new ‘virtual’ brand created by independent pub company Punch Pubs & Co, in partnership with Deliveroo, is bringing lip-smacking burgers to homes up and down the country – providing local Punch pubs with a critical income stream in the process.

First launched in three pubs in November 2020, the new ‘dark kitchen’ concept saw immediate success, selling out in 2 of the 3 trial venues.

Encouraged by the sales, response from customers (average 4.7/5 rating on Deliveroo), and the pub’s ability to adapt to this exciting new food offer, Punch expanded the trial base to a further twenty pubs stretching from Swindon to Macclesfield.

The Bull & Bird menu is full of tasty treats like freshly breaded fried chicken and loaded fries. The mouth-watering range of beef and chicken burgers with a twist has also received rave reviews from customers, with the ‘Classic Bull’ burger proving most popular.

Customers can’t get enough of the Classic Bull which comes with a delicious 6oz beef patty; Applewood smoked cheddar cheese, crispy bacon, pickled onions, and house burger sauce.

During the last year, growth in home delivery spend has unsurprisingly accelerated due to national lockdowns being in place. Working with our insight partners, Punch identified a reported increase of 98% YoY in spend on deliveries being made to people’s homes.

 

Head of Insight, Projects & Strategy at Punch, James Gilbert, said: “We believe that this sustained growth is an indication of long-term behaviour change in our customer base, so creating a virtual brand made perfect sense.

“We are incredibly proud of Bull & Bird. The success we’ve seen so far is fantastic, and we are looking forward to rolling the brand out to more of our pubs in the coming weeks.”

Punch Marketing & Strategy Director, Russell Danks, said: “We created Bull & Bird, not only in response to the trend in consumer behaviour but, more importantly, to allow our Publicans access to a new income stream and consumer offer.

“Our pubs excel at providing outstanding service inside their pubs, and now they have a chance to serve customers looking to stay in and enjoy a takeaway at home via a virtual brand, separate from the pub.

“We are looking forward to expanding the brand further in the coming weeks and have another virtual brand in development. Whilst I can’t say much about this yet, I can promise you that it’s going to epic!”

Punch is looking to expand Bull & Bird into more Punch Pubs in the coming months, so check your Deliveroo app for a Bull & Bird near you!