StarStock launches mypubshop amid coronavirus outbreak

A new UK initiative, enabling pubs to trade as food shops and become Click and Collect facilities, has launched this week.

Powered by StarStock, mypubshop.com gives pubs the ability to take and process orders online for the likes of bread, eggs and milk. The service is rolling out in partnership with Brakes, Budweiser Brewing Group, Coca-Cola European Partners and Use Your Local.

The initiative has won the support of Admiral Taverns, which is making mypubshop available to its 1,000 pubs; Greene King Pub Partners, which operates a tenanted and leased estate of more than 1,000 pubs; and St Austell, which operates an estate of 170 pubs, predominantly in the South West.

The partnership with four wholesaler Brakes will also open up the service to the 15,000-plus pubs it regularly supplies. It will offer participating venues a food shop ‘starter kit’. Each transaction made via mypubshop will accrue a 2% fee to cover operational costs; any surplus revenue will be donated to the NHS.

“We are all aware of what is happening around us, and in these exceptional times this is a vital way for pubs to stay connected, offer an essential service and to secure an income stream during a period when they are unable to trade in their normal way,” says Sam Ulph, Founder and CEO, StarStock.

“It will also help to alleviate the pressure on other grocery shops and the supermarkets. This initiative is much more than an online pub service. It’s entirely focused on helping communities and we hope that it will drive positivity for pubs and champion the people that run them as the local heroes they are.”

“Publicans care deeply about their communities and in this current crisis it has been uplifting to hear time and time again about pubs going above and beyond to give so much back to their neighbours and friends,” comments Greene King Pub Partners Managing Director Wayne Shurvinton.

“We have been working around the clock to offer support to our partners, and now teaming up with StarStock to introduce mypubshop gives our publicans who had maybe wanted to help – but weren’t sure how – the tools to step forward to help their communities. We couldn’t be more proud to support this excellent initiative.”