Laine Pubs

How Laine Pubs turned their regulars into a 120,000-strong community

Pubbl, powered by Pepper — a loyalty app so embedded in British pub culture, that venues are known by it.

Background:

A pub group that wanted to give something back

Laine Pubs has always had loyal customers. Walk into one of their venues on a weekday evening and you’ll see them — the after-work crowd, regulars on first-name terms with the bar staff, people who don’t so much visit as belong. The loyalty was real. It just wasn’t being rewarded.

The team started looking for ways to change that. They wanted something that felt right for who they are — warm, community-driven, distinctly un-corporate. A points scheme that genuinely gave back, without the clunky experience of a paper card or an app that felt like it had been built for a supermarket.

They found what they were looking for in Pepper.

The Solution:

Pubbl — loyalty built for pub culture

The result was Pubbl: a branded loyalty app, powered by Pepper, built around a simple and satisfying mechanic. Scan at the till, earn points on every transaction, redeem them for rewards. Think supermarket loyalty card — but for your local.

The concept landed immediately.

“It’s basically like a loyalty card that you would use in the supermarket, but for our pubs. When you come in, if you scan your app at the till when you’re about to pay, you’ll receive points back for the transaction you just made.”

What made Pubbl work wasn’t just the technology — it was how naturally it fitted into the rhythm of a pub visit. No friction, no faff. Scan, earn, done. For a busy bar environment, that simplicity wasn’t a nice-to-have. It was essential.

“No questions about it. It’s just very easy to use. A lot of people were quite surprised because they thought there was going to be some massive catch — but it just works very well.”

Adoption:

120,000 sign-ups and counting

Word spread fast. Within a short time, Pubbl had 120,000 customers signed up — and the growth felt organic rather than forced. Early adopters pulled in their friends. Regulars who’d been sceptical saw what others were getting and got on board.

“Customers got on board pretty quickly once they realised what was at stake. You’d have friends scanning to get other people’s points and then they suddenly realised — I should be doing this myself.”

By the time the app had found its feet, staff no longer had to promote it. The community had taken over.

“These days, our customers basically all know about the app. Everyone comes in — especially from local businesses — at 5pm, they all come out, Pubbl in hand, always scanning. You don’t have to ask and push it anymore.”

That shift — from something the team promoted to something customers brought with them — is the marker of a loyalty programme that has genuinely become part of the culture.

“People will now, when you go out in Brighton, be saying that this is a Pubbl pub. They don’t see it as a Laine venue. They see it as a Pubbl pub — which is brilliant.”

‍

Push Notifications:

The right message, at the right moment

Loyalty points are just one part of the picture. Pubbl also gives the Laine team a direct line to their customers through push notifications — and they’ve used it to powerful effect.

Targeted, timely, and personal. Not a poster on a wall that customers walk past. A notification that lands at 5pm, just as someone’s wrapping up their workday, letting them know about a deal that’s relevant to them right now.

“People don’t always see social media posters on the walls and stuff like that, but you are at work at 5pm and you get a little notification that says £6.50 margaritas at The Ram. You’re in there.”

The platform also gives individual sites the ability to react quickly — pushing out a message in minutes if plans change, an event moves, or an opportunity appears. That speed matters in hospitality, where the window between trigger and decision is short.

“Sites can be very reactive to things in a great way. If something were to happen where we had an event outside and we need to quickly turn it inside and get that messaging out — we can do it immediately.”

Campaign Highlight:

The Euros

During the 2024 Euros, the Laine team ran a match day promotion — 4 Murphy’s for a fixed price, whistle to whistle. It was a simple offer, built for a moment. It became something much bigger.

“The 4 Murphy’s on match day during the Euros. Whistle to whistle, it pretty much overtook every single one of our offers and also made us a bit of a destination during the Euros. People coming in just for that one deal.”

The ability to create a targeted, time-sensitive offer and get it in front of the right customers at the right time — that’s the platform working exactly as it should.

Results:

A record-breaking year

The commercial impact has been significant. Loyalty customers spend meaningfully more than non-loyalty customers — not despite the points and discounts, but alongside them.

“It is about £2.50 more average transactional value from a loyalty customer versus a regular customer — which I think is incredible, considering that all of our discounts are through Pubbl as well.”

That £2.50 higher ATV is the headline number. But the broader picture is just as strong. The data tools within the platform allow the team to identify quieter periods across different venues and push targeted offers to drive footfall at exactly the right times.

“We can dive into the data and figure out what our quieter times are for different venues and target people from there. We’ve already seen a huge significant uplift of people coming in. We’ve basically smashed our goals from last year already. It’s been a record-breaking year.”

“We’ve basically smashed our goals from last year already. It’s been a record-breaking year.” — Laine Pubs Team

The Partnership:

Built for the long-term

For Laine Pubs, choosing a technology partner wasn’t just about the product. It was about the relationship. When they were evaluating providers, one question sat at the top of the list: can we work with these people for the long term?

With Pepper, the answer was yes.

“The Pepper team — they are genuinely nice people. When we were setting out, we met lots of different providers and one of the things that was on our list was: can we work with these people long term? The great relationship we’ve got with the guys at Pepper is that when we stumble on something, they’re able to quite quickly turn things around and help us either solve a problem or find a solution to something we’ve come up with as a creative idea.”

That collaborative relationship is reflected in how the app itself has evolved — shaped by real feedback, real challenges, and real creative ideas from the Laine team.

“That’s the way I think the app’s grown — just quite organically, and it feels authentic rather than just being some corporate system which doesn’t align to our brand and our business.”

‍

“It feels authentic rather than just being some corporate system which doesn’t align to our brand and our business.” — Laine Pubs Team

Summary

Laine Pubs didn’t just implement a loyalty app. They built Pubbl — a brand within a brand, now so embedded in Brighton pub culture that venues are known by it. 120,000 customers, a £2.50 ATV uplift, a record-breaking year, and a partnership with Pepper that grows alongside the business.

‍