Witton Arms Birmingham - Making The Most Of Summer

Star Pubs takes a hands-on, community focused approach to supporting its licensees, providing practical advice and tailored guidance to help pubs thrive throughout the year.

Working closely with our licensees, we share the best practices aligned to key seasonal moments and events, ensuring pubs are well prepared and supported to maximise every opportunity. This includes everything from making the most of outdoor spaces during warmer months, to planning for major calendar occasions to enhance customer experience.

Recognising that every venue is unique, with different audience drivers, we offer tailored support to help partners maximise these opportunities and create great experiences year-round.

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Located just 100m away from Villa Park stadium, our venue is known in the local community as a great place to watch live sports and is a go-to pub for Villa fans. Our venue has a 1,500 capacity, with a large garden space that can accommodate up to 800 people. Outside, we also have a 6.5m diameter giant screen, covered areas and a marquee to create a comfortable viewing experience, with strong sound, volume and atmosphere. Inside, we have a large function room for match days, alongside TVs positioned throughout the venue so guests never miss a moment – and a ‘wall of fame’ displaying pictures of Villa players.

On match days, as a wet-led venue, we bring in food trailers to expand our offer. This gives customers more choice and variety, making it part of the full match day experience and encouraging them to stay longer, rather than leaving early to eat elsewhere.

Service is a key focus. Serving 1,500 people isn’t always easy, so we’ve designed the space with multiple bars and 14 till points to maximise efficiency. We scale up staffing levels for big events, with teams working across the venue to keep service fast and smooth. Preparation is critical, so everything is carefully planned, but we also stay flexible to manage surges in demand. That consistency is one of the reasons people keep coming back.

A big part of our success comes from listening to our audience. We always try to put ourselves in the customer’s shoes, whether that’s friends, families or regulars – and understand what they want from their experience. We also listen closely to our team, as they hear directly from guests. We’re constantly looking for ways to improve, which is key to building and maintaining a strong reputation.

Being fully prepared is essential, from risk assessments to detailed match day planning. We work game by game, using data to forecast demand such as how much beer we’ll need, while recognising that you can only ever prepare as best you can.

Community and relationships are also important to us. We’ve built connections with former players, such as Peter Withe and work with local foundations to support charitable initiatives. Ex Villa players attend, signing memorabilia for raffles and providing comment on the match and Villa’s prospects. We also host events like meet-and-greets and book signings, with more planned following our refurbishment. Staying connected to the local community is a big priority for us.

As an Aston Villa pub, our biggest focus is naturally on key matches, especially Champions League and European fixtures which bring in larger crowds. Ultimately, though, it’s about understanding your audience, location and what makes your venue unique.

Marketing is led primarily through social media, where on one post, we generated over 8.6 million views and built a strong, engaged following. It takes consistency and effort, but it’s been a key driver of our growth.

Finally, we work closely with our Star Pubs BDM, meeting regularly to share ideas, plan ahead and continuously improve the offer. At the heart of everything we do is the customer experience and making sure we deliver it to the highest standard every time.

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At Star Pubs, our support extends across all aspects of the pub offer, from optimising menus and exploring drinks ranges with relevant suggestions that resonate with customers linked to key occasions. Where needed, licenses can also benefit from access to equipment discounts, alongside guidance on health and safety assessments to ensure venues run smoothly and compliantly.

In addition, we provide expertise in marketing and engagement, offering social media tips and promotional strategies to help our licensees amplify their presence, showcase their offering and drive footfall.

To find out more about how we are supporting our licensees this summer, check out the current MyStar magazine by clicking this link - https://mystar.pagetiger.com/mag2026Q2/