Marston’s builds hospitality’s biggest EV charging network

Pub operator Marston’s has rolled out more rapid and ultra-fast electric vehicle (EV) chargers than any other hospitality company in the UK.

Marston’s has been deploying EV charging points across its estate since 2018, with 117 million miles charged to date.

The group has 1,334 pubs in total with 561 rapid chargers across 200 pubs.

Giles Robinson, director of corporate affairs at Marston’s PLC, said: “EV has been a real game-changer. Our sector has the highest penetration of any other sector of EV drivers’ preference of places to charge – they represent a huge potential customer base for hospitality.”

Marston’s partnered with Osprey, which took on installation costs, connection to the grid, and operation and maintenance.

Speaking at the UKHospitality Sustainability Seminar in London yesterday, Robinson explained how Marston’s operates the charging points as a profit share model with Osprey, while at a number of its larger pub sites it also leases out parking spaces to the charge point operator.

“This provides us with new revenue streams from those parking spaces that weren’t contributing anything to the business,” he said. “And we have the knock-on effect that new guests are coming to eat and drink with us while they charge – often these are previously untapped guests.”

Marston’s has also created cross-marketing opportunities at charging points to encourage drivers into its pubs with promotions.

“The feedback has been universally positive from guests,” said Robinson. “We’ve seen it come through guest experience feedback and reputation scores – which all feeds through to increase sales at a pub level.”

The pub group is exploring more marketing initiatives and looking to implement more slower charging points across its inns for overnight guests. “The big, hairier goal is to double the size of our charging estate by 2030,” he said.

“You might think the opportunity has been missed, but seeing the pace of EV growth, there’s still a huge amount of opportunity in the sector.

“It’s about driving new guests through the doors and providing new revenue streams and proving to C-suite that sustainability leads to commerciality.”

Photo: Mareks Perkons/Shutterstock