How Data and Consumer Insight Drive Better F&B Commercial Returns | Peppermint Events

How Peppermint uses data, industry insight and consumer intelligence to put more money back into your event

There’s a conversation we sometimes have with event promoters and venue directors. It usually starts the same way. They’ve had a strong year — good ticket sales, good weather, great lineup — but their bar numbers didn’t quite land where they expected. They look at the EPOS report after the event and ask the question most operators ask: what happened?

The honest answer is almost always the same. By the time you’re looking at post-event data, you’re a year too late. The decisions that determine your F&B commercial performance — what you stock, how you price it, how many bars you run, where you position them, what the menu looks like — those decisions were made months ago. And they were made either with good data or without it.

At Peppermint, we’ve been operating bars at festivals, venues and sports stadia for over 20 years. In that time we’ve processed more than 100 million transactions. But the data advantage we bring to your event isn’t just what we’ve seen at your site, or even across our own portfolio. It’s the combination of our operational intelligence, our technology infrastructure, and our unrivalled access to industry insight and consumer trend data through our network of brand, supplier and research partners. Together, that gives us a picture of your audience’s buying habits that most operators simply can’t replicate.

Here’s how we put it to work.

The limits of looking backwards

EPOS data is valuable. We’d never pretend otherwise — we own over 2,000 terminals and our real-time reporting dashboards are some of the most sophisticated in the independent events space. But EPOS tells you what happened. It tells you which products sold, when the peaks were, which bars underperformed, and what the average transaction value was. All of that is genuinely useful for refining the next event.

What EPOS doesn’t tell you is why those things happened, or — more importantly — what’s going to happen next time. For that, you need a different kind of intelligence.

The challenge facing every event owner right now is that your audience’s behaviour is shifting faster than it ever has. UK consumers are drinking less but better — balancing mindful consumption with meaningful experiences, and driving a shift toward premiumisation that is reshaping the on-trade. Lumina Intelligence In 2025, almost 200 million low and no alcohol beers were consumed in the UK — an increase of close to 20% on 2024 — with 45% of people having consumed a low or no alcohol drink in the past 12 months, up from just 22% in 2021. Morning Advertiser Alcohol-free cocktails grew 27% and alcohol-free beers 38% in outlet share terms in the year to June 2025. Lumina Intelligence

If your bar menu looks the same as it did three years ago, you are leaving money on the table. Not because your audience has stopped drinking, but because a meaningful and growing portion of them are actively choosing to moderate — and if you don’t give them something they want to buy instead, they buy nothing.

This is one example of a trend that our data and partner network spotted early, and that our clients have been able to respond to ahead of the curve.

What our partner network adds that no one else can match

Our relationships with some of the UK’s leading drinks brands, category insight platforms and supplier partners give us access to proprietary consumer intelligence that sits well above what any independent operator could access on their own.

Through these partnerships we get sight of:

Category trend forecasting. We work closely with drinks brands and their agency teams who commission detailed consumer research — tracking shifting preferences by category, occasion, demographic and season. When a brand is planning a festival activation around a new product format, they share the insight that underpins it. That tells us something real about where consumer demand is heading, not where it’s been.

Purchasing behaviour data. Our supplier partners track what consumers are buying across the on-trade — in pubs, bars, restaurants and live events — in near real time. For example, Lumina Intelligence’s Eating and Drinking Out Panel shows that spirits have grown +1.4 percentage points in pub and bar occasion share, and cocktails +0.6 percentage points, driven by younger consumers’ preference for flavour, presentation and experience — with cocktails averaging £23.36 per transaction versus £12.85 for beer. Lumina Intelligence That kind of category-level insight directly informs how we design your bar range and your pricing architecture.

Demographic intelligence. Different events attract fundamentally different audiences, and consumer behaviour varies significantly by age, occasion type and price point. 18 to 34 year olds are the main growth driver for spirits and cocktails, preferring novelty, flavour and experiences that translate to social content. Lumina Intelligence A stadium rugby crowd skews differently from a boutique festival audience, which skews differently again from a corporate hospitality event. We hold insight across all of these segments and apply it in the planning of every event we operate.

Macro consumer sentiment. The economic backdrop matters enormously to on-site spend. YouGov data from early 2026 shows that 44% of UK consumers who expect their finances to worsen are planning to cut back on events and days out. Yougov That’s a significant headwind — but it’s also navigable if you plan your offer correctly. Consumers who feel financially squeezed don’t stop spending entirely; they become more selective. They want perceived value. They want quality that justifies the price. They respond to range architecture that gives them a choice — a £4.50 option alongside a £7.50 option — rather than a menu where everything feels expensive. Knowing this before you build the offer is the difference between a bar that drives conversion and one that drives people to queue for 10 minutes and then walk away.

How data shapes decisions before your event opens

The intelligence we gather from our own transaction history, our partner network and the broader market informs decisions at every stage of the planning process. Here’s how that plays out in practice.

Range design. We don’t build a bar range based on what sold best two years ago and add a few new products. We start from the consumer up — who is coming to your event, what they’re buying at comparable events right now, what category trends are emerging, and what your brand partners need to achieve. We then cross-reference that against our own transaction data to identify which products consistently over-perform and which ones take up space on the bar without earning it. The result is a leaner, smarter range that’s easier to serve quickly and more likely to convert browsers into buyers.

Pricing architecture. Lumina Intelligence’s research shows that operators who are winning in 2026 are refining menu engineering strategies — trimming lower-performing items, leaning into ancillary revenue, and nudging spend per head rather than relying on headline price increases. Lumina Intelligence We apply exactly this thinking. Blanket price increases are a blunt instrument that risk killing volume. Intelligent pricing — tiering the range, creating accessible entry points, using premium serves strategically — is how you grow revenue per transaction without alienating your audience.

Bar format and positioning. Our transaction data across 50+ annual events shows us clearly which bar formats drive the highest spend per head at which capacity levels and event types. A long, single-service bar performs differently to a pod format at a festival. A concourse bar at a stadium behaves differently during half time versus pre-match. We use this — combined with your site map and audience flow modelling — to recommend how many bars to run, where to position them, what format they should take, and how to staff them at peak.

No and low alcohol strategy. No and low products have proved particularly popular with younger consumers at festivals and outdoor events. IWSR No-alcohol beer grew 20% in 2024 versus 2023, with volumes of the total no-alcohol market expected to grow at a compound annual rate of 7% between 2024 and 2028. Beverage Daily We help you build a no and low range that isn’t an afterthought — because an afterthought doesn’t capture the spend from the third of your audience who are actively moderating. A curated, well-presented no and low section drives conversion from that audience. A single token alcohol-free option at the end of the bar doesn’t.

What this means for your event

The practical upshot of everything above is straightforward. When you work with Peppermint, you’re not just getting a bar operator who shows up with kit and staff. You’re getting access to a layer of intelligence about your audience’s buying habits — and the broader consumer landscape — that most event owners can’t access independently.

We know that your 25 to 34 year old festival audience is driving the growth in spirits and cocktails, and we’ll build a bar range that reflects it. We know that the no and low category is growing faster than almost any other drink segment, and we’ll make sure you’re capitalising on it rather than missing the spend. We know that perceived value is the lens through which a cost-conscious consumer decides whether to buy a second round, and we’ll build your pricing architecture accordingly. And we know — from 100 million transactions — which of those decisions move the needle most at events like yours.

On-site services, including food and drink sales, have become a key revenue stream as festivals expand their offer and overall experience. IBISWorld In a market where ticket revenue is under pressure and operating costs continue to rise, the F&B commercial return is no longer a secondary consideration. For many events, it’s become the margin that makes the whole thing viable.

The events that get this right don’t do it by accident. They do it by making better decisions — earlier, with better data behind them. That’s what we’re here to help with.

Want to understand what our data and insight approach could mean for your event? Get in touch with the Peppermint team — we’re always happy to walk through what we’re seeing in your specific event category and audience segment.