The Music Venue Trust has partnered with Butlr to raise funds, which could be as much as £750,000, for the beleaguered grassroots music venue sector, as part of its drive to help get the industry back on its feet, and Brighton’s Concorde 2 is leading the vanguard.
The partnership, between the charity and the UK’s leading music venue and bar ordering app, will see Butlr give all profits from Music Venue Alliance venue partners back to the industry for a period of three months. Based on typical turnover, this could be as much as three quarters of a million pounds.
The three-month deal sees Butlr returning profits on activity with MVA members back to those members for a period of three months, enabling them to significantly boost revenue at this critical time. Members then have the option of donating some, none or all of those monies to MVT, raising much-need funds to help keep Britain’s music venues afloat. Whether they choose to donate or keep the funds to support themselves coming out of lockdown, the money will stay within the grassroots music industry so they can build back faster post-pandemic.
Russell Haynes of Concorde2 explains, “We are really happy with the service Butlr has provided in what has been a very difficult time for our industry and so were delighted to get involved in this fundraising campaign. Brighton was really lucky in that it was one of the few cities in the UK that was able to open under Tier 2 restrictions last year for socially distanced events, so we were one of the few indoor venues in the UK delivering live music with great success. That puts us in a great position to get involved and encourage others to sign up. And, having worked with Butlr already, we know they’re very easy to work with and customers really like using the app. We will be adding the collect-at-bar function soon too.”
Mark Davyd, Music Venue Trust CEO said of the deal, “MVT are delighted to be partnering with Butlr to offer member venues access to the financial support and technology needed as part of the sector’s recovery to full capacity. The technology within the app is useful to grassroots music venues, not only in terms of cost and providing user-friendly table service, but also longer term with the potential of Butlr’s collection point technology being integrated into full capacity operations.”
Venues should expect to see a revenue uplift from using the app, helping them to build back faster, even if they’ve had to cut back on staff due to covid-19 – on average, venues have been seeing an increase of around 30%, but some have seen turnover boosted by as much as 64%. And staff using the app have expressed being happier during service.
A number of Music Venue Trust member venues are already successfully using Butlr, including the Electric Ballroom, Concorde2, The Joiners, Moles, The Wedgewood Rooms and Queen Of Hoxton.
www.getbutlr.com
More data about Butlr:
Butlr is a marketplace ordering app that offers both table service and collect-at-bar functions, giving venues real flexibility as they reopen.
Butlr has recently introduced App Clips (a tiny version of the app accessible by QR code), offering brilliant functionality with and without download.
Butlr charges no sign-up or monthly fees, just a market-beating 1.9% transaction rate, free hardware and 24/7 customer service support.
Data from current partners (Interviews conducted with Butlr venue partners since the April 12 2021 reopening) shows that introducing Butlr to their ordering increased spend per head by 64%, as nine out of ten venues saw customers ordering more drinks each visit.
The collected data also revealed an increase in staff satisfaction – seven in ten venues reported happier staff – even when the number of people on a busy service was reduced. This is in part due to better tipping – more than half of venues using Butlr saw an increase in tips – and partly due to ease of service.
