New Oxford pubs and bars app shows live pub deals and offers

Charlbury-based Richard Coffey launched Bar Trender around six weeks ago to help businesses facing damage, and ultimately closure, from rising costs and economic uncertainty.

Richard Coffey started the venture which has been accepted by a plethora of Oxford pubs and bars (Image: Richard Coffey)

In the city, 22 venues have signed up, including pubs in hotspots such as Cowley Road and Jericho.

The venture was seeded while travelling in Australia. There, he noticed Sydney and Melbourne’s bar scenes were built around happy hours, a culture which he said didn’t really exist back in the UK.

After 10 years of hard work, after leaving a London start-up, he pursued the venture with the help of Artificial Intelligence to cut team and budget requirements.

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He said: “I kept finding myself not knowing what was on, where had decent deals, or which pubs had the features I was looking for. The information existed, it just wasn’t anywhere in one place.”

The app, which provides full autonomy to the business, helps to boost their sales by providing visibility and awareness for the consumer.

Bar Trender app (Image: Bar Trender)

He says this comes at a time when people are “more conscious than ever about where they spend their money”.

He said: “The idea of being able to see what deals are near you before you decide where to go is genuinely useful right now in a way it perhaps wouldn’t have been five years ago.

“The cost of living crisis has fundamentally changed how people make decisions about going out.

“It’s not that people don’t want to go out, but they’re making more considered choices about where they spend their money.”

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The venture will also support the wider hospitality sector, which is also under “enormous pressure”.

Bar Trender is proud to support Tom Kerridge’s VAT’s The Problem campaign, which is calling for a 10 per cent cut in VAT for hospitality venues.

Bar Trender app is available on app stores now (Image: Richard Coffey)

He said: “Energy costs, wage increases, food and drink inflation and the lingering effects of the pandemic have squeezed margins to the point where venues that were thriving five years ago are now struggling to survive.

“We’re seeing more pub closures than at any point in recent memory and once they are lost, are very rarely replaced.”

A launch event will take place at Plush on Friday, June 16, with free shots and drink vouchers available to anyone who has the app downloaded.

Christopher Farr, owner of the LGBTQ+ night club and bar, said the venue is committed to making clubbing safe, affordable and fun.

He said: “The partnership is the perfect way to communicate our affordable drink deals in a fun and easy to use app.”