Marston’s is one of the UK’s largest pub operators and, about five years ago, launched its own telecoms service to capture significant cost savings. TelecomsTech (TT) spoke with Operations Manager Rob Derbyshire (RD) about Marston’s journey, the technologies they use, and how they ensure a reliable, connected experience for customers across their estate.
Why did Marston’s set up its own telecoms service?
RD: Around five years ago, during a period of economic pressure, the business looked for ways to reduce ongoing costs. One clear opportunity was to stop buying retail telecoms services and instead buy wholesale. Leadership decided to create Marston’s Telecoms, register with Ofcom, and purchase wholesale lines directly. That immediately produced savings for the group. More recently, around this time last year, we went further and implemented our own broadband network by acquiring wholesale services from two major providers and delivering those services directly to our pubs and customers.
How did Marston’s cope with traffic spikes from major sporting events?
RD: We didn’t experience extreme spikes this summer. During England’s last official World Cup match we saw roughly a 10% increase over typical peak traffic, but not a huge surge. We build extra backhaul capacity into the network to ensure performance remains stable during busier periods, so service continuity is maintained.
What cost savings did the Blue Coat proxy deliver?
RD: Using Blue Coat has saved the group several hundred thousand pounds per year. If we had continued buying retail services, those costs would be recurring. Net annual savings are roughly between £300,000 and £500,000. That figure reflects reduced costs from providing improved services in our pubs; when we start offering these services externally to other businesses, that becomes incremental profit for the group.
Why choose Blue Coat technology to improve performance?
RD: There were two main reasons. First, it helped protect our commercial position when buying backhaul bandwidth from carriers: it gives us clear visibility of consumption so we can provision the right amount of bandwidth. Second, Blue Coat includes integrated content filtering, which is important for guest Wi‑Fi in a family-friendly pub environment. Previously we would have had to apply filters and license packs individually on each router, which would have been time-consuming and hard to manage. Blue Coat lets us administer filtering centrally.
Do you block customers who use very high bandwidth, such as streaming movies?
RD: In periods of congestion we may throttle high-bandwidth streaming like Netflix because it does not align with our core business needs, but generally we focus on prioritisation rather than outright blocking. Key priorities are connections back to head office and PDQ terminals for card transactions. Overall, the network is fairly open as we want customers to enjoy a good experience. The primary blocks are limited to URL categories inappropriate for a family-friendly venue.
How is security handled? Are mission-critical systems separated from public access?
RD: In our network design we keep systems separate in the pub environment: we install two separate broadband lines—one dedicated to back-office operations and the other for customer Wi‑Fi. This separation helps maintain security. The back-office line is also connected to head office via VPN, adding an additional security layer. We deliberately avoid connecting a wireless access point directly to a single broadband line, which would be insecure.
Has Marston’s Telecom explored Hotspot 2.0 for seamless “pub crawl” connectivity?
RD: It’s a potential option. The Wi‑Fi equipment in our higher-end pubs supports Hotspot 2.0, though we haven’t actively implemented it. Right now our priority is rolling out a well-provisioned, reliable service that meets customer needs. In future, Hotspot 2.0 could be a way to monetise Wi‑Fi and recover some costs.
Every organisation evaluates the costs and benefits differently, but Marston’s experience shows that bringing telecoms in-house can deliver measurable savings and greater control over service quality. The approach also enables centralised management of performance and content filtering, while protecting business systems through network separation and VPNs.
Do you think other brands should start their own telecoms service? Let us know in the comments.