The Pub Business event saw every element of the industry, from publicans, brewers and pub chains to soft drink companies, bar snack firms and furniture firms, under one roof for the first time.

Event organiser Jenny Fuller said: “The reason we launched Pub Business is that although the pub industry is long established, there has never been an event that takes it seriously from a business perspective.

“So if there is an event, it’s often focused on alcohol rather than helping publicans learn how to improve and grow their business. The point of Pub Business is to help them from every angle, not just food and drink, but also the running of the pub and new ideas which is especially important with the smoking ban being introduced.”

One innovative feature on show was the Pub of the Future, created by leading pub designers DLA Interiors in conjunction with Newport-based Classic Furniture and GS Magazine.

The concept stand demonstrated how the industry will need to adapt customer environments to maximise income from changing legislation such as the smoking ban and new licensing laws.

Classic managing director Grant Griffiths, pictured with Anita Russell, said Pub Business also gave his company a chance to target independent pubs.

“Although our name is Classic, we are actually quite a contemporary, look ahead, company. We’ve got a very wide and varied range of furniture and Pub of the Future was a chance both for us to have a ‘little play” but also to show people just how broad the range is.

“We have been established for 35 years and a very significant part of our business is in the pub section. We deal with all the major companies in the UK but a show like this gives us the opportunity to reach the independents.

“You can deal with Mitchells & Butlers, Spirit and Punch, and the other big companies, they’re easy to get hold of.

“They account for only about 60 per cent of pubs in the country but we want to go for the others as well and they are much, much harder to get to.

“There are lots of little pub companies, they might have 50 or 100 pubs, which sounds like a lot to the average person but when you think Enterprise is 9,000 pubs, in context it’s nothing.

“And to find a pub company doing 100 pubs is difficult, sometimes we stumble on them sometimes we don’t.”

Classic was responsible for the furniture at the refurbished Lamb Inn at Edgmond, near Newport, which was opened last month after a £500,000 refit and has won the contract for the Church Wickets pub in Dawley, Telford.