VenueSpotter: new venues, found early
A service we built and run ourselves, for suppliers who want to hear about new pubs, restaurants and cafés while they're still setting up.
The problem
Drinks wholesalers, food suppliers and equipment firms want to get in touch with a new pub, restaurant or café while it is still setting up. But a new venue leaves its trail in many different public records: a licence to sell alcohol, a new company, a change of hands, an official notice. They are spread across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
What we built
VenueSpotter gathers those public records and brings them together in one place each week. Every entry is checked before it reaches a customer: we sort out what is genuinely new from an existing venue making changes, flag places that have changed hands, and leave out anything that isn't a venue, such as depots and offices. Each Monday, customers get an email and a spreadsheet (also available as a CSV file for their own systems) listing the new venues in the area they cover, each with a link to its public record. The public website explains how it works, shows an example list and a map of where it's covered, and lets suppliers sign up for a free trial. It uses no cookies or analytics. We built all of it ourselves: the public website, the admin system where every entry is checked, and the weekly service that gathers the records and sends out each customer's list.
Where it is now
VenueSpotter is live and covers the whole UK, with the earliest news, including plans to sell alcohol, in many areas. It is offering free trials first, and what trial users tell us will shape what it becomes.