Difficult year for the Duck?

The Dirty Duck pub may have had a “challenging year” in terms of its business performance, a report from the Warwick Students’ Union (SU) has revealed.

Despite the SU’s overall surplus this year, in its 2013-14 Annual Allocation Bid released on April 22, it stated: “[This] performance however is not consistent across the organisation, and some departments have had a difficult year, such as the Dirty Duck pub…”

It revealed that “other operations are exceeding budgeted expectations, like the newly refurbished Xananas.”

It also stated that the Dirty Duck is forecasted “to make 20 percent less on wet sales than budgeted”.

The report suggested that this was as a result of a general change in student habits, as students go out fewer times and drink less.

A National Union of Students’ (NUS) study showed that licensed trade in Union Bars has decreased 3.7 percent and that beer and cider volumes have decreased 17.4 percent and 34 percent respectively.

Alice Parker, first-year History student, commented: “Drinks are quite expensive but food is really cheap… It’s not the greatest quality.

“… It’s much better value for money than Xananas, which is really quite expensive for what it is. I also think that the standard of food is better than Bar Fusion which is of a similar price but not as good quality, service or atmosphere.”

Max Elgar, first-year Film and TV Studies student, rated the Duck’s food as “normally average to fairly good”.

He continued to say that he “would choose that as a place for a quiet drink” but said, “I’d pick the Bread Oven over the Duck to eat in, just because it’s cheaper and easier.”

Ms Parker was not surprised that the Duck may have had a difficult year. She said: “I’ve sometimes been in on a weekend lunchtime and it’s totally empty.

“Things like the quiz do really well but then you often see people without drinks… So I don’t know how much money that would actually bring in.”

Mr Elgar, however, said: “I would be fairly surprised as there are always people in there.”