Shareholder perks: still out there, still worth having

I spent the weekend at an airfield that’s close to my heart, attending an aviation event. It was a two-day event, some two hours’ drive away, and we’d booked a hotel in a nearby large town.

I didn’t really know the town very well, and so — as I often do in these situations — I packed some shareholder vouchers, from pub groups Marston’s, Mitchells & Butlers, and casual dining group The Restaurant Group, the operator of brands such as Frankie & Benny’s and FireJacks, but also a chain of pubs under the Bunning & Price brand.

Taken together, I was hopeful that we’d find something to tempt us. And the incentive was clear: the shareholder vouchers gave us 30% off food at Marston’s pubs, 20% off the total bill at Mitchells & Butlers pubs, and 25% off the total bill at Restaurant Group outlets.

Needless to say, we did find something. On the Saturday we enjoyed the pleasures of Mitchells & Butlers’ Miller & Carter Steakhouse brand, and on the Sunday, we opted for one of the company’s nearby Vintage Inns.

Marston’s and Mitchells & Butlers websites make it especially easy to find their pubs and restaurants — hop on their websites, and clickable maps quickly bring up all nearby outlets.

Are you missing out?

It’s surprising how many companies offer perks like these to their shareholders. Critics may carp that such benefits are not as numerous as they used to be, or as generous, but — hey — I’m not complaining.
 
Thankfully, pub operators have mostly retained their schemes, although some have made them a little less generous. Sadly, Greene King — we have a nearby Greene King pub — was taken private a couple of years ago. And with pub groups that have an accommodation offering as well, it’s not unknown for the discounts to apply to the accommodation element, too.

Yet if it’s surprising how many companies offer such perks, it’s equally surprising how few people are aware of them — and how even fewer people take them up.
 
In other words, if your portfolio holds a decent-sized clutch of shares, there’s a chance that you could be missing out.

Know what you’re entitled to

From casual conversations with fellow shareholders over the years, I think there are two reasons for this.

First, it can be difficult to find out if a given company operates a shareholder perks scheme or not. Many brokers maintain lists, but these are not always up to date, or accurate. Insurance and investment group Legal & General appears on some lists, for example, but not others.

My advice: compare different brokers’ lists, and also check companies’ own websites. A quick online search (company name plus “shareholder discount”, for instance) is usually a good bet, too — although such searches will also throw up information that is out of date. Marks & Spencer’s well-regarded scheme, for instance, is — alas — no more.

Second, most schemes call for investors to actively ‘opt in’. It’s not sufficient just to hold the shares, in other words: you have to explicitly tell your broker that you wish to participate. Then, they’ll post the vouchers out to you, free of charge — otherwise, they won’t.

It’s a perk, not a reason for buying  

Should you buy a company’s shares just for the shareholder perks? I’d say not, although I have heard of that being done. But in the case of some of the pub groups, the minimum holding required does at least make that a feasible option.

It’s better, in my view, to regard the perk as just that: a perk. Let’s face it, too: with dividends from pub groups being somewhat thin in these post-pandemic times, such perks probably make up a good proportion of the investment return.

And so, as investors wait for Marston’s and Mitchells & Butlers’ shares to return to their former glories, the occasional discounted meal at least serves as some sort of compensation.

I’ll drink to that, anyway.