Punch Pubs & Co has been announced as the winner of the 2025 PubAid Corporate Community Hero Award, in recognition of its exceptional commitment to supporting local communities through a variety of impactful initiatives.
Punch Pubs & Co has demonstrated outstanding dedication across multiple areas, highlighting the vital role pubs play across community, charity, sport and sustainability.
Just some of it’s activities include;
Celebrating diversity with Pub Pride
Punch Pubs & Co has marked five years of partnership with LGBTQ+ charity Ask for Clive, championing Pub Pride to create safe and welcoming spaces in the hospitality sector. This year, 107 Punch pubs took part in Pub Pride on May 30th, displaying Ask for Clive’s decorations and safe space stickers to show solidarity and support for LGBTQ+ communities.
Mental health at the heart
Mental Health Awareness Week is a cornerstone of Punch’s commitment to wellbeing. Recognising the importance of open conversations around mental health, Punch encourages all its pubs to prioritise self-care and create environments where mental health is openly supported. As part of this, Punch teamed up with Calm in a Box to deliver CalmFEST, a week-long series of daily webinars covering vital topics such as neurodiversity, money anxieties, menopause, and sleep support, made accessible to teams across their pubs and head office.
Supporting homelessness with Only a Pavement Away
Punch has also shown strong support for the Only a Pavement Away charity and its Food4Thought campaign, in partnership with Brakes UK. This campaign, which raises awareness for World Homeless Day, benefited from Punch’s generous donations of 2,100 portions of Vietnamese curry (matched by Brakes with rice) and 612 individual Christmas puddings, helping provide nutritious meals for those experiencing homelessness. Punch’s previous collaboration includes the Fill A Flask project, which distributed over 5,000 portions of surplus soup nationwide.
Nurturing communities with Thatcher’s Community Orchard Project
Punch Pubs & Co is also dedicated to environmental stewardship, supporting the Thatcher’s Community Orchard Project. Their pub, The Plough in Prestbury, led the way by planting apple trees to enrich local biodiversity. This year marks the fourth year of Punch’s involvement, with 500 trees donated to help nurture greener, healthier communities.
It also continues to explore new ways to support the health and wellbeing of its staff, Publicans, Management Partners, and the communities their pubs serve.
They received their award at this year’s Annual Beer Awards Dinner supported by the All Party Parliamentary Beer Group which took place at the House of Commons on 8th July.
This year the awards were judged by Des O’Flanagan, co-founder of PubAid, Rita King, honorary secretary of the APPBG and Chris Welham, CEO of the Licensed Trade Charity.
