The best shares to hold for perks and freebies

The days when being a shareholder allowed you widespread perks are all but gone. After all, shareholder perks – however small – eat into the bottom line, and these days many companies believe the best way to reward shareholders is to make as big a profit as possible and return the cash to investors with a dividend or share buyback.

Events such as Young & Co's Brewery's riotous AGMs are legendary. Every year, 2,000-odd shareholders were entitled to a free lunch and unlimited beer and wine. That particular perk ended in 1986 as it was estimated to cost the company anything up to £70 a head – all for the price of a single share.

But some companies do still offer perks to shareholders, although none are so generous. Some are available to owners of just one share; others only become available after you've invested rather a lot of money.

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A word of warning: not all perks are available to people who hold stock in nominee accounts (which is anyone who uses one of the big online investment platforms, for instance). That said, some platforms, including Hargreaves Lansdown, Fidelity and Interactive Investor, will contact the company on your behalf to arrange the benefit if requested.

A surprisingly high number of companies offering perks are brewers and alcohol companies.

Richard Hunter, head of markets at Interactive Investor, tells MoneyWeek: “Shareholder perks are fun, but not fundamental. Of themselves, they are not sufficient reason to invest in a company, but can be an additional benefit to those already invested.

“Perhaps not surprisingly, many of the companies who offer perks have a retail focus, and see them as an opportunity to engage the consumer and of course tempt them with their products.

“The list of firms offering shareholder perks is dominated by alcohol companies, such as Adnams, Chapel Down, Fuller, Smith & Turner, Marston’s, Mitchells and Butlers, Shepherd Neame and Young’s.”

Clothing retailers such as Next and Mulberry also offer discounts, as well as cruise companies Carnival Cruises and Norwegian Cruise Line.

Hunter notes that the cruise discounts can be expensive to access: “Carnival sets a minimum of 100 shares for entitlement to spending credits on a booking which, at the current share price of £18.04 comes to £1,804 before any dealing expenses. Similarly, Norwegian also sets a 100 share minimum, which currently equates to almost $2,700.”

Perhaps the best bargain is for bibliophiles. Book-lovers can get 35% off all print books published by Bloomsbury, famous for having published the Harry Potter series, as long as they have bought at least one share (which will set you back about £6.74 at today's price).

Below is a non-comprehensive list of firms that offer shareholder perks, discounts and freebies. Be aware that this list can change at any time, and companies can (and do) withdraw shareholder offers.

Hunter adds: “Investors should also check with the company before investing that the perk still exists (some may have a time limit or be based on a calendar year).”

Sources: Hargreaves Lansdown, Interactive Investor, Barclays and Fidelity