Operations award approaches finale

ALMR award celebrates excellence at a key level of management.

One of the biggest challenges for an operations manager is tackling underage drinking, drugs and violence in pubs that come under their wing.

thePublican.com is addressing the need for the industry to take a responsible and professional approach to stamp out these problems in its Setting the Standards campaign, backed by The Portman Group.

The Association of Licensed Multiple Retailers has highlighted this as an issue for entrants in the fifth annual Operations Manager of the Year Awards.

The awards aim to celebrate excellence in a level of management that was sometimes overlooked in the past, with separate awards for area managers in managed house operators and business development managers in tenanted and leased estates.

Sponsored by Miller Genuine Draft, the awards offer winners the chance to boost their skills with a study trip to the United States this spring, including the Chicago Restaurant Show.

The final judging takes place in London next week, and The Publican Newspaper will be publishing details of each of the eight finalists in the two categories. The winners will be announced at a ceremony at the Restaurant & Bar show in Manchester on April 24.

The judges will be looking for evidence of outstanding success in generating sales and profits and particularly skills such as financial management and administration.

As part of the judging, finalists were asked to come up with detailed proposals about how to turn around a problem pub on their patch.

Many of them agree that licensees must be helped to stamp out underage drinking and drugs on the premises. Actions include training staff to identify under-18s, with a strict policy of demanding a form of identity. They also need to know how to spot clues that drugs are being taken or sold on the premises, and be trained in the best way to remove trouble-makers from the pub.

This needs to be backed up by signage warning customers about the new "zero tolerance" approach and in-house policing by staff, who will regularly check areas hidden from the bar, such as the toilets.

"The minority who are intent on causing trouble will realise that violence and drug-taking will not be tolerated at your outlet," said one operations manager.

"Your good customers will realise that action taken will provide a safer environment for them to drink in and should help maintain if not grow sales volume."

Many of them also agree that the best way of improving a community pub is by talking to the community. This involves liaising with residents, businesses, councillors and police, such as setting up a Pubwatch scheme.

Clearly, all the finalists have seen pubs hit by problems, including those that are adopted by football supporters and local teams.

Often, the benefits of having a loyal group of football fans may be outweighed by the trouble they cause and the custom they drive away.

Suggestions for tackling this ranged from banning away fans on match days to banning anyone in a strip altogether.

One suggested liaising with the local football team to put together a plan of action based around future fixtures and getting details of troublemakers who have been banned from the ground.

Some suggest having doorstaff on match days as well as other times when trouble occurs, such as Friday and Saturday evenings. Again staff need adequate training to ensure they don't cause more trouble, with female doorstaff recommended to lessen the risk of testosterone-fuelled trouble.

But there are no simple solutions. As each of the eight finalists know, each problem pub needs to be looked at individually, working with staff and the local community to come up with a detailed and unique plan of action.

Steve Roy, area manager, Massive​

Despite growing up in a pub, Steve Roy didn't actually work in one until after he left the navy. His first job, working in a bar in Greenwich, was where he claims to have learned most of what he knows today.

"The manager I had then was the last of an old breed. He was very professional, a great trainer-manager. I wouldn't be doing what I do now if it wasn't for him," he said.

Mr Roy, it seems, is no stranger to awards either. In 1997 his pub, the White Swan in Twickenham, won the Evening Standard Pub of the Year award.

After that in 1999 he became operations manager for Massive Ltd.

"I was already interviewing prospective managers and helping out with the stock control for the other pubs while I was running the White Swan, so I suppose that's why they decided to make me operations manager," said Mr Roy.

"I love pubs. I'm a pub enthusiast. Working for Massive is great because even though it's a managed structure, the outlets still retain their individuality. I hate the sterile managed houses you get these days. Pubs are for human beings not robots."

David Taylor, area manager, Ember Inns​

Bass' Mitchells and Butlers (M&B) was just beginning to develop its pub estate when David Taylor joined in the mid-'80s. Taylor decided he needed a change from his job as a computer programmer and swapped it for a sales role in the licensed trade.

"At that time the emphasis was on barrelage, and we were opening as many pubs as we could all over the country," he said. "But that's what I really like about the business - opening new pubs.

"I get a real buzz out of it."

From M&B, Mr Taylor moved to Ember Inns, which had been set up in October 1999 as a brand within Bass Leisure Retail. Since last October Taylor has been an area manager responsible for 14 outlets across the West Midlands.

"My job is to inspire and lead each individual outlet's team and deliver a return - so there is always pressure to perform," Mr Taylor said.

"Training is key to Ember's operation and I am involved in all aspects including 'dry runs' in outlets which are just about to open. Training is long term too because we want to recruit and retain the right staff. So my job is to sell the staff the opportunity to progress within the company."