Leisure Link, the UK's biggest machine management company, is changing. Ex-licensee Tim Massey, new sales director for pubs, talks to Phil Mellows
The fruit machine in the corner is as much a part of the culture of British pubs as beer itself. Yet, for most of its history, the one-armed bandit has been generally seen by the trade as something marginal to its core business, falling somewhere between a lime cordial and a pickled egg.
There is no clearer sign that all is beginning to change, however, than the appearance on the machine supply side of a dyed-in-the-wool pub man. Tim Massey has been appointed sales director for pubs at Leisure Link, the UK's biggest machine management company, as part of the restructuring of its businesses that took place at the end of January.
It is a completely new role and the simple fact that a company like Leisure Link now has a dedicated director for the pub trade suggests that the machine industry at least recognises the potential of the sector.
Choosing Tim Massey for the job emphasises that further.
Tim was, as he puts it, "born into the industry". His father ran a pub and a club in the Stoke-on-Trent area and Tim remembers "bottling up at a very early age".
After college he went into management training with hotels group Trusthouse Forte and then straight into a tenancy, a pub and restaurant just outside Stoke.
That was more than 20 years ago and today Tim is kicking himself that he wasn't as aware as he is now of the profit potential of machines. Though surely it's doubtful whether you could have found many licensees at the time who were.
He left the pub after two years to join Bass as a management trainee, beginning his HQ career in freetrade sales and switching to the managed estate as a district manager.
Then he moved to the Mitchells & Butlers brewery at Cape Hill where he pulled together the sales functions and then became sales director at another Bass plant, Springfield, before taking the post of sales director for Bass Worthington.
When the big brewers were forced to put 11,000 pubs on the market as a result of the 1989 Beer Orders, Tim was among the many who saw it as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to start up their own pubco.
Although he and his partners had the funding, a deal to buy more than 100 Bass pubs fell through and he joined another brewer, Marstons, as sales director, gaining additional experience as tenancies and property director, and later, as retail operations director.
While working on an EPoS project he met Leisure Link chiefs Russell Hoyle and Jim O'Halleran and was impressed by the company's vision of the role machines could be playing in the pubs of the future.
So when Marstons was taken over by Wolverhampton & Dudley Breweries a couple of years ago, Tim was already getting excited by what the machine industry had to offer and he left to take the job of freetrade sales director at Leisure Link.
In his new position he is at the cutting edge of that Leisure Link vision and he is already finding the past experience of running his own pub an invaluable one.
"It gives me a different, wider perspective on what machines could mean for the licensed trade," he said.
"I only wish I'd known then about the opportunities when I had my own pub.
"Even with all the advances that have been made it is still the case that many licensees don't really see that machines are the easy way to increase their takings.
"Machines are pure profit. If you can take £100 extra through one it is equivalent to taking another £1,000 across the bar. They are far from being marginal to a pub business. Many community pubs would not survive without their machines."
Increasing machine take is becoming much more than a matter of making sure the games are targeted at the right customers and are switched frequently enough to keep players interested.
Tim cites Leisure Link's multi-functional Itbox as proving that machines can attract customers to an outlet as well as providing an incidental amusement.
He has also begun to talk to pub operators about broader strategies which use the latest technologies and internet-linked soft terminals to shape the whole pub environment, from background music to drinks promotions which can be directly tied in to an EPoS system.
"Machines in pubs have changed a lot since I was a licensee but they are going to change a lot more in the future," he said. "There are all kinds of ways in which electronic machines will become core to the operation of retail brands. It is quite exciting."
Leisure Link's restructure
Leisure Link is being divided into three divisions - Leisure Link Solutions, Leisure Link Media and Group Business Support:
- The Solutions division will take responsibility for sales, trade marketing, operations and manufacturing issues for both traditional and next-generation products
- The Media division will be responsible for the acquisition, development and delivery of next-generation content, as well as securing advertising revenue in both existing and new market areas
- Group Business Support will consist of the areas common to both operating divisions, including personnel, finance and IT.
To coincide with the restructuring a number of new senior appointments have been made in the Solutions division:
- As well as Tim Massey's new responsibility for the entire pub trade plus hotels, Kevin Smith, formerly operations director and current president of BACTA (the British Amusements and Catering Trade Association), will become deputy managing director adopting responsibility for industry affairs and legislative controls
- Peter Weir becomes the new operations director
- Chris Simon is the new marketing and customer services director, adding responsibility for sales support to that of the trade marketing department.
"Following the recent changes in the company's equity arrangements, we believe that Leisure Link has a fantastic opportunity to really shape the future of our industry," commented managing director Jim O'Halleran.
"We will work closely with our customers to ensure they have optimum machine performance across their entire retail estates and will continue the development of next generation products, such as Itbox, to make the most of the huge potential that exists in the marketplace."