Wales: The Birchgrove

Caerphilly Road, Cardiff

Tim and Pauline Reynolds have been at the Birchgrove for just over two years and right from the start adopted the policy of "don't fix what isn't broken". The Birchgrove is strategically placed in the heart of the local residential and business community. There are lots of chimney pots around the SA Brain's managed pub as well as a school and parades of shops on one of the main roads into the Welsh capital.

As you would expect with a community pub, wet sales far outweigh food, with the current ratio being 85:15. During the year, Tim and Pauline achieved the accolade of making the Birchgrove the first Brains' community pub not in a city centre to pass the £1m turnover mark. The couple passed that milestone by listening to what regulars want.

The pub now has seven skittles teams and a darts team to cater for its regulars. The local community is heavily into sport and additional plasma screens have therefore been added to improve viewing.

While many community pubs have become ever more reliant on keg beers and lagers, the Birchgrove has bucked the overall decline in cask ales by seeing sales rise. New dispense equipment, including cylinder-less pumps provided by the brewery, have helped the revival in sales. So, too, has Tim's fastidious upkeep of the cellar, where only he and the head barman are allowed to look after the ales.

The increasing demand prompted the Reynolds to stage a mini beer festival over a bank holiday weekend. Tim is planning further festivals, but cautions: "We have to be a bit careful because two local pubs also run beer festivals and we don't want to tread on their toes."

Under Tim and Pauline's stewardship, the Birchgrove has continued to flourish, but not lose any of its character or radically alter what's on offer.

The pub also figures heavily in returning something to the community and Pauline estimates that more than £2,000 was raised last year for good causes. This was achieved by a number of mechanisms such as raffling and auctioning prizes donated by local businesses and a swear box. The latter, says Tim with a grin, "was very successful".