Making a Ban Stand

Pub: Bar One Nine.Location: Keynsham, Somerset.Licensees: Alison and Richard Smith.

Alison and Richard have pre-empted a smoking ban by introducing a ban of their own - and they are reaping the rewards as a result.

Commercial suicide? Or a chance to offer a unique selling point (USP) to your community while you still can? With the trade still waiting for a firm decision on smoking, a rapidly growing number of licensees are introducing their own complete or partial bans.

Licensees Richard and Alison Smith of Bar One Nine in Keynsham, Somerset, are two who have taken decisive action of their own. And they can be proud of the achievements they have made in a pub which has seen local people embrace its daytime ban so positively that earlier this year it went completely smoke-free. On No Smoking Day, March 9, to be precise. "We would have done it earlier, but we waited for the best day to do it," says Alison. "We lost a few sales at first but business has soared since March - we're an average 10 per cent up on last year."

To ban smoking in any pub is a brave move - and for new licensees to introduce a daytime ban within three days of moving into a pub sounds potentially disastrous.

But that was what Richard and Alison did when they moved into the Punch lease in December 2003 after quitting highly paid jobs as engineers in the telecoms industry.

They found the pub "smoky and dingy" and thought it had the potential to be a different sort of venue - once they had got rid of the cigarette machine and the AWP machine, against Punch's advice, that is. "It wasn't the sort of business that we wanted," recalls Alison. "We couldn't cold-heartedly run it as a business that we didn't like.

We didn't want to be selling too many RTDs and shooters, and as non-smokers ourselves we decide that we wanted to make it smoke-free. "It was scary, but for us it would have been scarier to carry on with the pub as it was."Trade, Alison freely admits, was difficult at first but soon picked up. "Lunchtime business was very bad to start with, and a lot of people who were here in the first week don't come back any more," she says.

The figures, however, speak for themselves, with turnover in the small venue up to £7,000 a week, as new customers continue to flock to the business - and the couple continuing to make a success of marketing and running one of the first smoke-free pubs in Somerset.

Doing something amazing.​ Taking over the business has transformed Bar One Nine and transformed the couple's lives. "Working as a telecoms engineer was soul destroying," says Alison. "I wanted to do something that was amazing. I didn't have a job I was proud of... I do now."

After saving up some money the couple gave up their jobs in October 2003 before taking over the Punch lease two months later. "We moved very quickly around the country to find the right pub - from Cumbria to the South East, via Portsmouth. We saw 30 pubs and went through our checklist according to location, number of bars and other factors."

After completing a Guy Simmonds training course they found the Punch pub and tied up the deal within three weeks. Two days later they were open for business. Progress has been steady, but with early profits invested back into the business, it has taken them 18 months to draw a salary.

"Getting to grips with the issues has been the biggest challenge: the red tape, the licensing laws and other areas such as beer matching with food." Once they had met the challenges inside the venue, Alison and Richard realised that the next challenge would be to communicate the changes to their local community.

Leaflets were delivered to local residents and businesses, and following some advice from an independent PR company run by a friend of a friend, they began to get some interest from local newspapers the Bath Chronicle and the Bristol Evening Post. The pub's smoke-free status brought it widespread coverage on local TV and radio stations, while other aspects of the business have also attracted attention.

"The PR company helped us get value out of everything," says Alison. "When we got a local company to install a stained-glass window above the front door we invited a newspaper and they wrote a story about it."Other initiatives included an opera evening involving local people. "With each project people have become friends of our business," says Alison.

The pub became further established with the couple's involvement in the Keynsham Traders' Association and Business Network International, an organisation which actively brings together local businesses. "We don't believe in mass advertising. It's all about word of mouth," says Alison.

As the new business approaches its second anniversary it is continuing to win more customers from the local community. With smoking banished, food is a big part of the business, with chef Matt Fry putting a strong emphasis on Moroccan food and River Café-inspired dishes. About 90 per cent of all food is fresh, and the business and the split on wet and dry sales is now almost 50/50.

Consulting customers.​

The licensees listen to their new customers. Prior to introducing a permanent smoking ban they left a card on the tables asking if evening pub-goers would support a ban. Eighty five per cent of respondents said they would - and there were a number of smokers among them, claims Alison. Only two per cent were dead set against it.

Now that the outright ban is fully in place it is universally accepted, even without any no-smoking signs apart from discrete signage outside. "Only twice in the past six months have people come in with a cigarette," says Alison. "The smokers that do come in are happy to smoke in our seating area outside."

Despite the pub's smoke-free status, the licensees disagree with blanket action for all. "The government is being too dictatorial - this should be about supply and demand. How pubs deal with it should be their own problem. It should be for the owner to talk about it and consult with their customers."

Perhaps they would say that wouldn't they? A universal ban might not be such good news for Bar One Nine, which would lose its USP overnight. Alison claims she and Richard are unconcerned, however. "We have other USPs now. One of our strengths is that we are a different venue at different times of day, from offering coffee in the morning, to lunches, to regular music sessions in the evening. In the long term if every pub was smoke-free it wouldn't detract from our business."

In the meantime they would recommend that other pubs prepared to go through some initial pain take the plunge and pre-empt any unilateral action on smoking from Whitehall. "When we first moved in we had to subsidise the business but it's been a great marketing tool. You've got to make your business work hard. Going smoke-free put us on the map with customers and the local press, but we have moved on from there now."

Alison and Richard Smith will be explaining how they marketed their smoke-free pub to their community at The Publican Marketing Conference on November 3.

For full details visit www.publicanconference.co.uk or contact Michele Hams on 020 7955 3754 or at mhams@cmpinformation.com