Project update 1: our community pub

If you want to be a great community boozer, you've got to connect with your customers.

On their visits, the category champions visiting the Forester Arms in Broseley immediately spotted one barrier to this: the large number of beer fonts on the bar.

Licensee Aaron Lynn agreed that this is one area he is looking at addressing with the help of InBev.

"Now he's said it, I can see where we've been going wrong," says Aaron. "I've often had to move around the bar to speak to customers."

Other champions agreed that the Forester needs to increase the amount of footfall coming into the pub, and step up its marketing activity as much as it can.

Aaron says the category champions have been "unbelievably helpful" so far, with a number having an immediate impact in and around the pub.

Thanks to the advice from Brakes, he is holding fish supper evenings on Tuesdays, which are slowly growing custom on a previously quiet night of the week.

Brakes also helped out with a cheese and wine evening, when Aaron invited along a number of local people, including local dignitaries

and new residents, to discuss how

he could take the pub forward. He offered all who attended a free bottle of wine if they came back for dinner, and three have already done so.

Advice from Diageo on shifting his spirits measures from 35ml to 25ml is having an impact on sales, with more customers going for a 50ml double measure. "It's a little change but it's already making a big difference," he said.

Aaron said he was "over the moon" with the first visits from the Sell More, Save More category champions - and he's even won publicity for the project in his local newspaper.

"I'm talking to all our customers about it and they are really pleased," he says. "Our regulars love this pub, and they want to see it really busy and successful.

"Hopefully we're taking a step in the right direction."

SPIRITS​

Good service and spirits ranging at the Forester Arms was evidence of good training processes at the pub.

The back-bar had a good selection of spirits on Optic, with brands separated from light to dark.

The current measure size at the Forester Arms is 35ml - and Aaron pointed out that many of his customers were complaining that 35ml is expensive when compared with the 50ml standard serve of nearby social clubs. In this instance, Diageo recommended that the pub changed to 25ml with a strong drive to sell 50ml as a standard serve.

Diageo category development executive Toni Lian Michel recommended that the pub introduced the long mixed spirit serve as a means of bringing in new customers.

"It is a great way for the Forester Arms to establish a point of difference by putting great presentation, mixability, consistency of serve and variety of choice at the forefront of its drinks offering, while also offering consumers better perceived value and a credible drinks choice to men," she said.

Diageo recommends that in the future the Forester Arms looks into stocking premium brands - this will allow customers to treat themselves. Research has shown that the motivating factor of 'having a treat' has increased by 57 per cent over the past four years in the on-trade (TNS Alcovision Sept 2001 - Sept 2005).

BEER​

Aaron and his team were praised for being knowledgeable about beer - and actively upselling to a premium brand.

But there is clearly room to grow on the beer side, with evening trade regular but below expectations, and daytime trade poor.

While there are too many draught beers, confusing customers, there are not enough packaged beers, with poor visibility of those that are on sale.

InBev UK senior development manager (on-trade) Chris Bull's remedy is to go for a "traditional quality" target offering, to stop local people going to nearby Ironbridge for a night out.

Among Chris's recommendations for the pub were:

- draught beer to be a key differentiator, rivalling that served in Ironbridge

- a quality rather than value-led proposition: staff knowledge and theatre of serve providing justification for price premium

- a wider range of packaged beers to introduce more choice at fringes (initially speciality beers), in a more visible site

- driving volume through high-margin products by using standalone fonts, and using a T-bar for more mainstream products

- introducing a glass-froster, offering a point of difference on Staropramen.

Once the new beers have been installed, InBev is promising full training support on the brands, as well as speciality beer and glassware care training.

A speciality beer & food night will take place later in the year, while InBev is also looking at the opportunity for external signage.

FOOD​

Brakes believes the Forester Arms needs to increase the amount of footfall into the pub, and that it needs to build on the proactive marketing to the local community it has already carried out.

The pub has already got moving on one of the ideas raised by our food champion, Brakes, at its first visit to the pub.

Licensee Aaron Lynn recently launched a fish supper evening, which he hopes will become renowned in the area.

"We looked at the menu and what they were doing, and decided together that the pub should focus on one thing initially that would increase footfall and loyalty," comments Mark. "The Forester Arms used a cheese and wine evening to launch its fish supper evening to customers. Brakes helped by supplying regional cheeses and product information."

Channel marketing manager Anne Mulcahy helped create the promotional material for the weekly event - and attendees at the cheese evening were only too happy to book their table for a fish supper.

THE CELLAR​

"The first thing that would strike anyone on reaching either bar in the Forester Arms is the quantity of taps on the bar," comments Innserve's Julie Charge.

"There were two small bars which were each dominated by a bank of four hand-pulls, one four tap T-bar and three additional founts. Given the throughput, this was a clear example of over-tapping."

Julie says a general rule of thumb should be that a minimum of one keg per week should be going through each tap. Any more than that is ok but any less, and there are likely to be beer quality and yield issues.

"Despite the quantity of taps, the lager was mostly within specification," Julie adds. "The cask, however, was warmer than it should be and this will be a key area to focus on. The cellar was in good working order but also provides a good example of the importance of cellar cooling. This was working well, delivering a temperature of 11ÞC but, due to the shape of the cellar and the direction the cellar cooling was facing, part of the cellar was 4ÞC warmer."

The biggest issue in the cellar at the Forester Arms, however, is the external water seeping in, causing an almost constant flooding scenario. A pump is dealing with this but, again, this needs to be addressed.

"On a very positive note, the lines were religiously cleaned and this was having an impact in reducing losses through beer quality despite the sheer number of taps," concludes Julie.