Deciding make your pub smoke-free before the ban can be a tough decision in itself. But for Mary Winter she added an extra pressure.
As well as outlawing smoking in her pub the Brierfield, in Bolton, Mary vowed to quit her 60-a-day cigarette habit at the same time.
And despite the stress of handling the re-opening of the pub following a £340,000 makeover, she has managed to stay off the fags.
³I¹m really pleased I¹ve been able to quit and feel great,² she explains.
³I¹d been a heavy smoker for 30 years but if I was going to expect my customers to stop smoking inside the pub then I thought I should lead by example and quit myself. It¹s actually been the best decision ever and easier than I thought, even though I have been extremely busy overseeing the refurbishment and running my own business.²
Ambitions to be own boss
It was a year ago that Mary decided to quit her job as a retail manager at Wal-Mart and take on the tenancy of the Punch-owned Brierfield. At the time it was a rough around the edges olde-worldy boozer. ³I¹ve always had ambitions to be my own boss and when the Brierfield became available I decided to take the plunge,² says Mary. ³It was extremely run-down but I could see the potential.² The pub closed last New Year¹s Eve while work was carried out. This included building a tapas restaurant and converting office space into an extra bar area. After the two-and-a-half month shutdown the pub re-opened and provoked quite a response. ³The regulars have been absolutely amazed,² says Mary. ³We really went for the Œwow factor¹ and I think we¹ve succeeded.² The transformation, particularly the tapas restaurant, has already had a major effect on the business. Mary says the pub has been packed every night and staff are having to turn many people away for restaurant bookings.
She adds: ³The pub¹s much lighter and more stylish [now] with creams, browns and comfortable leather seats and sofas. The restaurant has a traditional Spanish style my first customers were a Spanish family. They were so impressed with the authenticity of the food that they ordered the whole lot again.²
Discarded cigarettes
The only negative issue that Mary has come up against so far since the pub became non-smoking is dealing with discarded cigarette butts outside.
³Obviously the cleaners are spending a lot more time outside now collecting cigarette ends. That¹s the one thing I¹d say to other licensees make sure you provide somewhere for people to put butt ends, otherwise your outdoor area could end up looking like a giant ashtray,² she says.
But overall Mary is delighted she took the plunge early and even her diehard smoking customers appear pleased by the changes. ³Because the pubs smells so new and fresh they are happy to go outside for a cigarette,² explains Mary. ³We have a lovely patio area with heaters and remote- controlled awnings, which means people don¹t have to worry so much about the weather.² So that¹s the customers sorted but, what about her staff who smoke? ³They seem to have cut down already,² says Mary. ³But it may just be because we have been so busy since we re-opened!²