Mark Taylor talks to fast-expanding Wykeham
Inns operations manager Alan Knight
Background: The Wykeham Inns group started in 2004, when the Dartmoor Union re-opened in the Devon village of Holbeton, near Plymouth. Owner John Steven was asked by village residents to keep the Dartmoor Union open for them and he created the kind of outlet he would like to see as a village pub. His vision continues to inspire the group. The second site was the Rose & Crown in Yealmpton. Each site is individual and chefs and managers are encouraged to treat each place as if it's their own business by introducing their own ideas. This also gives the chefs a lot of freedom.
Business philosophy: We have three core
values that we stand by. One is value for money, the second is to use high-quality, local where possible, ingredients in our food. And thirdly, we operate within a high-quality build environment - we want our customers to feel relaxed, with a touch of luxury around them. Each pub serves fresh food prepared on the premises and offers value for money prices (for example, set lunches of £9.95 for two courses and £12.95 for three courses). Wines are on a fixed cash mark-up per bottle, rather than a percentage, which means that the better quality wines cost a fraction of the usual price.
Accolades most proud of:
For The Dartmoor Union - one AA rosette within the first few months of opening; Les Routiers UK Dining Pub of the Year 2006 and Dining Pub of the Year in the Good Pub Guide.
For The Rose & Crown - one AA rosette within the first few months of opening; Devon's Best Pub in the Good Pub Guide 2007; entry in the Michelin Guide; Les Routiers South West Dining Pub of the Year; the Devon Social Group gold award winner 2007 (the Rose & Crown and Seafood Restaurant).
Recent new openings: St Elizabeth's House, Plympton St Maurice, which opened in December 2006. It's a 15-bedroom boutique hotel with a 50-cover dining room. Also the Ring of Bells pub in North Bovey, Devon.
Future plans: We aim to open four sites a year. We're opening a 70-cover restaurant on the quayside at the Barbican, Plymouth, called the Glassblowing House, in recognition of its previous use by Dartington Glass. It will focus on modern West Coast American food.
Business success: There is no substitute for hard work, but at the same time you have to let customers know you are here and what you are doing. Coupled with that, the easiest customers to attract are those that have already visited us before, so a key element of our marketing is to garner names, addresses and emails of customers and contact them on a regular basis, telling them of offers, events, and happenings. We get the details by issuing the customer bill within a small card that the customer fills in. Secondly, we issue press releases to the local press on quirky stories or future events. The latter will achieve a box mention in the weekly 'what's on' sections of papers and magazines, just keeping our name in the public eye. We also enter as many competitions as possible - these are good for staff morale as well as publicity.
How do you recruit staff? We use a trade
website. We like to feel that we are offering career opportunities in a medium-sized group. However, as we are such a young group there is still much to develop to differentiate ourselves at the moment.
Menu innovation - what concepts have worked really well for you? We run à la carte fine-dining menus alongside a bar menu. On the à la carte menu, there is also a "pub classics"
section featuring cod and chips, home-made gourmet burgers, local sausages and mash - just pub dishes done very well and all under £10. These have been very popular.
Why do you think the food side of the group has been so successful?: The chefs within the group like the fact that there's healthy competition between each site. If one site is doing great food, the next one wants to do even better food. As a group, we offer very high quality food that is also competition for other restaurants and pubs in the area. The chefs also like the fact that they can cook fine-dining food and traditional pub classics in each pub.
Promotions: At the Dartmoor Union we do a set lunch menu at £10 for two courses or three courses for £13 and that's been very popular. People know they can come in for an hour, have two good courses for a tenner plus drinks. At lunchtime, most of our customers go for the set menu. In the early evening, they tend to go for the bar menu and pub classics. From 7pm, it's mostly the à la carte. We do a gourmet supper once a month, which is a seven or nine-course tasting menu that reflects the seasons. We also did a Belgian beer supper recently featuring eight courses plus a different beer for each course and that was very popular. Our special evenings always sell out.
Which dishes are best for the food GP? We try to keep our GP around 65%, but dishes like wild sea bass bring that down so we level it out by making a bigger GP on the starters or desserts. We make more GP on the pub classics and since we've been buying in whole animals and butchering them ourselves, we've been making a better GP.
How are you planning for the smoking ban? Each site is very different, but where there is the space, we will be putting up marquees or covered areas.
Biggest challenge to business in next 12 months? To control payroll as a percentage of turnover - with attention to both elements.
What is the key to making each site a
success? Quality management with a
committed mine-host approach, supported by the build environment and a quality product.
How do you get the best out of suppliers? We use local farms for the meat and vegetables. As a group with six sites, we get cheaper prices from suppliers, almost like a group discount. This area has seen a number of new growers and we get new suppliers coming to us all the time. We try them all, but we're driven on quality as much as good pricing.