Project update 3: Shaping up on the high street

Rookie licensee Richard Podesta's steep learning curve is continuing apace at high street venue Barcena in Burgess Hill, West Sussex.

Advice from our category champions is being enthusiastically put into practice, ranging from tightening up his stock control to adding a glass etching in the window to add to the high-class feel of Barcena and attract more custom from the street.

The poor visibility of the venue - a complaint from all our champions as they have visited one-by-one - should also be addressed by the pavement tables and chairs which are going outside the venue this month. Screens being provided by our champions will help close off the bar from the street.

"We're already opening our double doors when it is hot and putting one or two tables outside," says Richard.

"But we are looking forward to getting hold of more furniture or resurfacing our existing glass top tables and creating a bit of interest out the front."

Improving profit margins has been a key focus of business development expert Carl May's involvement with the project - and he is happy with the progress being made at the venue.

"I organised a full stocktake of the food and drink to form an opening stock to assist me in helping Richard drive profit margins," says Carl.

"I feel that my role at Barcena is to drive profitability through the development of the management."

To this end, Carl is also helping with the introduction of full staff documentation, including contracts, job descriptions and a staff training programme being set up in conjunction with spirits champion Diageo. Richard himself joined a Diageo 'esp' training session last month.

Driving profitability is also a key feature of our drinks supplier champion WaverleyTBS's involvement in the project.

Clio Boyce, senior trade marketing manager, comments: "The key to attracting the right crowd is stocking the right product to a) attract them and b) keep them coming back for more. Perhaps one of Richard's first lessons has been that the answer to these criteria cannot be found by buying the cheapest stock!"

The 'one-stop shop'

Previously Richard had been sourcing stock from five different suppliers based solely on price.

"It would obviously be a lot easier to put in one order, and get one delivery, rather than do everything five times," comments Richard.

"I just need to do an exercise with my top 20 sellers and make sure that I won't end up paying more for them."

Local area sales manager Catherine Pymble has talked through the advantages of using a 'one stop shop' for wet-led stocks with Richard.

WaverleyTBS points out the drawbacks of ordering from five separate suppliers:

- Five different deliveries as opposed to one

- Having to check stock delivered vs stock ordered five times

- Having to call in five different orders to each of the suppliers

- Dealing with five separate invoices

- Management time to maintain all five supplier relationships

- Less likely to achieve higher levels of discount.

The advantages of using a one-stop shop include using one local telesales operator every week, who can inform licensees of weekly deals suitable to their pub, one depot to deliver products and one delivery every week - as well as the fact that higher discount levels can be built week by week.

"Being brand-led is very important on the high street these days. Consumers want to see recognisable brands. Richard's central back-bar focus on Smirnoff and Gordon's gin convey this message very well," comments Clio.

ENTERTAINMENT​

The key for Barcena, which will see a Mediatheme Entertainer system installed later this month, will be to build an entertainment schedule slowly.

Better to be consistent than to adopt a scattered approach trying everything once and delivering it badly, according to Mediatheme managing director Richard Horne.

"As a high street there will have a number of bars for customers to choose from. It is essential that Barcena finds its unique selling point, that difference which will attract customers to the bar over any of the others," says Richard.

High street venues should raise their profile by advertising their entertainment nights not only on the screens around the venue but in the local press and radio, or even by door drop to the residential areas close by.

"Team up with a local charity, organise charity race nights once a quarter to raise money which will gain the bar presence in the local community, coverage in the press and that feel good factor with the customers," continues Richard.

"It's all about building your customer base gradually, and with the power of word of mouth you will soon have a loyal base. Then you're in a good place to extend your entertainment program out and ask them what they would enjoy."

INDOOR FURNITURE​

With tired-looking furniture and the pub failing to offer much excitement for passing clientele, our indoor furniture champion Vintage Contracts was quick to spot some of the potential solutions on a recent visit to Barcena.

Among the suggestions for the venue were:

- A revamped frontage to create something passing trade would want to venture into - including five outside tables with seating

- 'Poseur tables' (high tables without seating) to offer customers an easier way of taking in beverages

- A new lease of life for the sofas - including putting new inners inside the leather covers

- New table tops - namely ones which are easier to clean and more sympathetic to the existing furniture

- Upholstered bar chairs

Richard is now deciding how much of the advice to implement.

"Once the venue has been restructured and all of the furniture, old and new, has been repositioned, the whole place will be more inviting," says Vintage Contracts director April Lavin.

FOOD​

Food champion Brakes presented a string of new menu ideas to Richard and his team on a recent second vist to Barcena - including platters, sharers, fish, pasta, salads, sandwiches and desserts - as well as discussing and making recommendations for menu formats.

Mark explains: "The aim of spending time with Richard was to agree on Barcena's core menu dishes, go through the menu descriptions to ensure they are up-selling the dishes and look at pricing/costing structure to ensure they achieve a suitable GP for the business."

After an initial meeting with Richard, Mark descended on the kitchen to present his dish ideas to chefs Mark and Tim. "It was very important that the guys were comfortable with the food that was being presented and I encouraged them to try all the dishes, which they did with gusto!" explains Mark

The presentation lasted about two hours and a range of dishes were shown from Greek mezze, moules linguine and goats cheese & sundried tomato panzotti to classic pastrami club sandwich and for dessert Warm Raspberry Waffle Stack.

"Mark and Tim were very enthusiastic about the food presented and offered really constructive feedback for each dish based on their knowledge of the customers that ate in Barcena," continues Mark.

The key objective for Brakes has been to work with Richard and his staff to develop a food offer that takes full advantage of all the meal occasions that exist during the day and to create a fresh, contemporary and continental feel to the menu.

Recommendations were made for a streamlined core menu offer and blackboard specials and with some tweaks to current menu descriptors to allow for more provenance, regionality and up sell of key items on the menu.

Mark felt the meeting went really well: "I was impressed with the energy of the chefs and willingness to look at the dishes I presented.

"The next stage is to agree the core menu and specials. That will really give us some direction and a focus that we can then begin to build upon."

The new menu is due to go live shortly.

BEER​

A flurry of activity ove