JDW's smoking-ban plans hold valuable lessons

Experience has got to be worth something, hasn't it? Some observers scoffed when JD Wetherspoon took a hit to its sales after founder Tim Martin decided the entire estate would go non-smoking early.

Why subject yourself to unnecessary pain, was the regularly heard question. In the event, the plan was aborted as early non-smoking sites saw sales drop by 7%. A backlash from grumpy smokers, brassed off at early demonisation, also helped halt the company's ambitions.

Nevertheless, the company converted 50 or so pubs to non-smoking ahead of time in England and has been able to learn from its experience in Scotland. The company remained resolutely vague about the precise nature of the lessons it learnt. Again, some on-lookers thought the lessons were pretty obvious and that the company's down-sized non-smoking experiment was still too large. Last week, Wetherspoon provided a little more insight on what it's learnt - and how this can be best used to prepare for the start of the ban in England on 1 July. It revealed that 460 of its pubs moved to expand non-smoking areas to 80% of the total floor space in January - on top of the 150 pubs that are already non-smoking.

The timing of the move to herd smokers into a smaller part of all of these pubs is interesting. The choice of the quietest month is significant and allowed the company to gain a double benefit. It coincided in many cases with a three-day closure for the introduction of glycol-cooling. It took the opportunity at many pubs for a spruce-up too. The period after the introduction of enlarged non-smoking areas has seen food sales rise strongly and wet sales dip - in line with trends at complete-ban pubs. Chief executive John Hutson tells me that the January move stemmed directly from the company's extensive experience elsewhere.

One key lesson is that pub kitchens struggle to cope with the sudden jump in food sales that occur when a change is made overnight. It's better to phase-in the change in sales mix that occurs to ensure that quality and consistency in food delivery isn't lost. Hutson also reports that the partial conversion to non-smoking in the estate has meant that every area manager has direct experience of a non-smoking pub - and is able to apply the lessons to the rest of the pubs on his or her beat.

Another key area of learning here relates to the subject of table configuration. A move away from a mainly wet-led offer over the years has seen evolution on this front already. Far fewer in number are the tall posing tables beloved by drinkers, replaced by more couches and dining tables. The January smoking-area switch saw area managers talking through table configuration with site managers again.

Fruit machines, which see a preponderance of use among smokers, need re-location to the areas where smokers are accommodated. On the face of it, making your pub 80% non-smoking is much harder to police than a pub that is completely smoke-free - it's very hard, you'd have thought, to stop smokers wandering out of their smallish designated areas. Hutson reports that old-fashioned British reserve and love of orderliness makes this less of a problem than might be imagined. "These things are self-policing in the same way that Brits join queues," he says.

The early move to enlarged non-smoking areas is also influenced by a determination to get pub managers planning for the ban. It's been made clear that managers' bonuses are safe from any dip that results from January's move. The message for managers has been: "The ban's on the way so let's crack on." Last week, Wetherspoon's shares were marked down on news that smoke-ban preparations would mean profits are below market expectations this year. Out-performing the market and staying ahead of the competition often means tackling difficult issues now.