Project update 4: Putting it on the map

GET A town mayor together in a pub with a couple of hundred locals, some high-tech entertainment, and a bunch of Morris dancers and what have you got? A massively successful relaunch night, in the case of the Hack & Spade and its jubilant licensees Anne and Alastair Dowson-Park.

The relaunch on Thursday, May 24, saw the Hack & Spade make significant strides towards becoming a traditional local pub that is highly regarded by local drinkers and destination diners alike.

Indeed, it sets up the Hack & Spade to be truly befitting of its forceful new tagline "keeping alive the tradition of the great village pub", which now features on its menus and advertising.

In the planning since the start of the Sell More, Save More project, the relaunch night saw well over 100 people, including the Mayor of Richmond Cllr John Robinson, attend a fun-filled evening based around a charity auction. The event will surely provide the inspiration for many of them to return time and again, as well as the word-of-mouth buzz to attract large numbers of first-time customers.

Sell More, Save More's category champions worked with Anne and Alastair to create an evening that went with a bang.

Setting up a sound system and a series of television screens, entertainment technology innovator Mediatheme ran the auction. Prizes included two centre court tickets for the Artois tennis finals from InBev, malt whisky donated by Diageo, helicopter flights after a local businessman was "badgered for weeks" by Carl May, and a Houses of Parliament teddy bear donated by local MP William Hague.

More than £800 was raised on the night for children's charity the Make a Wish Foundation, with 50p from each pint of real ale or glass of wine sold bolstering the donation. Guests were treated to a drinks reception, and a display by the Richmon-on-Swale Morris men. The event will be getting plenty of coverage in the local press after one of the driving forces behind the relaunch, business development specialist Carl May, sent out invites to radio and newspaper journalists covering the Richmond area of North Yorkshire.

All in all, the pub was able to give a great impression to its guests after hard work put in by its licensees and the category champions. InBev provided the packaged ales and contemporary beers with an accompanying chiller, as well as staff uniforms. Diageo provided a high quality Clenaware glasswasher. Coca Cola Enterprises (CCE) came up with the goods with stylish branded glassware.

And nobody can overlook the impressive physical changes made to the Hack & Spade's furniture and layout - following advice from furniture champion Vintage Contracts and refurbishment consultant Mercury.

The relaunch exceeded Anne and Alastair's expectations. The day before the launch, Alastair told The Publican "we have invited between 600 to 700 people, so we are hoping for a good turnout. If just a small fraction of those turn up, it will be good.

"It will improve our image plus people will get to see the refurb. Where it's situated, a lot of people don't actually know we exist. This should put us on the map," he said.

By the day after the relaunch, this muted optimism had transformed into delight at the event's success.

"This represents the leap of faith by all those involved in the project, and the injection that Sell More, Save More had promised to provide," says Anne. "There were so many people there who said 'great, we have somewhere we can walk to with decent beer'. The mayor was there and said he would definitely come back when he next has a night off!"

So the relaunch was a big success in raising the Hack & Spade's profile. The question now is whether Anne and Alastair will be able to carry this marketing effort forward when they don't have the assistance of Carl, who held the reins throughout much of the build-up to the relaunch.

He had stressed the importance of targeting local residents, as well as the tourist trade around Whashton. Flyers were distributed to attract residents at nearby B&Bs. And, with all the other ingredients in place, he had cooked up a potent marketing stew.

Alastair agrees that this lesson in self-promotion has been important. "Marketing is a crucial part of this," he says. "Carl and all the champions have been great. We have learnt so many things, and marketing will be something we will take into the future."

EXTERIOR​

With the Hack & Spade tucked away in one of England's more remote corners, a crucial element in getting customers into the pub is quality signage. To this end, three new external signs are soon to be installed - the main one over the door is to be refurbished, one large sign is to be fixed to the pub's west gable and a double-sided hanging sign will go on the rear of the property on the east wall.

InBev has been discussing the new signs with a signmaker established in the local area who, in a nice twist, has a long history of creating signage for previous licensees at the pub.

CELLAR​

The Brulines system now installed in the Hack & Spade's cellar is proving invaluable in allowing Anne and Alastair to monitor their beer sales. Brulines' Brand Quality Monitoring system keeps track of the speed and quantity of beer that passes through each pump on the bar.

It is providing an electronic record of every time a tap is used, the exact time of day and the storage and dispense temperature, as well as when the lines are cleaned. Brulines analyses the data and delivers feedback to Anne and Alastair. This information is also available to the two licensees whenever they wish over the internet.

Alastair admits to finding difficulty in accessing the data, calling for more instruction in how to use it. However, the results so far have been constructive to the pub's decision making. It supports the champions' belief that the Hack & Spade at present only has the throughput to sustain one cask beer pump, for example.

Fingers are crossed that the relaunch, and busier summer months, will increase demand for cask and mean that more than one brand can be made available.

Licensee Alastair Dowson-Park pulls a pint on relaunch night

FOOD ​

The Hack & Spade's food offering now has a much more authentic, local flavour after new dinner menus were introduced with the help of Brakes.

Signature local dishes have been introduced, with the search for a banger direct from the heart of Yorkshire resulting in a pork, ginger and coriander sausage. The new menu also sees prices greatly reduced from the more restaurant-level pricing structure formerly found in the pub.

Mains courses, for example, have been reduced from around £10 to £7, and starters by the same proportion.

The pub now also opens for lunch, something which it has not done since Anne and Alastair took over last August. It had been hoped this would capitalise on walkers in the area and early evening diners. It has not failed in this respect, according to Alastair. "On the first day of doing lunch, we had 21 ramblers in," she says. "I think we will get more of that as the summer goes on."

There will soon also be wine and food matches highlighted on the menu, an initiative being worked on by Pernod Ricard.