Modest management

Some pubco chiefs would be lost without having their own office. A place to perform the day-to-day nitty-gritty, collect one¹s thoughts and mastermind the next multi-million-pound takeover.

But for the two men who head fledgling pubco British Country Inns (BCI), an office would merely result in unnecessary expense.

"We were totally positive from the very beginning we didn¹t want an office," explains Peter Matthews, one half of the duo behind BCI.

"As soon as you have an office you have to meet the overheads, then you have to have someone to man it and you don¹t make any money."

Instead, Matthews and his business partner Tim Udell use their "not expensive" cars and homes for performing the nuts-and-bolts tasks of the business. The rest is sub-contracted out.

Canny operators

This kind of shrewd, behind-the-scenes approach is a reflection of the two men behind the company. Matthews and Udell both have vast industry experience, but appear uninterested in becoming trade figureheads.

The way in which the company has been developed also highlights the pair's cunning. Having sold their previous business, English Country Inns, to Wolverhampton & Dudley Breweries (as it then was) for £13.7m in September 2005, within months they returned as BCI.

Both their previous company and BCI have been run via Enterprise Investment Schemes (EISs) ­ a fund-raising government initiative attractive to investors as it offers tax relief on shares. However, with each scheme limited to raising a maximum of £8m, BCI have been forced to set up subsidiary companies to enable its expansion. Matthews and Udell are currently up to BCI IV, which began in April.

But time is now of the essence, as the government's rules on EISs are set to change, limiting the amount that can be raised to £2m. In all, the group is aiming for a total of around 40 pubs. It currently has 15, most of which are in the South of England.

After selling their first company, it might have been tempting for the pair to sit back and soak up the rewards. But as many in the pub trade have found, it¹s a difficult business to quit. As Matthews explains: "I think it¹s in my blood.

"I started in the trade as a barman when I was 18 and I've been in it ever since." As EISs, the company's pubs must be run as managed houses, but despite this, the pair give their managers as much autonomy as possible. Udell explains: "We genuinely want them to feel it's their business and they're running it."

Finding the right peg

This sounds like a positive move, but how can they be sure they've got the right person in charge? "One of our secrets is to find the right round peg to fit the right round hole," Matthews says, "and we probably get it right 80 per cent of the time. If we don't get it right we do something about it."

But he admits that finding the right "peg" is becoming tougher: "Because there are more leased pubs available now, a lot of good people get a chance to run a pub." In addition, BCI's managers have the advantage of not having it shoved down their throat that they are part of a big chain ­ likewise the customers.

"We are not trying to trade on the name," says Matthews. "We are trading on the pubs. It's all about the image of the pub and the guy that's running it.

Nothing to do with the sign that says this is a British Country Inns pub ­ we are very much 'anti' that."

Keeping things local is also part of the ethos. All the company's pubs try to use locally sourced produce and keep at least one local ale on tap.

This approach is commendable, but quiz them about the allure of rising property values and you get reminded they are still very much businessmen.

Udell states: "Our task, first and foremost, is to protect our shareholders' investment and, secondly, show them a return out of the development of the company."

And on potential plans to float, the message is equally simple. "After three years we will give the shareholders options and they can choose what they want to do," says Matthews.

Benefiting from the ban

So things seem well set for BCI ­ especially in view of the smoking ban and the types of the pubs the company operates. Much of the estate went smoke-free before July 1, following refurbishments, and with a garden being a pre-requisite for a BCI acquisition, smokers should be well catered for.

Food is also a big part of the agenda in BCI¹s pubs ­ though Udell and Matthews are keen not to have their pubs labelled 'gastro'.

"There're some gastropubs now which are pretty well out-and-out restaurants which happen to be in a pub building," says Udell. "But we are not in that category. We are pubs that sell food." With clear-minded thinking like that, who needs an office?