City diary
We know a man who can
Anyone on the managed side looking to recruit a highly-regarded former JD Wetherspoon (JDW) operations director with 10 years' experience? One who was picked out individually by founder Tim Martin in interviews for his outstanding retail skills?
City Diary knows of one who's available. Nathan Wall, former JDW operations director south, is looking for his
next challenge. "I had 10 years and decided it was time to move on. It was a very amicable, adult parting. There's a
few people I'm talking to." Wall is looking for a senior role within a leisure or retail company - at a chief executive or chief operating officer-level - and is also interested in
looking at private equity-backed buy-out situations. E-mail
paul.charity@william-reed.co.uk for his new mobile number.
Brill grills
Pub carvery has been the hottest food template in the past 12 months. Now City Diary believes grilling is the next big thing. Spirit is set to launch a new grill concept at two pubs in May. "There will be a lot of innovation and a cutting edge, revolutionary new-style oven," a spokesman tells City Diary. "It will be serving as good a steak as you can find anywhere in the United States." What so revolutionary about the oven? "Ah, that's the exciting bit..."
Glass act
Luminar boss Steve Thomas, left, has made it to the big screen - as a star of a Home Office blockbuster on the virtues of polycarbonate glasses. In a flash production shown to police, trade leaders and journalists highlighting examples of best practice, such as Best Bar None, Thomas took the lead on polycarbonate glasses. They don't make a jot of difference to the drink and are a worthy investment was the gist of it, as polycarbonate glasses were filled with champagne in the background. But all those community pubs and real-ale buffs need not fear for the moment. Despite support from Thomas, City Diary heard police bemoan beforehand: "The only thing we didn't manage to get through (get adopted) was polycarbonates".
Food for thought
Is food-development talent in short supply? City Diary hears that Ben Bartlett, right, Marston's head of tenanted food development, is moving on. Meanwhile, Scottish & Newcastle Pub Enterprises is looking for a food development manager, while Greene King is seeking to recruit an assistant head of food development. Geronimo Inns may have solved the problem. It's recruited Ben Maschler, son of renowned restaurant critic Fay Maschler, as its new food director. The only problem with hiring the offspring of food critics is that they don't seem a particular fecund bunch - Giles Coren and Michael Winner are both without issue...
Greene King looks on the bright side
Top thinking on the brewing side at Greene King. The company has introduced a new scheme called "Everyday Brilliance" and is seeking to reward out-performance in a more timely fashion than the previous scheme, which focused on performance over a set period. Staff have been told that the aim is to "catch people doing things right". "Everyday Brilliance is about recognising someone going beyond a 'good job' immediately," the company adds.
Could try harder
The England Rugby League's new emblem has been on the drawing board for 12 months. The Times, at least, has noticed it may have borrowed design cues from Charles Wells. It notes: "Twelve months in the development, apparently, and here it is - the new Logo England logo, left, as revealed to the blog tonight, although it bears a certain similarity to a well-known beer label, right." Send an invoice, Charles Wells.
Almost right on the nose
Four years ago, Enterprise licensee Linda Newport, who ran the Brasenose Arms, in Cropredy, Oxfordshire, was a star witness for the prosecution in the Trade & Industry Select Committee (TISC) investigation into pubco power. She told the House of Commons committee that she'd probably be bankrupt in six months, thanks to the high rents and premium prices at which she is forced to buy beer. So how's the pub doing now? wondered City Diary. Roy Tydeman, a former electrician, has run the pub with his wife for two-and-half-years after buying the lease from Newport. He says: "I spent between £15,000 and £20,000 on the pub and turnover is up by about 20%. We've put a lot of time and effort into it and the rent is fairly reasonable. Enterprise sometimes promises to do things they don't get around to, but we've had no really difficult situations."
Bring it on, says JDW
No-one likes whingeing as much as JD Wetherspoon. The company magazine's letters page is always filled with complaints from customers about shortcomings. One reader told chairman Tim Martin, left, that she thought customers were being a bit negative. Martin disagreed. "We try to encourage the criticism in order to find areas for improvement. "I always think it's unrealistic reading company magazines that pretend everything is rosy, when everyone knows that it's not."
Not free of Thai
Orchid Group is currently spending £50m or so transforming the 290 pubs its acquired from Spirit 18 months ago. There are new trading ideas galore - but at least one has ruffled a few locals' feathers. In December, it opened the Boddington & Dragon, Wilmslow, Cheshire - a fusion of Thai restaurant and English pub.
One punter, Mike Wilson, writing on one of those ranty websites that rails against absurd pub names, says: "Check this one out near me in Wilmslow: it's changed its name so much these last few years it's become a joke.
"It's now called the Boddington & Dragon. It was formerly the Boddington Arms (which in turn was formerly the Range, and formerly the Boddington Arms!) but this latest name is meant to indicate that it's now serving Thai food, yet still a good Boddies beer!" Come on, Mike, give it a chance.
Don't keep success under wraps
In a spirit of public service, and talking of Orchid, City Diary is happy to pass on a piece of marketing success. Several pubs in the Orchid estate have been buying cover-wraps in their local newspaper and generating an average rise in sales of £3,000 per week. (A cover wrap is when you acquire the front and back page, giving a full four pages to promote your pub). One manager, Joanne Simpson, booked a wrap on her local rag, The Falkirk Advertiser. "The following week, our sales were up by £3,000 and this continued for several weeks," she says.
Next week: how to recruit and retain chefs.
