The view from the top

With the smoke ban reaching its first anniversary, Caroline Muspratt talks to operators about how they have fared

It's been a year since smoking was banned in pubs in England, and customers have had plenty of time to get used to the idea. But operators are still keeping a close eye on trading and the impact the ban has had on their business.

The exact date the ban was to begin was announced by the Government seven months earlier, in December 2006, but even by then it had been well anticipated.

Rupert Clevely, chief executive of Geronimo Inns, says he started planning for the ban "about a year in advance — the great thing was that everybody knew it was happening."

Meanwhile Bob Senior, boss of Utopian Leisure, says that he began looking at ways to create outside areas to cater for smokers at least six months before the ban came into force. He adds: "We have premises in Cork so we had experience of how the smoking ban would work, and it helped us understand the importance of smoking areas."

Vince Healy, managing director of Ascot Inns, says that when the ban was announced, "the feeling then was very much doom and gloom", as he realised it would require significant investment in order to hold onto customers. However, in the end, "it was probably not as bad as I thought it was going to be," he says. He even sees the investment as "money well spent".

Some had no choice but to use the pavement outside their pubs, while others were lucky enough to have gardens — though they still needed to put a roof over smokers' heads.

But even a lack of outdoor space need not be a problem. Geronimo's Clevely says: "The Duke of Clarence on Old Brompton Road [in London] was the pub we were most concerned about, as it only has a pavement. But we have still seen like-for-like growth in that pub versus the previous year." He adds: "We made sure the standards were higher and we ran it better."

Scott Murray, owner of wet-led Bar Sport, says his bars always had the scope for outdoor areas, "but we'd never taken advantage of it before." Being forced to look at how he could use these areas for smokers allowed him to make positive changes.

However, there are often difficult restrictions that have to be taken into account. Michael Kheng, owner of Lincolnshire-based Kurnia Group, says one of his pubs has a beer garden that has to shut at 11pm, and another has a terrace where customers are not allowed after 11.30pm. After that, smokers are forced to stand on the street, which he thinks "creates a hostile environment, especially on a Saturday night when you walk down the street and there are groups of people on the pavement."

Nightclubs have also found it difficult — in particular clubs not on the ground floor of a leisure complex.

Utopian Leisure's Senior points out: "If you have an outside area and a door to get to it, it has to be away from the main front door as this could otherwise cause confusion and incidents." Some nightclubs have had to introduce wrist band or rubber-stamping systems to distinguish between customers who have already paid and gone outside for a cigarette, and those who are queuing to come in.

Kurnia runs mainly town-centre premises and Kheng thinks: "On a Friday or Saturday night, if they were going to stay for two drinks and then move on, they now stay for one, and have a cigarette when they leave."

Some pub operators say they miss having smokers in their pubs. Utopian's Senior says: "If you have eight people around a table talking, and four of them go outside to smoke, it disrupts the conversation. When they come back in, there are different conversations going on and it's completely stilted — it steals a little bit of the atmosphere."

Senior even goes as far as to suggest that "people who are addictive personalities are usually more fun —other people can be more reserved." He adds: "I don't think the ban in itself has done damage to the trade — it's the surreptitious attack, people thinking the atmosphere is not the same."

Many food-led pub operators do not think they have been badly affected by the ban.

Geronimo's Clevely says: "The ban for Geronimo has probably been the best thing that's ever happened to us. Drink is still the larger percentage of our business, but the food is what drives our business." Now, he says, "the customer is happier, people enjoy their food more."

Karen Jones, former Spirit boss and chairman of Food & Fuel, runs eight gastropubs and two café bars. She too thinks the atmosphere has changed since the ban. "It splits parties a lot — big groups end up with much less cohesion, as half of them will disappear, often for quite a long time. There's not much the operator can do about that."

However, she thinks the ban has had a positive impact on business. "Because we run gastropubs, if anything it has helped," she says, but adds: "There is no question it has hit drink-led pubs hard."

Rufus Hall, chief executive of Orchid Group, says: "Overall we are very pleased with the ban." The company is in the process of investing in its pubs and refocusing them on women and food — food now accounts for 43% of the mix, compared to 34% a year ago. "The flip side is that we have some wet-led pubs where it has had an impact, but all of our pubs do food now in a substantial way." Orchid's pubs are also selling more wine and coffee and Hall thinks the company is a "net beneficiary of [England] not being in Euro 2008 — the food side would suffer if England were playing."

Mark Butler, managing director of Mercury Inns, says: "All our pubs are food-led, destination country pubs. Initially, we saw a downturn in the local drinkers coming into the bar — the hardened drinkers' and smokers' habits have changed, but they will still come to our pubs for a meal."

When David Ford took over at Tattershall Castle, just under two years ago, food accounted for 8% of the sales mix. Coming from a catering background, he wanted to address this and food now accounts for about 14% of sales. But Ford warns: "You're better off not doing pub food at all than doing it badly."

But what about those who took the plunge and went non-smoking before the ban was enforced?

Mercury's Butler says the restaurant areas in his pubs "have been non-smoking for years. In busy periods, like Friday and Saturday night and Sundays, we would get booked up and have to offer diners tables in the bar, which they wouldn't always want. Now there is no smoking in the bar either, we have increased the number of covers we can offer at peak times."

Chris Gerard, founder of Innventure, says his pubs went non-smoking from 2004 or 2005, depending on when they were refurbished and saw new investment.

He explains: "It was a commercial decision — we are more profitable and have higher sales." Even outside, smoking and non-smoking areas are clearly designated.

To an extent, Gerard admits, the company did lose its unique selling point when all pubs were forced to go non-smoking. "In the very early days we saw a large number of competitors introducing food, and there was a small erosion of sales, but as the lack of profitability of those offers became obvious, they have fallen away."

One good thing about the ban, he adds, is that his staff no longer have to explain to customers that the pub is non-smoking.

Bar Sport's Murray says there are definitely pros and cons to the ban. "There are more people coming in who wouldn't normally come, as they don't smoke and they like the healthier air. There are certain smokers who have stopped coming as they don't feel welcome, but as long as you've got a good outdoor smoking area, people will still come." He adds: "We're as busy as we were before the ban."

However, Ford does not think smokers will stay at home for long. "They will miss going to the pub —

we are tribal by nature, we like being in groups. I think over time that

will return."

Pub bosses agree it is almost impossible to tell to what extent the smoking ban has damaged sales. Healy says: "Business has been terrifically hard this past 12 months, but it's not all down to