Pub company profile: Sliced to size before your eyes

When the going gets tough, the tough get going. That philosophy sums up the approach of multiple lessee Ted Docherty - and is the only time you will find the term 'tough' used in relation to Ted's business, which trades as Tailor Made Steaks.

Despite the challenges of the current market, the four-pub group is thriving, and Ted sees further scope for growth.

The Tailor Made concept is straightforward, bit no less clever for that. Meat, and particularly steak, is displayed on a butchers' block in the pub. Customers order the weight and cut they want, see it sliced to size in front of them. The steak is then cooked and served to order.

Ted originally saw the concept at the National Restaurant Association Show in Chicago almost a decade ago. Having worked as a pub manager with both Young's and Greene King, as well as running bars in his native South Africa, he saw considerable appeal in the idea.

Having initially hoped to introduce the concept into managed pubs, he adapted it to his own pub business when he took on the Percy Arms at Chilworth, Surrey on a lease wit Greene King in 2003.

The theatre of upsizing your steak undoubtedly appeals to groups of male customers - in fact, Ted initially promoted the offer as 'steak by the inch', with staff wearing t-shirts asking "how many inches can you take"? However, the switch to a slightly less innuendo-prone branding in has broadened the customer base, with those customers with less prodigious appetites just as happy to tuck into a four ounce fillet as those who go for the bigger-than-standard serving.

Customers assemble a meal from a range of extras including a variety of side orders and sauces. The menu also includes home-made burgers, again with the option to choose from a range of toppings - as well as a range of other dishes, including a very popular Sunday carvery.

While plenty of produce served is sourced locally, the beef itself comes for New South Wales, in Australia, via a supplier in Smithfield. "Quite simply, it's the best quality I can get," says Ted. "I've never had a single a quality issue with the beef itself - although we may occasionally not cook it to the customer's specification."

As Ted points out, getting the steak right is key. "Any chef will tell you that if the menu is a standard 12 ounce steak, if you overcook one which the customer ordered medium rare, it can always be served to the next customer who orders it medium. We can't do that, if we get it wrong we have to go back out front and cut another."

From that first pub in 2003, the business has expanded. A second Greene King lease, the Sun Inn at Rake, in Hampshire, followed by the Inn on The Hill, a pub with rooms at Haslemere, Surrey in 2006, acquired on a Punch lease.

Last year also saw the addition of the Crown Inn near Reading, a Brakspear leased business. "That was already trading well as a bistro, and we haven't converted it to the Tailor Made Steaks offer," says Ted, "but it was a good deal for us."

There has been learning along the way - Ted exited the Sun Inn after it became clear the 40-cover operation was too small. "It showed me that we need a minimum 100 covers to make the concept work profitably," he muses. "If I can fill a place Friday, Saturday and Sunday, then the rest of the week isn't too much of a concern."

In that spirit, November 2008 saw the reopening of the Warwick Arms. Located between Bristol and Bath, the pub has been full refurbished as the latest Tailor Made Steak business. The pub is a similar size and serves a similar customer demographic to the Percy Arms, and is again on a lease with Greene King .

Is this the right time to be expanding? "If you can invest during a downturn, then there are opportunities," says Ted. "If you have the choice of eating out in a pleasant setting or a dowdy one, which are you going to choose? In this market, perceived value for money is very important.

"The Warwick is the first pub where we've had the opportunity to design the layout around the Tailor Made concept. The butchers clock is more central and can be seen from most table. Opening in November, we weren't expecting to be really busy until March, but the Warwick has taken off straight away."

Further expansion is very much on the cards - "at the moment, the main brake on expansion is people, we need managers of the right calibre" There is a 'grow you own' approach to staffing, with key people from existing sites moving to new ones as they open, and Ted believes a joint-venture model with managers may work once the business gets to six or so outlets.