Pub is pillar of the community

Annie Clift, the licensee at the Talbot in Knightwick, Worcester, tells Robyn Lewis about creating a successful community freehouse over nearly three decades.

How I got here​

I was born one and a half miles away, so this is an area and community I know very well and this has always been my local pub. We are a farming family, although my sister and I have also worked in the hospitality industry in London.

So, when we needed to diversify the farm business and the pub came up for sale 26 years ago, we thought it would be a good investment. The two of us ran it together until about five years ago when she moved on and now my mother and I run it.

Ongoing improvements​

The Talbot has always been a good community pub — it has to be really, as we are in the middle of nowhere and everything that happens here, happens in the pub.

Initially it did need some TLC and a lick of paint. The first job was opening up the fireplace so that we could have a real fire and we also invested in some new furniture.

We saw there was more potential in the business than had been realised and quickly recognised there was a lot of scope to expand the pub by opening up rooms that had

previously been used as storage or as office space, so we did that bit

by bit.

Improving the pub is an ongoing job. It's an old building, so something always needs doing, improving or fixing. It's like painting the Forth Bridge!

When we first started every £10 we made would get ploughed back into the business. You think that will ease off, but for the most part it doesn't and still the majority of what we make here gets put back into the business.

Tempting in some of the local groups​

Opening up more rooms here gave us scope to shift the business model a bit. For example, we've created 11 accommodation rooms to add another revenue stream to the business, which has been very successful, and a meeting room, which we hire out free of charge to anybody who wants it.

That's been useful in terms of getting people to come in on quieter evenings, everyone from the local morris men to the British Legion, and even a group of antique motorcycle enthusiasts hold regular meetings here.

I'd say there's some kind of meeting in there six days out of every week, which has a great impact on business.

We also run a lot of regular events, from acoustic live music in the bar on the first Wednesday of every month to a monthly farmers' market in the car park and two beer festivals a year, which always boost business significantly.

Creating an eventful calendar​

I think hosting events is key to making any pub business work, but maybe it's particularly crucial for a more rural business like ours. About half our customers are local and the other half are people who travel from quite far away, so putting on events helps make us more of a destination pub for those who come from further afield, while keeping things interesting for the locals who come in regularly.

We also try and do a lot of season-related events and offers, which I feel help to ring the changes as the year goes by, as well as providing a selling point for us. We've already had a Burns night offer, when we did Scottish food and drink, and have done a Valentine's Day dinner and we'll do something for St Patrick's Day too. A Welsh-themed night for St David's Day on 1 March is also in the pipeline and an English one for St George's Day in April, of course.

As well as talking about what's going on and advertising in the pub, we use our website to promote events and offers, and people can sign up to a newsletter. We've got about 800 receiving that regularly these days, but we want to grow that further.

Importance of food​

Along with the themed food evenings we run two menus, one in the bar and one in the restaurant everyday, which is a significant part of the business — our wet:dry split is about 50:50. This is something we've had to build almost from scratch as there wasn't much of a food offer here when we took over 25 years ago, but even as far back as then we realised it would be a crucial part of the business for us.

By opening up the space here we were able to create a dining area, in which we now serve the restaurant menu and we were also able to keep the lively bar area separate.

Wherever you choose to eat, our food is designed to be old-fashioned English farmhouse cooking. So on the bar menu we offer things such as shin of beef in ale from our own brewery or cold braised pork & game pie with salad, while in the restaurant it's a bit more special. We offer dishes such as crab blinis, lobster & avocado salad, wild brown trout and saddle of venison.

Keeping the food as local and as seasonal as possible is absolutely key for us (aside from the fish, which has to come in from Cornwall or Wales). Obviously, that's because we use our own farm produce — and we added a vegetable garden in 1997, in which we grow a wide variety of vegetables and herbs. We've put in two polytunnels and a glasshouse to ensure we get vegetables and salads all year round. But crucially this strategy also helps keep our costs down.

Plans for the future​

As well as the pub and the farm we also bought the Teme Valley brewery in 2000 and we always have on the three regular bitters, This, That and T'Other, as well as one seasonal beer, of which we do four a year.

Cask beer sells well here at around £2.10 a pint, but it's still Carling that's our biggest seller as far as beer is concerned. In the back bar it outstrips everything else, including Stella, which is the other lager we sell, but I don't mind. People can drink whatever they want as long as they are here!

As well as the pub and the brewery, we are in the process of buying the local church, which was decommissioned five or six years ago. We want to turn it into a community centre where we can hold concerts, cinema evenings — Flicks in the Sticks — and exhibitions of local artists, jewellers and crafts. It would be a great resource for the community.

We are just in the process of deciding how that will work, but it's a whole new venture and will be run as a separate business to the pub even though they are connected, a bit like the brewery.

We hope to have that up and running in the next few months.

Staff​

Full time:​ 12 to 15, including four chefs and a housekeeper

Part time:​ 12, but some of those do as little as two hours a week.

Recruitment:​ We have a policy of employing only local people where possible and our retention is incredibly good — our housekeeper has been with us for 20 years. I do think having the same staff for a long time helps create a friendly, welcoming atmosphere. It's nice for locals and for returning visitors when they are greeted by someone they recognise and who remembers them.

Drinks offer​

Beers:​ Four of our own brewery's (Teme Valley Brewery) cask ales along with Carling and Stella

Ciders:​ Robinsons, Oliver's Perry, Kingston Rosé and Kingston Ordinary

Soft drinks:​ J2O, Britvic, Schweppes

Wine:​ We offer six red and six white wines by the glass, which go very well. Apart from that, our house wines are by far and away our best sellers.

Facts 'n' stats​

Owner:​ Annie Clift

Tenure:​ Freehold

Wet:dry split:​ 50:50

Length of tenure:​ 26 years