Robyn Black talks to Gerry Price, licensee of the Inn@West End in Woking, Surrey, about keeping a business growing after 10 years on the job.
How I got here
At the age of 25 it was a choice between running a ranch in Venezuela and running a pub — and I chose a pub. I've been in the industry since then, although this is only my third pub.
We chose the Inn@West End because we knew it had the potential to be a great business. It was sitting with two other pubs in the village, and all of them were doing the same thing, which was aiming pretty downmarket, if you know what I mean. We knew that at least half the village didn't want that. So we felt that if we did something more upmarket and more foodie, we would be plugging a gap.
My marketing
About 50% of our customers are locals and the other 50% are destination diners.
We get a lot of business from the nearby shooting ground, and golfers from several golf courses in the area, as well as friends meeting "half-way" as we are situated just off junction three of the M3.
There are several ways to attract people from outside your locality, but two things are key: getting in the good guides such as Sawday's and Michelin's Eating Out in Pubs, and ensuring that you have a decent website — people like to know where they are going.
We set up a website for the pub from the first year and are active on Facebook and Twitter. The key with these things really, as with any part of your business, is to ask yourself "how does this help my business?" If you're spending half an hour a day tweeting, but it's making no difference, why bother?
We also do more traditional marketing. We advertise in magazines such as the Shooting Gazette and Country Life. We probably invest about £4,000 a year in those sorts of publications.
We try to support local community groups too, which also acts as a marketing tool. For example, we provide vouchers for a meal for two for fundraising competitions and raffles and that generates new customers for us. Or we participate in the local food fair, to get the message out that good food is what we are all about.
Spending some money and time to support the local community is an invaluable marketing tool, but the key is to be focused on what you are all about. The Inn@West End is a food pub, so why would I support the local football club?
My approach to food
Food has always been central to the vision of what we set out to do. There was some discontent about that, as some in the village initially wanted us to set out our stall as a family pub, but we stuck to our guns.
We have a target of 72% GP on food and last year we achieved about 71.5%.
Basically, in order to achieve that, you have to be prepared to do a lot yourself. We have invested in a plucking machine so that we can buy whole game birds and chickens and so on and prepare them ourselves, in the same way as we buy whole lamb or pig carcasses rather than prepared cuts and all the bits will be used up in pâtés, terrines or whatever — real nose-to-tail eating.
We've got a very mixed clientele, but I'd say the average lunchtime spend here is about £20, and at dinner that's more like £45 with wine.
My wine offer
Developing a good wine offer was one of the ideas that we thought would help persuade people to reappraise the pub, to show we were going to cater for a market that hadn't really been addressed.
Now we've become very well known as a wine pub — about 70% of our wet sales are wine — though we also do great cask ale.
We probably have about 250 wines on the list and we do three glass sizes — 125ml, 175ml and a 250ml. The smaller glass size is so important for us: you have to drive here and a 125ml glass of wine is roughly one unit, so you can have a small glass or two with lunch and still be OK.
Champagne is also a great seller for us. We probably sell 30 bottles of our house Champagne a week - mostly by the glass.
It's £7.50 a glass and we flag it up near the door to get people thinking "I've come out for lunch, why not have a glass of fizz?" and it works.
Plans for the future
We've been here nearly 10 years now and we've still got lots to do — I've got more ideas than money, sadly.
If I could find a partner who is willing to invest about £250,000, I would switch round the interior layout of the pub so that the 35-cover restaurant would move to the back, where it would overlook the garden and I'd make the front a bit more "pubby" and about ale.
We have put in a planning application to build a small wine shop on the plot here, though, which I think will prove to be a great extra revenue stream, but of course you have to accept that some things just aren't going to work.
We spent £4,000 on a pizza oven last year, for example, and so far at least, that just hasn't worked for us. We've had the odd busy night for pizzas and they are always delicious but it hasn't paid for itself yet.
The key to building a business, even after you've been doing it for a decade, is to learn to accept when an idea isn't working, or that an idea that once worked simply isn't any longer.
You've got to keep the business fresh, however long you've been doing it.
We employ young staff which helps and we listen to their ideas and those of our customers. If someone suggests a Thai night, make sure that you don't dismiss it out of hand — there's obviously some demand for it, and if you do it they'll come and bring friends to support it because it's their idea.
So listen to everyone, but before you jump in, always think to yourself "how does this help my business"?
Five tips to keep your business fresh
• Always listen to other people's ideas — including those of your customers
• Be ready to admit when an idea is tired or not working
• Enter awards — they are time- consuming, but not only can they be a great reward for hard-working staff, you'll be inspired by other people's winning ideas too
• Don't just jump on a bandwagon — make sure you know what the benefits will be for your business first
• You can have as many great ideas as you like, but at the end of the day it'll be more important that a customer was treated well and had a great experience every single time
Feedback from customers
Getting customer feedback is extremely important to us. We are developing our website to give us a function where customers can fill in feedback forms, and we use Top Table, the online booking service. That not only brings new diners in, but also provides us with customer feedback following a visit, all for £1 per cover.
In terms of our online presence, good feedback is important as it comes up when people Google the pub name or check Trip Advisor, so you want it to be positive. In terms of moving the business on, it's also important as it shows exactly the areas that need improving and exactly where you and your team are performing well.
Getting constructive feedback is so important to the way we develop the business that we are now looking at investing in a mystery-diner programme.
Facts 'n' stats
Landlord: Enterprise Inns
Staff: 30 (10 full-time)
Covers: 67 (bar, restaurant & garden combined)
Wet GP: 60%
Dry GP: 71.5%
Average spend for lunch: £20
Average spend for dinner: £45