Strong as an ox

Like many a pub operator, Michael Ibbotson wants to know what the competition is up to.

While he has contacts with a number of pubs near the Durham Ox - the Publican award-winning hostelry in Crayke, North Yorkshire, which he has been running for the past decade - Ibbotson will often pop into an unfamiliar pub to see how they go about things. What he sometimes finds on such visits can remind him why he takes the approach to retailing he does.

"I'll visit the occasional pub and the licensee is sitting at the bar with his mates and they're all whingeing about other operators or their own landlord, or the economy, or whatever," he says. "And the pub is filthy and I end up virtually having to serve myself a drink because the bloke can't seem to be bothered to get up and serve me."

Ibbotson appreciates there are outside factors that can affect how a pub trades, citing a friend of his who runs a pub in an area blighted by foot-and-mouth a few years ago. But he cracked on and made a success of it, Ibbotson says. "This industry is not for the faint-hearted. You've got to work hard and concentrate on your core values," he adds.

Hard work

People who say they want to retire and run a pub are unlikely to find themselves on Ibbotson's Christmas card list either - being in the on-trade is an intense and time-consuming occupation, miles away from the cosy image of sitting at the bar knocking back a few gin and tonics with your mates, he believes.

"I say to my staff, 'look, if the fires aren't lit; if there's no welcome from you for the next customer who walks in; if the beer's poor and there's no ice for the drinks and there are puddles of cleaning fluid on the floors and so on, then we're just somewhere else that's going down the pan'. How do you put 'we give a shit' politely? It costs very little to keep the place tidy, the windows clean and the grass mown. It's about making an effort."

A decade of building up the Ox from a pub he bought from a firm of administrators has seen Ibbotson and his team of up to 40 staff add things like a professional kitchen and letting rooms. What started off as a £160,000-a-year turnover operation is now bringing in more than £1.2m annually.

"We've kept the Ox as a pub," he says. "We've added elements here and there, but it's kept its pub feel, with locals and people from further afield enjoying what we offer."

Part of that offer comprises five very well-appointed rooms, including a rather snazzy suite in what used to be Ibbotson's own flat at the pub. "I borrowed 25 grand from the bank to develop the space," he says. "I paid the loan back early and the suite did £35,000 turnover last year. Anyone can turn an old shed into a nice room that sleeps two people. Some pubs have got more floor space in the upstairs area than the pub's trading area. "Someone once said 'work out what your square footage can do for you', and I've always remembered that."

A good run

The Ox has had what Ibbotson describes as a "good run" in the past three years, but he stresses that while he has been the man steering things, the pub's success has been down to teamwork. "I couldn't do this without these people," he says. "We're constantly training our staff and bringing them through the business. Some have worked with us since they were at school and have come back from university and are still working for us."

Meanwhile, Ibbotson hopes to replicate the success of the Ox across his new venture, Provenance Inns (PI), which he has set up together with food retailing wizard and Ox customer Chris Blundell.

"We set up Provenance to run traditional British inns in villages that you as a customer would like to live in," says Ibbotson. "Locally sourced food and drink are important but the provenance thing goes beyond that. It's about things like architecture and being in tune with the local surroundings. It's a challenge to find the right site where what we're looking for in a pub comes together, but we've got three already which we're developing. We're very excited."

Provenance Inns

Provenance Inns (PI) is a small but near-perfectly formed company whose rather tongue-twisting strapline is 'village inns in villages you'd like to live in'.

Together with food retail specialist Chris Blundell, Ibbotson founded the company to seek out pubs in the vicinity that had seen better days and bring them up to the standards established at his Durham Ox pub in the North Yorkshire village of Crayke.

"We had to do our homework [with the bank]. The fact that we were after freeholds helped. The bank wouldn't have touched it if we were going for leaseholds," says Ibbotson.

Financed from private resources and lending from HSBC, the first of three freehold pubs acquired by PI will open next month. The Carpenter's Arms in Felixkirk, currently being run by previous tenants, will undergo a short but intensive refurbishment, with another overhaul due next year. Another pub, the Farmers Arms in Brafferton, will get the same treatment.

The core site of the three is the Oak Tree in Helperby. A former Punch Taverns site until Ibbotson and Blundell snapped it up, the pub will be closed for six months while new kitchens and letting accommodation are created, with a total investment in excess of £1m. A grand opening for the Oak is due in February next year.

"Managers will have autonomy, but will be backed by the protective umbrella of PI, with things like accounting services, training, marketing, PR and so on," says Ibbotson.

A new operations manager, Kate Robey, and kitchens manager Paul Wanless, will meanwhile ensure that "attention isn't divided and our efforts aren't spread too thinly", he adds.