City profile: The Young's ones

Keris De Villiers is a 30-year-old South African who together with her Liverpool-born partner Lee manages the Nightingale, an award-winning Young's pub in Clapham, South London.

The pair met while working in a bar that Lee managed in South Africa. They then moved to the UK in 1999, when they started working in a number of Young's pubs.

After undertaking a three-month round-the-world trip in 2003 the pair re-joined Young's and started their management training at the Bull in Chislehurst, Kent, before being appointed managers of the Nightingale in 2004.

Meeting the top brass

Stephen Goodyear, Young's chief executive, together with Patrick Dardis, retail director and Peter Whitehead, the group's finance director, filed into the boardroom of Young's head office in Wandsworth, South London. We started with an easy question…

Keris De Villiers: Where would you like to buy new pubs?

Patrick Dardis: It depends who you ask, to be honest. Ideally I'd like to acquire some sites in North London.

Stephen Goodyear: We've bought and developed pubs recently such as the King's Head in Roehampton, Surrey, and the Dial in Woolwich, South East London, and these are doing very well. You have to choose your sites very carefully.

KDV: How has trading been across the Young's estate during the summer?

Peter Whitehead: Trading started off quite well, with the usual quieter period in August, when many people go away on holiday. The World Cup wasn't that much of a help, but hopefully the run-up to Christmas should help compensate for what was for much of the time a soggy summer.

Lee De Villiers: How do you see trade panning out in the next year?

SG: There are some price increases that we will not be able to absorb, for example, the forthcoming rise in VAT next January. Food price rises and supplier increases will probably also have to be passed on. I am encouraged by what appears to be a more positive attitude from the coalition government on the need to reduce red tape though.

PD: The danger is that the talk of 'double dip' recessions becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. One has to hope the government is getting its handling of the economy right.

PW: One of the things to watch will be interest rates. Consumers with mortgages have benefited from low rates in recent times, but in places like London when these go up, as they surely will at some point, then there will be a market correction.

KDV: What impact is supermarket pricing having on the business and how do you respond to it?

PD: People can get lost on the subject of pricing. Despite the recession people want quality and will pay for it. We've always stood firm on the subject of discounting; we don't do it. We're proud of what we sell and we are still in growth, so people like what we offer and are clearly prepared to pay for it.

KDV: Do you see Young's food offer growing significantly, and are we getting our food offer right?

PD: We've seen significant growth in the past five years and we're getting close to the top end of our sales mix, around 35 per cent food, 75 per cent wet. We've got a great offer, with lots of local produce and good provenance. We've still got work to do but we're getting there.

KDV: Who does Young's benchmark itself against in the market?

SG: We look at a range of companies, some of whom - like Fuller's - are our competition. The market is so much more competitive than it used to be and standards are getting higher all the time. But we see ourselves definitely at the top end of the market.

LDV: How do you view the relationship between the group and its pub managers? And its tenants?

SG: We hope you see us as more of a help than a hindrance! We want the relationship to be good and open and we want to be of value to our managers where we can be. As for our tenants I like to think we offer them a fair deal and that we are as flexible as we can be. In the right hands our pubs can do really well.

KDV: Tell us about some developments at Young's.

PD: The Alma [in Wandsworth] will shortly open its 23 new letting rooms, which was a major investment, and there are plans to develop rooms at the nearby Spread Eagle.

PW: We are also looking to develop the Brewery Tap [which is still on the Ram Brewery site] once planning permission has been given to Minerva to develop the site. We own the freehold to the pub and will look to reopen the site as a museum and a brew pub.