Richard and Dee Slade run the Battlesteads freehouse in Wark-on-Tyne, Hexham. The pub won two awards at the Morning Advertiser's Great British Pub Awards 2010: overall Pub of the Year and Green Pub of the Year. Richard Slade talks to Sonya Hook.
We ran a pub before we took on Battlesteads, but I'd had enough of running an urban pub in a working-class area. It was tough work; I was nearly 60, and I'd started dreaming of a quiet life in the country.
The Battlesteads was in a really rundown condition when we took it on, but I knew it had the potential to be a freehouse champion. I set myself the goal to be named best British freehouse by 2010 as I already knew the difference an award could make. My last pub was a freehouse winner in 2001; it really motivated staff.
Since our recent win, the staff have been buzzing — they're at the start of their careers while I'm coming to the end of mine, so it's important for their futures.
Wanting to win an award gave us a clear target, although the five-year plan was a complex and organic one. But an award makes you examine all facets of your business, and helps you adapt your business model.
Starting off
We used the profit from the sale of our old business to invest in the Battlesteads, but the renovation work quickly used up that money. We had to improve the dining and bedroom facilities from the start, so a complete refurbishment was necessary. We also secured a loan from the Co-operative Bank, an ethical business that suited us well because we had already started down the green route by that stage.
Our aim really was to create a destination venue, because it's an extremely remote area here and we don't get passing traffic. This meant that, from the start, it would all be about personal recommendations. We use the internet and other marketing tools, but getting repeat business or recommendations is the route to success. For this, you have to look after every single customer.
TripAdvisor has been an important website for us. We look at it on a weekly basis to see the reviews, and we use these within our staff training, to see what our customers are looking for.
Creating the destination
Food had to be one of the ways we created a destination. We offer a two-course meal for £18 and three courses for £23, and it's all locally-sourced good food, including stuff from our own garden.
Drink is important, but it's a difficult area for most pubs at the moment. We introduced cask ales to widen our customer base from the start. We source from local microbreweries and we probably make a 64% gross profit on our wet sales overall.
Accommodation is really the most important sector though, because if the rooms are full, people will use the pub to eat and drink, and you've got instant customers. I would rather have full rooms at reasonable rates than aim for massive profits on accommodation with high prices.
Going green
Our green initiatives were another part of creating a unique pub and led to our involvement with the Green Tourism Business Scheme. We developed good links with them within the first 18 months, and their agenda encouraged us to look at 60 different "green" activities within our business.
We won a gold award from them three years ago, and although they tightened their criteria, we retained this award recently.
The accolade drives a lot of business for us. We even give guests a tour of the gardens to show them what we're up to. When they see our awards, they always say they are inspired by what we re-use and how we deal with wastage. I didn't set out to be a preacher, but it's good to show people what can be done.
We started investing in being green right from the start, which required an initial investment of £56,000. This included spending £27,000 on a new kitchen with energy-efficient equipment, using a Carbon Trust interest-free loan. The kitchen equipment has reduced liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) consumption by 31% and electricity consumption by 2% each year, despite an overall increase in business of 12%.
The rest of the money went on acquiring land for gardens and polytunnels, adding solar panels and rainwater-harvesting tanks, and constructing a sedum-roofed barn from recycled oak.
We experimented with low-energy light bulbs, and now light the entire bar, all 17 guest bedrooms and an 80-seater restaurant using the same amount of power as was previously used in the bar and lounge alone.
We also have a carbon-neutral biomass boiler, which has cut our heating costs hugely — from £22,000 a year to just £3,500.
We do all sorts of other green things, including cutting down our waste — we've made a 36% reduction in what we throw out for landfill in just the last 12 months. We also use wood-chip as a heating source — it's carbon-neutral and inexpensive, but it doesn't suit everybody. And we collect rainwater — our 3,000-litre tank is supplemented by four water butts.
Looking to the future
We've got even more green plans — we'll be adding more "low energy" rooms and generating some of our electricity ourselves. We are adding five three-bedroom cottages, which can be let out individually.
We're also going to start irrigating our gardens using only reclaimed rainwater and spring-water from a nearby natural spring. We plan to construct a living pond, to encourage ducks, other water birds, and frogs - all these are essential to growing our own vegetables, as they eat the slugs.
What's more, we've just acquired an acre of land, providing a woodland walk for our guests.
It's amazing how quickly you can put things right. There were no birds or butterflies here when we arrived, but we planted all the right plants and kept our gardens organic, and now people can eat or drink outside in the summer and watch amazing wildlife around them. It's good to know that you can turn things back.
The journey
We started from the lowest point and created all this from scratch, but, even with the award, our feet are still firmly on the ground. It's still hard — and we don't lose sight of the fact that our customers always come first.
We haven't really drawn a salary — apart from our basic living needs — for five years. We made the decision to make things work, and we did what it took. You need 100% dedication — it's the only way to make things work in this trade.
Richard Slade's top tips
• Recessions are opportunities in disguise — there are now so many freehold pubs on the market that it's easy to find one with no ties and no increasing rent levels. It's a perfect opportunity for the brave ones.
• I'd recommend all pubs to take advantage of a Carbon Trust Loan — it's been a godsend for us. It's interest-free and saves money and energy. Thanks to the loan, we now even have a cooker that injects humidity when cooking the meat for Sunday lunch to prevent shrinkage — so we've also reduced our meat waste by 10%.
Facts 'n' stats
Bought freehold: 2005
Annual turnover:
2009/10: £735,341
Dry:wet:accommodation ratio: 35:25:45
Staff: 25
Covers: 80
Rooms: 17 en-suite