Jon Cox, tenant of the Bull, in Shocklach near Malpas, Cheshire, tells Tony Halstead how he and his wife, Lindsay, have turned the once-closed pub into a vital part of village life.
How we got here
We were on the point of signing up for a Scottish & Newcastle pub in nearby Tarporley when we were approached by an Admiral Taverns business development manager who we knew from my days as a graduate trainee.
We had also been managers of a Marston's pub in the area, but always wanted to run our own business. The Bull was closed down and in a real state of disrepair, but we liked the village and thought the pub had real potential if it was run in the right way. That meant good food, cask ales and a business that would have a real resonance with the village.
There are only 108 people living in Shocklach and community facilities were virtually non-existent, so I knew a successful pub would fill an enormous gap. It took us four months to get the place anywhere near right, but thanks to a joint £160,000 investment (£80,000 each) with Admiral the place slowly began to take shape. Admiral paid for all the exterior work, including a new garden terrace and car park, while we looked after the interior. We signed up for a six-year tenancy with a view to transferring to a longer 20-year lease, although we are looking to buy the freehold if possible.
What we do
Despite gaining an early reputation for good food, building up the bar trade was just as important for us, especially if we wanted to attract the villagers into the pub. They had previously launched a petition to stop Admiral selling the Bull. They wanted to keep the place as a pub, despite it being closed for two years. There was talk of a housing development, but it never saw the light of day.
I think the locals were very relieved when they saw the early developments and we were determined not to let them down. Three years later our trade split is 55:45 in favour of food so the bar side is doing very well, despite the fact that so many people arrive primarily to eat.
Our cask ale
We have five cask-ale pumps on the bar, all serving beers from independent brewers, one of them is local, the Spitting Feathers in Chester. Other beers are Stonehouse Station Bitter from the Stonehouse Brewery in Oswestry, Shropshire, which is a permanent brand, plus ones from the Bowland Brewery in Lancashire and the Acorn Brewery in Barnsley, South Yorkshire. One of our popular ales is from Moorhouse's in Burnley, where I used to live. Cask ale is a key driver of the business; we don't sell keg ale or smooth ale because, quite frankly, nobody would drink it.
Most of our wet-trade customers are real-ale followers and a lot of our diners plump for cask before sitting down for their meal. We are turning over 100 brewers' barrels per year of cask ale (3,600 gallons), which is good going for a small pub like ours. Although we are tied for beer to Admiral we order our cask ale through the Society of Independent Brewers' (SIBA) direct delivery scheme, which ensures we have a very wide choice.
Twice a year we hold a beer festival, the most recent one was over the August bank holiday when we served 20 different real ales and put on a live band on the Sunday. We are free of tie on wine and buy from two local suppliers.
Our food offer
We are lucky to have a superb head chef, Konrad Sczinski, who is Polish, and has worked at several fine-dining venues across Cheshire. We have a total of three chefs supplemented by two other kitchen staff.
Everything is bought in fresh and we source all our raw materials from local suppliers. The menu changes every eight weeks. The only item we actually buy in is ice cream and
even that is sourced from a local company, Cheshire Farms. The children's menu is also sourced from fresh ingredients.
It's difficult to say which is our most popular dish, but our fish pie has proved a big hit and is probably our best seller. We have reviewed the wholesale cost of raw materials and recently ditched fillet steak because it was simply too expensive.
Where we do score heavily is on our coffee. Our Italian coffee machine offers customers eight different types of coffee. We have a similar choice with our tea. I think tea and coffee are very important because it is often the last thing people remember when they have had a meal. It's also a big seller for us outside standard meal times.
Our community
Although we get a lot of destination visitors the local community remains very important to us. We have become heavily involved in village life and support almost everything that goes on, so even if everyone else stopped coming we have something to fall back on.
We have got involved with the annual village fête and I am now a governor of the local school. Earlier this year we put on a special beer to help raise money for the local church. Other events we have staged are farmers' markets and the local gardening club also meets here.
On Sundays I pick up the papers and bring them back to the pub for people to buy, which has proved a popular service.
We also stock household essentials as there is no shop in the village. When we had the really bad weather last winter we reduced the price of our meals for one night. Nobody could get out of the village and the pub was packed, which was very rewarding for us as about three quarters of the village were eating and drinking here.
The future
We would like to run a small chain of food-led cask-ale pubs and have already made a start by taking over a free-of-tie private lease at the Yew Tree, in Bunbury, Cheshire, which opened this summer. This was another pub that had been closed, but it was in a superb location and another place we thought had massive potential. A total of £180,000 has been invested, including £30,000 of our own money. Things have gone very well since we opened."
Recognition & marketing
We are delighted to have listings in the full Michelin Guide and The Good Pub Guide after just one year and we are also on the Cheshire Food Trail and in the Good Beer Guide 2010. We also run our own newsletter, operate our Bull loyalty-card scheme and annually support the National Taste of Game Fortnight with a special menu. We also employ a local agency, Rhino PR, for more weighty publicity exercises.
Facts 'n' stats
The Bull, Shocklach, Cheshire
Owner: Admiral Taverns
Tenants: Jon & Lindsay Cox
Turnover: £420,000 ex VAT
Food GP: 70%
Wet GP: 60%
Staff: 25 full and part-time
Wages as proportion of turnover: 32%
Covers per week: 450-550
Average main course: £12
Average spend per head: £25