BII Licensee of the Year: It's the final countdown

We profile the enterprising finalists who are all in with a chance of winning the 2011 BII's Licensee of the Year Award. One of the four will be crowned at a glittering ceremony at the BII's annual lunch today at the Grosvenor House hotel in London.

Mark & Hayley Foster, The Hare & Hounds, Corsham, Wiltshire​

The Fosters have run the pub for eight years, increasing turnover seven-fold in that time.

Mark was a trainer-manager for Fuller, Smith & Turner and Hayley worked for Fuller's City flagship the Old Bank of England.

To improve their business the pair visit award-winning pubs, bars and restaurants to get their inspiration.

The Hare & Hounds, an Enterprise Inns leased site, has seen growth year-on-year for the past three years, which has meant profit has been ploughed back and £150,000 re-invested — making large improvements to the business.

These improvements include: an extensive refurbishment of the interior, new EPoS equipment and landscaping of the pub's garden, which has allowed for the addition of 25 tables.

In the current year, the pair have seen combined sales of food and drink lift by 28% after introducing all-day food service.

The pub has also launched a new website and some seasonal innovations, along with a well-supported weekly quiz and mid-week dining offer, which is a hit with locals.

The couple have a range of new ideas to implement this year including: royal wedding celebrations, a Christmas card promotion, coffee mornings, pie-and-pint deals, poker nights, a beer festival and e-marketing.

This spring, the Fosters plan to refurbish the kitchen.

Within the next five years, they are also aiming to build two extensions to make room for letting accommodation and a function room.

The accommodation is expected to extend to 12 bedrooms, which are predicted to earn the pub an extra £200,000 revenue per year.

The function room will help Mark and Hayley generate additional business by allowing them to host wedding parties and community events for local people.

Barbara & Edward May, Steam at Great Western, Newquay, Cornwall​

Barbara and Edward are managers of a St Austell Brewery business that includes a seaside bar, restaurant and hotel on the Cornish coast in Newquay, and are continually embracing new trends to meet their customers' requirements.

Over the past year, the pair have boosted breakfast sales 100% by offering an 8am-midday individually priced breakfast service. Since a refurbishment in 2008, Steam has seen sales and profits rise each year.

The business takes advantage of online booking and liaises closely with the brewery's accommodation manager to offer good rates on a daily basis, as well as keeping all past and future guests updated via social media.

All the original staff recruited since Steam's re-launch have been retained, resulting in an experienced team.

This is a tribute to the couple's commitment to offering their staff a minimum of 30 hours' work five days a week at low season and up to 48 hours' work in a six-day week in the high season.

In the most recent year, annual net sales at Steam increased — to £1.5m. Clever marketing to locals has seen trade increase by 35% versus 2010 in the first four months of this year.

Barbara, one of the trainers at the brewery's training centre, delivers off-the-job training to managers and assistant managers at the brewery.

She regularly delivers the Profit & Loss and Budget Control module of the BII's Awarding Body (BIIAB) level 3 award in licensed hospitality.

In 2010, Barbara and Edward ran a workshop for secondary school catering and hospitality teachers, giving them an opportunity to experience a trade-kitchen environment and gain an insight into the realities of the industry.

The pair have also run a BIIAB module entitled Improving Your Catering Operation.

In January this year, Barbara and Edward were awarded Platinum Providers status for their work experience scheme, designed to attract people to look for careers within the hospitality industry and championing how fulfilling, rewarding and successful this can be.

Darran Lingley, Five Bells, Colne Engaine, Essex​

Darran Lingley has been the owner of country village pub the Five Bells in Colne Engaine for 11 years and has never been short of applicants for jobs.

In fact, there is a permanent waiting list. Lingley himself is a former bricklayer, driver, motor mechanic, slaughterhouseman, Chinese restaurant worker and fish & chip shop owner.

His formative experience came when he worked for Gerald Milsom, owner of Le Talbooth in Dedham and the Angel in Harwich (both in Essex).

The pub is situated at the top of the Colne Valley near Halstead and receives trade from its local community as well as visitors from Sudbury and Colchester.

The Five Bells has begun to create new social ventures, which vary from takeaway fish and chips to local handicrafts and these have become popular with local people.

Lingley says that, to him, the Five Bells has become "a linchpin to the survival of the community spirit in the village". Turnover is circa £700,000 a year.

He spends 31% of sales on wages. "Quite high, I know, but we do 75% of our trade over three days — Friday, Saturday and Sunday — and we don't want people waiting," he says.

Last year, Lingley hired a business coach at a rate of £2,000 per month.

He believes his £24,000 investment has resulted in a sales uplift of £120,000.

One of the key suggestions was to measure much more of what the pub does — this helped greatly in seeing what works and what doesn't.

In gratitude for the loyalty of his regulars, Lingley runs a membership scheme to repay them. With his team, he hopes to provide perfect hospitality and always goes the extra mile for customers.

He has closely reassessed his business structure over the past few years and now allows himself more time to focus on steering the Five Bells on a strategic basis.

Last year was the Five Bells' best year financially and Christmas takings alone grew by 33%, pointing towards another profitable year to come.

A big media boost has come from friend and one-time Five Bells employee Matt Cardle winning The X Factor reality TV show.

Cardle has name-checked the Five Bells repeatedly.

Lee & Keris de Villiers, The Nightingale, Balham, south London​

Lee and Keris have been managers of Young's pub the Nightingale for seven years.

The pub has an 80:20 wet-dry split with a huge beer business — it returns a profit in line with the biggest managed pubs, despite its small trading space.

Food sales have increased almost nine-fold during the couple's time at the Nightingale. Lee and Keris have focused on people as the cornerstone of their business.

All staff members play to their individual strengths and Lee and Keris hold regular meetings to encourage them to help move the business forward.

The pair run a "Meet the Neighbours" scheme through local estate agents — this involves offering a free dinner for four to anyone moving into the area.

The only condition is that they must introduce themselves to Lee and Keris when they come in.

An impressive 60% of clientele visit every day.

In the pub's newsletter The Nightingale Song, which has a 1,500 print run, they update regulars with the latest photos and gossip from the pub, as well as keeping them abreast of the pub mascot's travels.

To show their own personal care and attention to all guests, Lee and Keris send all their customers Christmas cards every year and buy 'doggie stockings' for any dogs.

The pair have received numerous accolades for being a first-class community pub and are renowned for offering great customer service, being environmentally conscientious and running a dog-friendly pub.

Last year, they raised £28,000 for local charities through the pub's annual Nightingale Walk.

And for the past two years they have run a 'Support for Soldiers' campaign and have coll