Pub Mentors: Greet expectations

Sizing up the job: from left, Duncan and Natalie Entwistle, Coca-Cola Enterprise’s Martin Sampson, and Phil Davison

Former BII (British Institute of Innkeeping) licensee of the year Phil Davison offers Duncan and Natalie Entwistle, lessees at the Greets Inn, Warnham, West Sussex, his expert knowledge.

Duncan and Natalie Entwistle are the perfect sort of couple to run a quality country pub. They are friendly, full of enthusiasm and on paper should be fully qualified and capable of turning it into a successful business.

They both come from a professional hotel management background and know what makes customers happy.

However, this corporate grounding may be one of the reasons they are struggling to unlock the full potential at their picture-postcard country pub.

My opening picture of Warnham was that Miss Marple would not have been out of place living here.

The Greets Inn is a 13th-century, timber-framed building with lots of original features and certainly fits the bill as an idyllic country inn.

So, as I pull up outside for the first time, I ask myself the question: If my wife, Lauren, and I were passing by, would it appeal to us to stop and make a visit? Sadly, the answer would have to be no.

While the building has lots of character, my first impression of the outside was that it sent out completely the wrong signals to attract people in.

The signage looked a little tired, there were no directions to the car park, and while there were a few green shrubs at the front, there were no flower displays or hanging baskets to tell me this was a well-loved and cared-for rural pub.

However, the thing that really set off my alarm bells and instantly made me realise we had an issue with what I call ‘image perception’ was the sight of the washed beer towels hanging out to dry over the tables in the front garden.

The same story carried on inside the pub — lots of fantastic character with some lovely features, nooks and crannies, which were sadly let down by the pub being disorganised and untidy.

The back-bar was certainly crying out for help and there was very little marketing to make it easy for the customer to buy.

However, on the positive side, I could see that, with a few subtle changes involving very little cost, the Greets Inn could be a fantastic village food pub and would tempt the important ‘drive-out market’ to visit and enjoy it.

The symptoms

Over the past two years, the Entwistles have worked immensely hard and done a good job of starting to rebuild the Greets Inn’s reputation.

However, like many licensees, the dream of running their own country pub is often taken over by the amount of hard work involved.
Having ploughed all their money into getting their business this far, cashflow could become an issue over the coming winter months.

This makes it very important that they make the right decisions and focus on increasing sales and in-creasing profit.

Yet Duncan and Natalie still seem to find time to do the things they did in their corporate days, such as completing fancy spreadsheets, allowing them to understand exactly how many customers have eaten every day, and what the average spend is.

They also follow the corporate marketing plan of promoting their brand through local PR, without any means of measuring its return on investment.

These things can be useful and have helped build trade up to a respectable level. But, if Duncan and Natalie want to see their business really grow and enjoy more highs than lows, it is time for them to rip up the corporate guidelines.

They need to roll up their sleeves and embrace change, ensure their pub is set up to trade, then develop a direct-response marketing programme, aimed at building business from local areas.

From my initial meeting and discussion with Duncan and Natalie, the challenge and objective over the next few months is to introduce and make whatever changes are required to enable sales to grow by 20% from the current weekly sales of around £5,500 while holding or reducing overall costs, so that the bottom-line profit also increases.

The diagnosis

Like many country pubs, the Greets Inn does a large proportion of its business at weekends.

My philosophy is that a decent weekend trade pays all the bills, but the real profit and the answer to easing cashflow problems is in developing great mid-week trade, so this is very high on our action-plan agenda over the next few weeks of the mentoring programme.

Hopefully, by adopting tried-and-tested methods we will answer this over the next few months.

In terms of food, there are a decent selection of dishes and they are sensibly priced, but I can’t understand why two separate menus are offered, when it’d be more attractive to offer it all as one really good menu.

From looking at the prices and the average food sales per customer (thanks to one of Duncan’s fancy spreadsheets) I feel there is a huge, instant, opportunity to generate more food-sales income.

In order to make this happen, all the front-of-house staff must understand they are part of the Greets Inn sales team.

They must be taught how to make it easy for the customer to buy. I would suggest this alone could add 15% to food-sales income and will certainly boost the bottom line.

The pub needs to introduce staff training and written staff procedures, checklists and systems, so that great customer service will still be offered when they are not present.

The financials: while Duncan has plenty of information available through his spreadsheets, I would suggest that, without a regular stock-take and regular management accounts being produced, the business is run on a ‘keep your fingers crossed’ policy.

I recommend that a wet and food stock-take is introduced, and part of our immediate action plan is to introduce an in-house weekly trading report.

THE ACTION PLAN

Festive sales. To market and drive Christmas bookings; create an action plan for November that will drive and promote sales into the festive period and beyond.

Image management. To give the pub a creative and low-cost makeover, so that it is set up to trade with the correct ‘image perception’.

Staff training and procedures. To introduce staff training, checklists and procedures that will drive customer service, sales and Duncan’s time management.

Mid-week trade. To develop and market a fantastic two-course mid-week offer, to drive sales during the quiet trading periods.

Village celebration. To write to the local village community, inviting them to celebrate Duncan and Natalie’s first two years at the pub.

Supper events. To introduce a monthly village supper night, and to link it into British Pub Week.

Marketing overview: To develop in-house marketing postcards, so customers leave with more than just memories; review all the pub’s marketing, so its effectiveness can be measured against cost; create direct-response marketing, with measurable returns on cost.

Stocktaking plan. Introduce a wet and dry stock-take, plus an in-house weekly trading report.

Margins push. Ensure the pub maximises the margins on everything it sells.

Sales focus. Make sure the Greets Inn has a fantastic in-house sales team.

Top tip to help Duncan and Natalie make the action plan work:

Introduce a written morning ‘set-up checklist’ and have a member of staff start at 10.30am. They should be taught to use the checklist to set the pub up for opening.

This will free up Duncan to become the business manager, so that he can plan and execute better uses for the monthly marketing budget and start seeing an increased profit.

Please remember to use this time driving your sales and profit, and not filling in fancy corporate spreadsheets.

Phil Davison is a former BII (British Institute of Innkeeping) licensee of the year and Wadworth tenant at the Sun in the Wood, in Ashmore Green, Berkshire.