The Big Interview: Phil Strong, Chameleon Bar & Dining

The Halfway House in Shipley, West Yorkshire, tells an interesting story about the pub industry, a tale with a special meaning for Phil Strong.

Twenty-odd years ago, when he worked for Allied Breweries as retail director of its Ansells trading arm, Strong developed the Halfway House into a Big Steak, one of the new food-led formats of the day.

“It was very successful,” he says. “I suppose I was in the right place at the right time. Ansells wasn’t viewed in a good light and I went in with a new broom. There were lots of opportunities to develop sites and introduce food, and it worked very well.”

Strong was still at Allied when it sold its pubs to Punch in 1999, and he oversaw the transfer to tenancy of managed sites like the Halfway House before setting up his own pubco, Chameleon.

His next encounter with the pub came a few years later, when Punch put the lease on the market.

“When we bid for the lease it was a Mr Q’s!” he says with some disgust. “It was very poor and the regulars were up in arms.

“We took it and spent £400,000 on it, split 50-50 with Punch, to return it to a food-led house, and then, four years ago, bought the freehold, and we’ve continued to develop it ever since.”

The Halfway House is large, smart, bright and busy — even on a Tuesday lunchtime — and is typical of the half a dozen pub sites in Lancashire and Yorkshire that make up what is now called Chameleon Bar & Dining.

Pub life​
From big brewery brand, to run-down tenancy, to a showpiece pub run by an independent small multiple, it’s a familiar industry history that Strong has played his part in, during a career that spans more than 40 years.

He got his taste for pub life as a schoolboy, working in the summer holidays at a local Whitbread house in Hereford. On leaving university he “looked at the usual management jobs, but kept coming back to pubs”.

Strong joined Allied’s graduate training programme and became an area manager on the Friary Meux estate, “and I’ve had responsibility for pubs ever since”.

In the 1980s, when ‘fun pubs’ were the fashion, he developed new ventures for Allied — and hit the newspaper headlines with one of them.

“We had a pub in Windsor [Berkshire] called the Windsor Hotel, and I changed it into the Old Trout. The face on the sign looked vaguely royal and the Queen could see it from Windsor Castle. There was some local opposition and it made page four of the Sun!”

On leaving Punch, he joined Alistair Arkley, of New Century Inns fame, to set up Chameleon. “We recognised that there was an opportunity,” he explains. “There were a lot of ex-managed leased pubs around that lacked TLC, and we had noticed the growth of food-led pub chains such as Vintage Inns and Chef & Brewer.

“We identified a gap in the market for freshly-prepared local food produced with flair. Our pubs would be a bit like a Vintage Inn, but with individuality, a local business with an offer individual to that site.

“To achieve that we have a strong ethos of giving responsibility to managers and chefs. They share a common ground, but the development of each business is very much driven by the managers working with local suppliers. Budgets are agreed with chefs and managers, not imposed from head office.

“I start from the idea that everyone wants to be successful, and you have to give them the tools and the support to do it. Then you give them the scope to try things. You’ve got to develop individuals in the business or you’ll stand still. That’s the reason we can compete with the big boys — we can move quicker, we can adapt.

“But what’s really key, what’s at the heart of things, is quality and consistency,” he continues.

“I don’t want to exceed a customer’s expectations. They’d expect that level the next time. What you need to do is consistently deliver. That’s the way to build loyalty.”

Something extra​
He contrasts what Chameleon brings to the pub market with retailer Marks & Spencer. “There’s a great opportunity for mid-market, quality food. Fine dining and value for money seem to be growing, and we’re in the middle. People can come to us for special occasions and dine out without paying a premium price — which means they can do it more often.

“We’re continually evolving. Customers are looking for value and offers — but not cheap offers. In a difficult economy, your offer must encourage customers to come in more often. It’s like Marks & Spencer again, it’s linked to quality, giving something extra.”

Strong illustrates this example with an offer aimed at the group’s loyalty-card holders earlier this year, a generous 20%-off main menu items in January, February
and March.

“It is important to evaluate these activities and our evaluation showed that we lost 4% margin on food, but our sales were up. Overall, we were more profitable because of the offer, and it brought regular customers in more often.”

The loyalty scheme not only helps build a closer relationship with regulars, but is the source of valuable feedback that the company acts on. As a result of a survey among 1,500 female visitors to the Moorings Pub & Kitchen in Sowerby Bridge, West Yorkshire, for instance, £2,000 was spent on revamping the toilets, “because that’s where they wanted to see improvement”.

Presentation, both on the plate and on the menu, has been another target for investment, and reflects the polished, branded house style that Strong is after.

“We do spend time and money on high-quality food photography for our menus, and what you see on the plate is so important. I’m always taking pictures of food when I’m out and talking to the chefs about it. People ‘eat with their eyes’ and if they subconsciously feel ‘this is going to be good’, you’ve got a good chance of them actually enjoying it.”

Upon which, the subject nicely turns to crockery. “Do you think you can mention Steelite?” Strong pleads, referring to the manufacturer of Chameleon’s plates, which Alistair Arkley happens to chair. Arkley’s passion for Steelite is something of an in-joke.

Strong says he doesn’t see much of his partner, but it’s clear the pair share an understanding of what works. Over 13 years at Chameleon they’ve stayed together, despite changing tack to adapt to new circumstances.

“Chameleon has evolved and changed with the market. Originally we were all leased pubs with a view to running a sizeable business. We took pubs for the food opportunities, but some didn’t fit, and we had problems with greedy landlords, so they became unviable.

“So now we have six, and we own three of them. We’ve ended up with a small, quality estate that I can manage on my own, and that’s a strength. On that basis we’d ideally have 10. But we’ve not set targets, or we’d compromise and make mistakes.

“We will still take leases, if the deal is right. The problem with leases, though, is that the site doesn’t develop to its full potential. And the kind of places that we want don’t fall off trees.

“We want locations with potential for development and a high turnover to pay for the level of staffing and support we need. There are opportunities, though, and the bank will back us.”

Key dates​
1971​
During the school holidays Phil Strong works in a pub and on the bottling line at Bulmers.
1975​
After leaving the University of Liverpool he joins Allied Breweries as a graduate trainee.
1986​
Progresses through retail and tenanted area management to become marketing manager for London and the south-east.
1987​
Appointed retail director of Ansells.
1991​
Becomes managing director of Holt, Plant & Deakin.
1993​
Strong is promoted to become regional director of the new Tetley Pub Company.
1995​
Becomes managing director of Tetley (northern England).
1998​
Is appointed managing director of Allied Domecq Inns (south).
1999​
Becomes operations director for Punch Retail.
2000​
Becomes managing director of Chameleon Pub Co.
2011​
Changes name of the company to Chameleon Bar & Dining.