Punch Taverns pub the Kings Head in Bessels Green, Kent will come into the group subject to planning permission. Punch has agreed to make a ‘substantial investment’ in the property to make it a viable business for W&H. Work to be done includes increasing the size of the kitchen, adding car parking and rebuilding the toilets and the company is asking for letters of support for the application.
Managing director Brian Whiting has personally visited 80 residents and hand delivered a letter to tell the locals of the group’s plans and request support. Locals were also given a copy of W&H’s newly launched Gastro magazine to give them a feel for the operation.
"The plan is to bring the pub in line with our other operations, a kitchen team creating great home cooked food, good range of real ales and some quality wines," said Whiting. "The pub is blessed with a great beer garden which we can see will be very busy in the warmer months. If all goes well we should start the major refurbishment in six weeks and be open in October.
"I wouldn’t normally tell the world we have made an offer on a site as lots of things can go wrong before you complete, however on this occasion we need help to secure planning permission. The pub is in a sorry way - like most of ours when we take them on. I believe if we don’t get the planning then the pub will close for good."
The next quarterly magazine will be out on 15 July and the first was well received and picked up by ‘thousands’ of customers. "We’ve had customers comment that they’ve made the recipes and that the information on the other sites was extremely informative as not everyone realises the size of the group.
"It’s difficult to tell if crossover business is directly the result of the magazine, but we have had some great turnouts at our beer festivals so far, which I think can partly be attributed to spreading the word to a wider audience through the magazine, as well as the outdoor advertising. We have also noticed more references to Whiting and Hammond as a company on feedback websites which could be due to the magazine."
The magazine aims to sell the company and events as well as informing customers on events in their communities.