Nottingham: a city that's back on track

Nottingham and the surrounding area is a hotbed of opportunity for experienced pub operators, with the city’s night-time economy having recovered from the problems of the past. The city continues to thrive with redevelopment, and investment has flooded into the area accompanied by a swathe of new licensed retailers bringing new ideas and vibrancy.

Setting the scene for operators, James Anderson, partner at licensing specialists Poppleston Allen, and Paul Davey, managing director at property agents Davey & Co, ex-plained how Nottingham was now unrecognisable from 20 years ago.

Davey said: “During the past three decades, Nottingham’s going-out scene has transformed as a result of challenges with both its reputation and the economy forcing the city to redevelop and adapt to business.

Partnership

“The mid-1990s saw the opening of large ‘vertical drinking’ venues and nightclubs that attracted new customers, but led to the city being dubbed ‘Shot-tingham’ by the media due to its high level of gun crime. “Thankfully, things started to change rather rapidly for the better. Forward thinking from the council saw planning secured and some major infrastructure projects and redevelopment schemes help change its reputation,” said Davey.

During the past five years, violent crime has halved and investment has flooded into the city. A number of successful partnership schemes between the local council, business and the police have also improved the picture. The city has an effective Pubwatch, supportive Business Improvement District funded by local retailers and been awarded Purple Flag status for six consecutive years.

Nottingham is the largest urban area in the east Midlands and second largest in the Midlands after Birmingham. The city’s demography is excellent, with a younger, more affluent population and, due to its two universities has a growing student crowd of more than 60,000. Independent operators have recognised its potential and have opened a diverse range of venues, many of which major on craft beer and spirits. It was the first place outside of London to host Craft Beer Week, and a number of new breweries have popped up all over the city.

Optimism

“There are causes for optimism with many new operators arriving and the local economy recovering. These venues are a million miles away from the drinking sheds of the ’90s,” said Anderson. However, he called on the council to review its licensing policy and work even closer with licensed retailers because mixed messages remain, such as the council imposing a late-night levy in 2014 without consulting businesses.

On a broader, industry-wide level, despite some headwinds ahead, Natwest’s head of leisure Andrew Taylor told members there was plenty to feel positive about.

Falling unemployment levels provided a real ‘good news story’ for the sector, especially drops in youth unemployment, which put the UK in a considerably stronger position than other countries in the Eurozone. The amount of disposable household income is also set to rise, thanks to low inflation, income tax cuts and the introduction of the new national living wage (NLW).

Although Taylor acknowledged that the NLW was a double-edged sword for the trade, he argued that it would “put more money in people’s pockets, leading to healthy spending levels”.

High house prices and falling energy bills are also causing consumers to feel they have more money to spend on eating and drinking out — with pubs in a great position to capture that. Despite headlines about pub closures, Taylor said he felt the number was “flattening out”, and the sector remained attractive to investors.

The day featured a number of speaker presentations from operators and industry experts

'Take pub banter approach to marketing'

Operators must remember to give something back to customers by way of a ‘thank you’, advised James Douglas, co-founder of fast-growing smokehouse concept Red’s True Barbecue.

“Don’t be that mate who never buys a round,” said Douglas. “It is the same with a business; when people come into your venue from miles away and are constantly buying rounds for you. If you don’t buy one back, they start to realise it’s a bit one-sided. Be generous because what goes around comes around.”

Douglas also spoke about creating a buzz around a brand. Red’s has built an army of ‘believers’ and a huge following on social media through its quirky and informal approach.

“Don’t be that mate in the pub who doesn’t get involved in the banter,” he insisted. “There are millions of conversations going on in social media. When you don’t have a load of money for marketing, try to start a debate with customers. Ask them what you get right or wrong.

“If you put something out there, don’t just broadcast it to them, you’ve got to engage,” said Douglas.

Red’s first opened in Leeds in 2012 and now has six sites. Its seventh in Sheffield will open in April.

'Innovation can boost your profile and PR'

Nottingham local Colin Wilde, managing director of the city’s brewery and pub company Castle Rock, urged operators to be “bold, frank and honest about what you put on your bar”. With such a huge choice available to consumers in the on and off-trades, plus the added competition from supermarket discount pricing, Wilde said there was “no room for complacency” in the trade.

Castle Rock has seen 20% growth in its pub business during the past year, a rise Wilde said had been, in part, driven by getting people talking and excited about beer. “Beer is no longer in the hands of the middle-aged, beer-bellied men in sandals,” he said. “It is now firmly in the hands of the next generation, a generation that alcopops forgot.”

The brewery has driven consumer interest in its pubs and products by focusing on good PR. He said: “‘Brewery brews a beer’ is not front page news. We’ve turned our beers into stories by creating beers with local celebrities and charities.”

Investment in its craft beer range, including a new beer-wine hybrid that received national press coverage, has kept the company front of mind locally and attracted a new customer base, he added.

'Creating beer geeks among staff and customers'

Fresh from winning the award for Best Beer Pub at the PMA’s Great British Pub Awards last year, Pure Craft Bars managing director Martin Hilton told members how taking a retail-based approach to beer has helped the company win some early successes. He urged fellow operators to think more carefully about beer conditioning and glassware, and said Pure Craft aimed to inject passion back into cellar management.

“We are unashamedly geeky about glassware,” he said. “It’s taking a retailer’s approach. If the brewer has gone to all that effort to make the beer, you’ve conditioned it really well, cellared it well, done everything really well but served it in a dirty glass, it ruins the whole experience for the customers.

“I know this industry well, and sadly, a lot of beer sits in dirty glasses.”

Pure Craft runs sites in Birmingham and Nottingham and is close to opening another in Leeds. Appointing a company-wide ‘head of beer’ ensures the focus is kept on beer quality and perfect serve, and helped make beer fans of the staff. Hilton told delegates the approach had reaped rewards with beer sales significantly higher than forecast.

'The thin blue is getting thinner'

Deep police budget cuts mean operators are having to pick up the slack and assume more responsibility, warned Paul Chase, head of compliance at CPL Training Group.

Chase said the “thin blue line was getting thinner” which meant licensees, bar and door staff, plus volunteers such as street pastors now all had a role to play in making the night-time economy safer, but were all under pressure from the police.

The use of breathalysers in pubs and clubs was becoming more commonplace and a “modern culture of intoxication” with regular drug use among a significant number of young people creating major control issues for operators.

The threat of closure was a clear and present danger with police now having Draconian powers to shut down a venue with immediate effect. Chase said that while police understood that operators can’t alone solve the drugs problem, they expected efforts to keep it under control.

“What goes on inside your venue affects what happened outside and your licence to operate if you get it wrong,” he said. “As much as possible we must resist demands from police to stretch the boundaries.”

The PMA500 debate