Enterprise Inns is to create a “off-the-shelf” modules based on its managed house concepts that can be dropped into its tenanted and leased pubs, PMA sister title MCA has learnt.
Chief executive Simon Townsend told MCA’s The Pub Conference at Banking Hall yesterday that the packages would include specific elements of pricing, promotion, service models and technical solutions.
He said the managed house programme had also allowed the group to develop its training programmes in its tenanted and leased estate, giving it the ability to pinpoint specific personal characteristics and qualifications that suited publicans to a certain market segment.
Townsend told the audience that Enterprise was increasingly pushing south with its managed rollout. He said that while the current expansion was based on the wet-led Craft Union and the mixed offer of the Meeting House format within the Bermondsey Pub Company vehicle, the company would “undoubtedly” add more concepts.
Townsend pointed out that while Enterprise was a fledgling managed operator, currently 30% of its estate was run under management – but not directly by the pubco.
He said: “We have always tried to learn from our publicans but now we can add direct experience of managing venues and take learnings from that.
“We are doing this in our drink offer where we can be much more directive around the optimum range which appropriate to the segment or to help a pub occupy a more profitable segment with our assistance and guidance. The same applies to product pricing, promoting and merchandising and we have developed much more beneficial relationships with our suppliers as a result.”
He added that relationships with gaming machine and entertainment suppliers had been especially important in designing solution for Craft Union.
He added: “We are now at the point with our segmentation programme to better define the personal characteristics and qualifications that are required in both managers and tenants to deliver the preferred retail offer in our pubs.
“We recognise that we are at the very early stages of this journey and have a lot to learn. While we have been focussing our managed rollout to date around two specific offers – a value wet-led offer in Craft Union and a upper mid-market mixed offer called Meeting House in our Bermondsey managed houses, it is inevitable that our existing concepts will evolve and we will undoubtedly develop new concepts.
“We are already beginning to identify specific elements of our products, pricing and promotion, our service and our technical solutions in our existing offers to be able to contemplate packaging up these elements into easily accessible off-the-shelf modules which we can then make available to our leased and tenanted publicans to help them grow their sales and reduce their costs more effectively.”