Punch's BDMs show the way forward

A new breed of area manager has arrived, selling ideas rather than beer. Phil Mellows finds out how a new computer system is helping one company help licensees.

Some people don't half mess you about. Punch business development manager (BDM) Andy Wilkinson thought he was meeting lessee Janice Brogden to firm up the details of a £20,000 refurbishment at the Derby Arms near Ormskirk, Lancashire.

On coming out a couple of hours later, rather than doing a bit of redecorating and making space for a few more dining covers, he found himself looking into the possibility of creating three letting rooms at the pub - a major six figure investment.

But he can't complain. Exploring the options for expanding a business is, after all, the main point of the new role Punch Pub Company is carving out for its BDMs. It would be more worrying to think that you had missed an opportunity.

The discovery that there might be scope for bed and breakfast trade at this - at first glance - unlikely looking spot came a new computerised business planning system that Andy has himself helped to design.

Displayed on a laptop in front of the licensee, it disciplines both parties to assess methodically every aspect of the pub's business.

It doesn't make it any quicker, mind you. After three meetings between Andy and Janice there were still plenty of gaps in the analysis.

The revelation that what she really wants is letting rooms - something that had never come into the equation before - temporarily arrested the process, while Andy and the team at Punch HQ do the calculations on whether the project will bring real commercial benefits.

This, however, is progress. The interesting thing was that Janice had clearly kept quiet about her vision for the pub until then because she thought Punch would laugh it off.

Structured business planning, plus maybe the germ of a new trust in her landlord, had broken through the cynicism. She might not get her bedrooms but her idea is, it appears, at least being taken seriously.

BDMs, or area managers as they used to be called, have an unenviable position. As any reader of thePublican.com will be aware, pub-owning giants such as Punch are regarded with suspicion and even hostility by sections of the licensed trade. BDMs are their representatives on earth.

The old brewery area managers were a combination of fire-fighter and policeman. If they weren't sorting out a dodgy barrel of beer, a hole in the roof or explaining that the tenant had had his quota of drip mats for the month, they were snooping around the bar for signs that the publican was buying out of the tie.

Some would say that not much has changed. But increased competition, and less reliance on beer sales, has meant that there has been moves among the pub owners to take a more enlightened view of their relationship with licensees. Ideally, the BDM should be able to take a step back from the nitty-gritty of day-to-day operations and use his or her experience and training to help publicans develop their business.

It was this that led Punch to formally redefine the BDM role, putting them at the centre of its relationship with licensees, and reorganise its field structure. Change was made possible by the creation of a new customer relations team at the company's Burton headquarters.

"It has taken the routine work away from BDMs," said Andy. "We're not beer mat delivery boys any more, we're there to add value to a business, selling ideas rather than selling beer."

The reorganisation, which integrated the Punch leased and Inn Business tenanted estates, giving BDMs a smaller geographical patch to cover, cut down travelling and gave them more time face-to-face with licensees. Andy reckons he's reduced his mileage by two-thirds getting around his 50 pubs.

Another advantage is a better knowledge of the locality and the competition. Just up the road from the Derby Arms, for instance, is another Punch pub, the Hen & Chickens. But Andy is able to make sure the two don't compete too directly so both can be winners.

Then there is the business planning software.

"It's not just accountancy," said Andy. "Accounts look back - this is about looking forward. There is nothing new here really, but it makes it easier to open up a discussion about where the business is heading.

"Having it on computer means there's continuity for a business. Everything is recorded, it's not on scraps of paper, and other BDMs can pick it up if they need to.

"We can plan more effectively," he continued. "It's not just fire-fighting and flagging up problems, it's a way of expanding the conversation."

The business planning role of BDMs is an issue that Andy has tussled with before in his career. He first got involved in the pub industry 12 years ago training Bass managers on the then new Bass Retail System EPoS.

After a couple of years as a stocktaker assisting the company's area managers, he switched to the Bass Lease Company where he was a BDM when it was bought by Punch.

"In my early years with Bass Lease we brought in profit and loss screenings for licensees," he remembers. "We had something going there. But we never really used it properly. We only used it when a business was struggling. What's different now is that we are trying to use business planning to inform the way we go forward in every pub.

"I've seen a lot of change," he concluded. "Leased estates used to be a cash-cow to fund the managed side of a business so there was a lack of investment in the pubs.

"Punch is more business oriented and there are more investment funds available. We are able to talk to licensees about big schemes. If the Derby Arms had mentioned bedrooms before we'd have just gone ha!

"Now I've got to go and put a curve ball into the surveyor, but as long as it's financially viable for both sides, it can happen."

How the new business planning software opens up the conversation​

In the film Mike Bassett, England Manager Ricky Tomlinson jots down his team selection on a cigarette packet. Two unknowns called Benson and Hedges are drafted into the side - with hilarious consequences.

While it's unlikely that a publican is going to wake up one morning and find his silk's been cut by a zealous area manager, back-of-a-fag-packet business planning has its more serious drawbacks.

In an unstructured conversation things get missed, and when something important does get noted, notes get lost and there is no sure-fire way of seeing that it's acted on and followed up.

Punch's new business planning tool, carried around on laptops by BDMs, not only structures meetings by taking the licensee through a series of questions, but somehow makes the process more permanent.

At every subsequent meeting, results of previous conversations come up on screen, showing who was responsible for action points and a deadline, so there is no escape.

At their last meeting, BDM Andy Wilkinson and licensee Janice Brogden sat down in the bar of the Derby Arms to fill in a few gaps in the analysis of her business.

First up was the pub's smoking policy and the possibility of of a ventilation system being included in the next refurbishment, then Janice was probed on her reluctance, for security reasons, to have fruit machines.

Under the heading "food sales", Janice said she'd like better kitchen ventilation and happened to mention that she thought letting rooms would be a good idea.

"If she owned the freehold to the pub she would obviously do it, so we have to ask ourselves the question why shouldn't we?" said Andy. "It is upping the ante, increasing the risk involved in the investment but if the rooms can be filled at least 80 per cent of the time the profits will be there."

Returning to the question of food, Andy got Janice to talk about her customers, "so you market a menu at a specific audience rather than just do something that