W e had to do something or die that's how Country Carvery'
He continues: "As a brand, it had a good run until 1993/94. By 1997/98, business really started to slow and it was obvious the business was dying." Hobden puts the blame down to not being in tune with people's eating habits. "We were very rigid and telling customers what they could eat. Customers wanting a three-course meal on a Sunday were told to be in by twelve o'clock, or that was it." He adds with a laugh: "We recognised the meat and two veg approach had finally come home to roast." Not keeping up with customer demands was evident in the shifting ratio between wet and dry sales. "We had drifted to 60% wet and 40% food," he says. And that, for the large sites required to run the catering operation, was too much out of kilter. There was also the increased competition in the pub food market, particularly from what the operations director describes as "the T word" [Toby Carvery]. Therefore Hobden, who joined the carvery brand in 1993 and became operations director two years later, and the rest of the CC team set about reviving the brand's fortunes. He explains: "We have a very local base of customers it was the casual customers we were missing out on and we were not appealing to the younger market who wanted a roast dinner on their terms, i.e. not a full three-course meal. "Our menus were not contemporary, so we removed some of the stuffiness to give them what I call "customer stress relief" so when they come into the restaurant it's a case of "what you see is what you get" a quality offering where the food is fresh." Improving the speed of service was another consideration. "Nowadays, customers can come in and be out again in 30 minutes, or they can make an occasion of it." He says the old practice of having to be in the restaurant by noon on a Sunday for your three courses meant "you could have 100 people queuing for the carvery the staff couldn't cope". The more relaxed approach means that people can sit down with a drink and serve themselves when they are ready. Hobden says this wasn't exactly rocket science but part of getting "all the little bits of the jigsaw together". For anyone who suggests that roast dinners and carveries are old hat, he has the following observation: "Changing lifestyles are fine, but the traditional roast dinner is still there. Changing lifestyles mean that people are less inclined to cook a full roast dinner. Therefore we bring them the opportunity of enjoying a roast without the trouble." Of the competition in the pub food market, Hobden welcomes it. "Gastro-pubs are at the higher end of the market. We can suit any pocket. I speak to customers who will have a roast dinner with us on Sunday and go to places like Living Room during the week. I don't mind because it is encouraging people to eat out more. Now, many people eat out two or three times a week. That's great as long as we get our market share." Even mention of the T word doesn't faze him. Hobden cites a new Toby restaurant that opened a couple of miles from one of his outlets. Rather than take trade away, it helped. "It was good for us and good for them. If they were full, people would come to us and, if we were full, people would go to them." Nor, it seems, is he bothered about unbranded or independent pubs. "A lot of pubs offer a Sunday roast, but many of them taste a bit rubbery." For non-roast lovers, Country Carvery's 44 outlets offer alternatives such as steak and kidney pie, salmon, three cheese pasta broccoli bake, and the chef's daily special. Preparing these must seem a thankless taste for those in the kitchen because 97% of customers choose a roast. "They want a bloody roast, bless them." A couple of weeks ago, the brand celebrated its 21st birthday. It was born in the days of the Schooner and Berni Inns, when food in pubs was just starting to catch on. "Back then, a steak was all that you could get and the restaurant was a conservatory extension". The chain did have 75 outlets but that was slimmed down with the disposal of the peripheral sites. After this earlier retrenchment, the chain is going for growth once more. A carvery has just opened in Warrington, another opens next week on the Wirral. A third addition, a new-build in Manchester, is due next year. Geographically, Hobden sees the main opportunities for expansion in the north west and the Midlands. "If we eventually get to 75 to 80, we would be going quite nicely." Nowadays, the wet:dry ratio is back to one that Hobden is content with namely 50/50. Collectively, the chain serves more than 1.8 million meals per year (an average of more than 40,000 per outlet) and diners consume half a million bottles of wine. In spite of the pulling power of the food, Hobden doesn't want the outlets to loose their appeal as a traditional watering hole. The restaurant area in each outlet is separate from the bar area so people just popping in for a drink, or a bar snack, are not caught up in the melee with diners. The Morning Advertiser caught up with Hobden at the Headley, near Brentwood in Essex. It was early Friday afternoon and the 120-cover restaurant was at least half full. He says S&N wouldn't normally consider opening an outlet unless it had a population of around 200,000 within the catchment area. An indicator of the Headley's popularity comes from Hobden's remark: "Here, there are only around 16,000 within a-20 minute drive." For a few years, the brand almost went unmentioned by S&N. Even now, the company's website contains no direct reference. But as Hobden adds: "The last two years, we have grown rapidly, now that is beginning to be noticed by the plc.
