Champions, Laurel Pub Company's 277-strong community pub bra

Unsung and unglamorous they may be, but community pubs have been quietly repaying the faith shown in them in some quarters. The story of steady and predictable returns made by the tenanted pub companies out of their predominantly suburban and country pubs is well-known. But for the managed chains, too, the community pubs have been proving an oasis of calm away from the shifting sands of the high-street price wars. Laurel Pub Company, which runs 600 managed houses, has its fair share of pubs battling away amid the myriad of high-street offers. Its 110-strong Hogshead brand, currently being remodelled with a greater stress on service, was quick to fix its bayonet last autumn and join the hand-to-hand discount fight. But Laurel must count itself fortunate that nearly half of its managed houses belong in the community category, where customers show much less caprice if the pub is doing its job well. Its managed estate is, of course, the quality parts of the former managed estate of Whit-bread, acquired by Morgan Gren-fell Private Equity in May 2000. Whitbread, like virtually every other major company, was quick to join the rush to invest on the high street in the mid-1990s and onwards with Hogshead, Casa and Café Rouge perhaps the best-known parts of the end result. So when Laurel bought Whitbread's pubs the community Cinderellas had seen little investment for years. "The estate of neighbourhood pubs was under-invested," admits Graham Jones. So far, Laurel has spent £10m on its neighbourhood estate with a further £3m planned for this year. By mid-2004 almost all of the 277 Champions pubs will have seen some level of spend. "It's a very aggressive development programme," says Jones. Cannily, Laurel has not been spending huge lumps of cash on flashy capital schemes. Rather, the estate has benefited from judicious investment in items such as carpet, paint schemes, signage, football screens, food offer and kitchen equipment, EPoS systems, staff training ­ improving the detail of the offer, if you like, not simply doubling the size of its buildings. And although Laurel is coy on precise matters of turnover, Jones will admit: "The return on investment for the Champions estate has been very pleasing." Pleasing enough for Laurel to want to add more community pubs to its portfolio as it seeks to buy a further 200 managed houses ahead of possible flotation. Jones shies away from referring to Champions as a brand, preferring instead to talk of a "template" offering a variable mixture of sport, food and "lounging" ­ comfortable areas to enjoy a drink. The common denominator for Champions is the servicing of their own micro-market. They are sizeable pubs ­ offering between 2,500 and 4,000 square feet of space ­ aiming to offer their local communities an all-purpose, modern comfortable pub with a greatvalue food offer while making the most of that vital draw to many-a-pub nowadays ­ sport. But the Champions pubs have moved decisively away from the traditional boozer as male-only bastion to a more inclusive environment. "The number of women coming into these pubs compared to pre-development is fantastic," says Jones. "Things like the soft furnishings make them a little bit more female friendly ­ but it still has all the blokes' toys. We've tried to make them more comfortable, more like a second home, but not make them too contemporary." Take the Golden Hind in Portsmouth, for example. A stone's throw from the football ground, the pub was developed in December 2001 and has been subtly divided into areas for playing sports (there's four state-of-the art pool tables), watching sport, lounging and dining. The pub is light, bright and airy and avoids the trap of straying into soulless minimalism with soft furnishings, settees and plenty of carpet ­ notably unmarked despite 14 months of heavy footfall. "It's very close to Portsmouth football ground, which is why it has more screens than most Champions pubs," says Jones. "Sport is extremely important to Champions. We did an awful lot of work in terms of looking at viewing of sport, making sure that when customers are in a sports zone the viewing of sport is very clear and not intrusive in any way." For Jones, the £15m investment by Laurel in EPoS systems last year is providing valuable information on the precise return being achieved by the annual £3m spend on Sky Sports subscriptions across the estate. During the recent England v Australia match, for example, his BDMs were able to tell him exactly the difference the game was making to like-for-likes during the evening. "That helps us make business judgements," says Jones. "Sky is extremely expensive and it is important for us to see what it is worth to the estate ­ we can now measure sport in the same way we can measure food." Food is indeed the other vital area where Champions has made great strides. With an emphasis on generous portions, the food offer has become an integral part of the community chain's appeal. "Being serious about food is important to us," says Jones. "I think the most important thing is to offer great value permanently." And new menus are being introduced in the coming weeks which will offer wider choice. Laurel food development manager Peter Dinan, who joined the company last summer, has been working hard on food management systems and greater training for staff. "We simply can't stand still on the food offer," says Jones. The Champions estate includes 33 Giant Plate pubs, where there is a special emphasis on food with takings of at least £1,500 a week. "You're talking about a serious dining occasion." Signage at Giant Plate pubs reflects the greater importance of the food offer. Such is the success of the Giant Plate offer that plans are underway to move another 17 pubs from the larger Champions estate across to the format this year. More generally, amid the New Year gloom engendered by almost daily bad news from the hospitality sector, Champions has made a strong trading start to the year. "The neighbourhood sector is pretty stable with elements of growth. There are reassuring trends ­ that's why we are carrying on investing," says Jones.