All that Jas

Botanic Inns, headed by managing director Jas Mooney, is gaining recognition outside of its Belfast heartland and looking to expand. Tom Innes reports.

Less than two months ago Botanic Inns took a big step in achieving recognition across the UK rather than just in its Belfast backyard. The company was named Managed Operator of the Year (10-99 outlets) in The Publican Awards 2003.

This followed previous success in the Flavour Bar Awards when Botanic was short-listed for best bar operator as well as claiming the Bar Manager of the Year title through Morgan Watson of its Apartment venue.

The Botanic name is going up in lights at an auspicious period for the company, which is looking to develop away from Northern Ireland for the first time.

A bid to acquire Dublin-based operator Thomas Read and create an all-Ireland bar and pub company came to nothing after a failure to agree on a price, but managing director Jas Mooney is keeping his eyes open.

"It's easier to say than it is to do, but we are looking to go South or across to mainland Britain," he said. "There may be a downturn at the moment, but we're seeking opportunities."

When it comes, expansion is likely to lead to a new approach from Botanic Inns, namely the rolling out of brands. "Brands travel, you can create a point-of-difference with a brand and pin your standards on it," Jas said.

The likely candidates for some form of roll-out from the company's 14-strong estate are Apartment, an upmarket concept that still leads the way as far as style bars in Belfast are concerned, and Ryan's, a small venue that concentrates on a good-value food and drink offer.

"The on-trade continues to lose out to take-home and I see a good food offering such as Ryan's as the way forward for tackling that - value for money is important," he said.

Jas is aware that while Botanic is avowedly a non-discounting company, most of its customers are not from the ABC1 high-income bracket, and so pricing has to be carefully set.

The path towards the cusp of national expansion began in 1989 when Belfast-born Jas returned from travelling abroad and took charge of The Botanic, a venue on Malone Road in South Belfast that was owned by his family.

The "Bot" was an institution among the area's student-heavy population and remains one today. The students were a reason why the south side was one part of Belfast where less importance was placed on whether someone was a Protestant or a Catholic than elsewhere in the Province.

The non-partisan theme is one that is at the core of Botanic's intention to be one of the new breed of employers in Northern Ireland, embracing an equal-opportunity policy and encouraging concepts such as an integrated education system. Jas declares that he has no religious affiliations and none of his five children has been baptised. The site of the company's new head office is part of this statement - the Ormeau Road was formerly the site for some of the most serious conflict between loyalists and republicans.

The head office incorporates a fully-equipped training bar, a sign of the importance that is placed on training by Botanic. This stretches from basic level benchmarks such as making sure every bartender knows how to make a gin and tonic properly to advanced cocktail-making training for those venues where it is appropriate.

Jas says that once the company had grown to three units by the mid-1990s he had managed to make the switch to a "large-company" attitude.

"I realised that beyond three venues, having a human resources policy was an issue, and that we needed systems in place for things like finance and marketing," he said. "There was an opportunity to take the company further and once I had developed the right team I was able to do that."

Expansion was made easier by the cessation of the worst of the troubles from 1995 onwards, and saw Botanic in new parts of the city, taking on Belfast's oldest licensed premises McHugh's, which was a riverside house of ill-repute several centuries ago, and the atmospheric live music boozer Rotterdam nearby.

The city centre was no longer a no-go area from early evening onwards, and so a plum site in Donegall Square opposite City Hall became home to Apartment (pictured above), which trades busily from the time office workers come in for their early-morning caffeine fix until the last revellers are ushered out 18 or so hours later. A few months later came the Northern Whig in the Cathedral Quarter, with an eye-catching contemporary design topped off with three statues shipped in from the old Soviet Union.

Add in recent openings such as Ryan's and the fledgling DR:NK off-trade concept and the company now has upwards of 750 employees and has gained Investors in People status.

There's no company kudos rewarding those working excessive hours - the MD, a 39-year-old family man, doesn't do it and nor would he want anyone else to. That's one reason why he won't be expanding into those parts of Northern Ireland where owner-operated venues predominate and a managed operator would find it hard to compete with pubs with landlords working 75-hour weeks.

While Botanic is the leading operator in Belfast, it certainly doesn't have the city to itself. Rival company Beannchor has had a foothold in the city since it opened Tatu on Lisburn Road in the summer of 2000.

The company, which is based in Bangor and run by canny operator Bill Wolsey, has established a growing presence in the city centre through venues like Bar Bacca, Irene & Nans and La Lea. Wine Inns and Life Inns are others with a significant presence.

There hasn't been a rush of operators coming across from Britain to Northern Ireland. JD Wetherspoon arrived about three years with plans to build a sub-estate of up to 50 sites in the province, but while the first few venues are said to be trading well, the expansion has been significantly scaled back.

Newcastle's leading bar operator Ultimate Leisure has also set up in Belfast - its Beach bar-club opened a month ago in Odyssey, a vast entertainment complex across the River Lagan from the city centre.

While a fine-looking development, Odyssey hasn't yet started to pack in the numbers, and it will be interesting to see how Ultimate fares given its penchant for aggressive marketing and competitive pricing.

Further developments in the city will be spearheaded by the Titanic Quarter - the Harland & Wolff shipyards where the famous liner was built - which is soon to be demolished and redeveloped.

Operating in the licensed trade in Belfast hasn't suddenly become easy, but Jas recognises that some of the problems are just as easily found in other major cities.

"We are constantly affected by the life and landscape here," he said.

"The paramilitaries were running the drug scene here in the same way as gangsters run it in places like Manchester and Birmingham.

"The drug culture is a big concern, but otherwise Belfast is developing into a major city, there is great scope to encourage tourism, and things have got a lot better and should keep getting better."

Botanic's solid financial performance - latest figures show £4m profit on sales of £20m and a 17 per cent return on investment - mean it is able to attract investment capital from banks who in other cases are tending to be less disposed to lending in a time of economic uncertainty.

Jas acknowledges that Belfast is no longer one of the world's best-kept secrets. He would encourage everyone to come and see for themselves, but expansion outside Northern Ireland will mean that even those who don't take up the invitation may be let in on the secret.

• Tom Innes edits Flavour​, The Publican's sister magazine serving the bar sector.