Ever So Sensible puts faith in Dogma venues

by Tony Halstead Midlands-based Ever So Sensible Bars is to open two more of its innovative Dogma venues over the next 12 months. It follows the opening of the company's second Dogma bar & restaurant at Lincoln at a cost of £1.5m. The company was founded 18 months ago when it launched its first Dogma in Nottingham and followed this up with the opening of two smaller non-branded pubs in Yorkshire and the East Midlands. Managing director Chris Bulaitis said the drink-led Dogma had been a major success withthe two current sites turning over between £35,000 and £40,000 per week. "We aim to open two more Dogmas over the next year and we are already looking for sites around the Midlands," he said. "The brand has been built up on a recipe of table service, good music, good beers and freshly-cooked food. "Our two Dogmas are big sites which combine a number of different retail packages to give customers a varied choice. "Both are very much wet-led with drink sales accounting for some 85% of turnover, but we are growing our food business." Bulaitis, a former division director for new concepts at Bass Leisure Retail, founded ESSB together with co-director Martin Thomas-Taylor, a former Bass area manager in November 2001. The two Dogma bars are on sites that attract a substantial student audience, although Bulaitis said the concept was not specifically geared towards this market. "We attract the 23 to 35-year-old age group, but the beauty of Dogma is that it is able to provide up to five separate retail offerings to customers. "There is an emphasis on music but we do not inflict it on customers throughout the site," he explained. The Nottingham Dogma, which also acts as the company's head office, is operated on a long lease but the new Lincoln venue was acquired freehold. The firm's Muse bar in Sheffield is leased and housed on a former Scruffy Murphy's site while the Castle in Nottingham is also leasehold and an ex-Firkin pub.