Refurbishment: Taking it one step at a time

Related tags Pubs Smoking ban Passive smoking

Planning a refurb can be a daunting prospect, just be sure to put time and thought into your decisions.When it comes to refurbishment, running a pub...

Planning a refurb can be a daunting prospect, just be sure to put time and thought into your decisions.

When it comes to refurbishment, running a pub is a bit like painting the Forth Bridge - by the time you finish at one end, it's time to start again at the other. That can make it a daunting prospect, but as with any task, taking things one step at a time and putting in some thought will make all the difference.

With the two May bank holiday weekends almost upon us and a definite feeling that summer is just around the corner, most licensees will be looking around their pub and thinking about where a bit of a spruce-up could make a difference. This year, though, there are a series of changes in the pipeline that make it even more crucial to have a proper plan in place.

Chief among these are the prospect of extended opening hours once the Licensing Act comes into force later this year, along with the government's plans to regulate smoking.

Once local authorities assume control of licensing, opening hours become a matter for individual pubs to agree with the licensing officer, rather than being set in stone.

Despite the scare stories in the press, very few publicans are planning to open for 24 hours a day. However, many hope to extend their opening hours modestly. According to the survey of licensees carried out for the annual Publican Market Report, just over a third of pubs would like to extend their opening hours to midnight at weekends, and about one in five want to open for an extra hour every day of the week.

Even such relatively modest extended opening hours will have many implications for the publicans when it comes to planning a refurbishment. Just a few of these are:

Will you be selling more food, and if so, is your kitchen up to it? Should you be thinking about new catering equipment or even an extension?
Is your furniture up to the job? An extra few hours a week in wear-and-tear on your tables and chairs soon adds up. You may need to bring forward plans to replace or upgrade the fixtures and fittings
How welcoming is your garden later in the evening? To ensure that customers make the most of longer opening hours, it may be time to invest in outdoor heaters and improved lighting.

These issues are already on the minds of many publicans. The Market Report statistics show how much licensees are planning to spend this year and where they see the focus for investment:

How much pubs plan to spend

Minimal: 24 per cent
Up to £5K: 26 per cent
£6K to £10K: 22 per cent
£11K to £20K: 11 per cent
£21K to £40K: 3 per cent
£41K+: 4 per cent

Remember, the survey was carried out among individual licensees, with most major investment projects more likely to be made by pub groups. If your pub is in the "minimal spend" category and your closest competitor is planning a £40,000-plus upgrade, things could be about to get very tough indeed.

Smoking ban

The consequences of the proposed smoking legislation should also be influencing licensees' decisions when planning refurbishments. Under the plans announced by the Department of Health last week, all pubs preparing and serving food will have to ban smoking from the end of 2008.

That's a daunting prospect. In Ireland, where a total smoking ban was introduced last year, the Vintners Federation of Ireland (VFI) points to figures showing that average turnover in pubs is down by 20 to 30 per cent, with rural pubs worst hit. VFI figures show that around 200 pubs have closed altogether.

The VFI also points to Irish government figures showing 7,600 jobs were lost in the hospitality sector in 2004.

Seamus O'Donoghue, president of the VFI said: "We believe there is room for compromise. Although this ban isn't just about pubs, it is rural pubs that have been worst affected. Pubs have two types of customers - smoking and non-smoking - and both need to be catered for."

The figures for Ireland make stark reading for the UK trade. Clearly, it was never the government's intention that pubs should stop serving food in order to allow customers to smoke - which is why many in the industry believe that a rethink, or at the very least a great deal more clarification, is going to be needed.

However, what is already clear is that pubs can start thinking about investing in their gardens in order to prepare for a ban, in whatever form it eventually takes. The Department of Health has made it clear that outside areas will not be included in the ban.

Again, this is an area where managed operators may steal a march on pubs which do not make the most of the outdoor opportunity. Spirit Group development director Phil Goodman says: "We are at the point of beginning a major roll-out of improvements to hundreds of gardens across our estate. This has been a key goal of ours for some time as there is a significant opportunity to attract extra trade to our pubs in the summer months.

"The aim is to create comfortable, outdoor environments that make the most of the gardens we have and enable our customers to enjoy the pub experience even more. This will involve buying and installing quality equipment that provides an element of shelter and warmth with the intention of making each garden more useable for longer periods of time."

Planning pays

Whichever area of the business you plan to focus on, it is important to have a clear picture of the benefits to your business compared to the investment costs. Key issues to consider include:

Understanding your location - a suburban local will appeal to different customers to a destination food pub. Play to your strengths when planning investment
Know your target customer and keep an eye on what the competition is up to
Define your offer to suit your location and customers
Create points of difference - the food, music, drink, and entertainment you offer can all help to make your pub stand out in a crowded and competitive market
Maximise daytime trading - morning coffee, lunchtime snacks and afternoon tea can all help to drive trade at quieter times of the day
Understand what's happening in the market - stay ahead of trends and influences
Work continually on recruiting new customers - even the most popular pub will see some customer turnover, and you need to replace them
Look further than the pub next door. As well as local competition, check out what's happening in the wider market, nationally and even internationally. That's what your customers do every time they go away on holiday, so you need to keep up
Constantly reinvest in the business. Your pub is never perfect - remember the Forth Bridge
Remember a book is judged by its cover - be aware of the exterior of the pub as well as the interior.

Areas where pubs will spend at least £1,000