Winner at a tender age

Laura Condliffe was just 24 when she took on her first pub. Less than two years later it's been saluted as Marston's Pub of the Year. Joe Lutrario finds out how she did it

My background

I've been in the trade since I was at college. I worked with disabled children for three years and had jobs in pubs to support myself. I took on the tenancy here less than two years ago, when I was 24.

People at the brewery probably thought I was a bit young to take on a pub like the White Lion, but they gave me a chance and I was determined not to let them down.

My awards

We've had lots of awards in the relatively short time we've been here. We've been north-west regional winner of the MA Newcomer of the Year Award, and with Marston's we're Pub of the Year this year, a highly commended the previous year, plus Best Pub Food in the north-west and Best Customer Experience in the north-west. We also have Cask Marque accreditation.

My pub

The pub has always attracted people because it's a 1640s chocolate-box outlet with a thatched roof in a picturesque village. But when I arrived I felt that the White Lion was not reaching it's true potential; it wasn't being driven very hard and the trade was just whatever happened to walk through the door. Since I've been here takings have gone up by 46%.

The pub has all wooden tables and wooden floors, with no carpets - a very spit-and-sawdust approach. It's very important to keep it clean - if you've got a very old building, people think it might be a bit grubby.

The pub offers good-value traditional food and real ales - I think the most important thing for me is not to move away from that.

Food

Everything is fresh, including the bread that we get from the bakery everyday, and we get all of our meat from the local butcher. Typical dishes would be hotpots, cottage pies, hot beef and onion baguettes, that sort of thing.

We do home-made chips, which I think is really important because I won't eat frozen when I go out, and nobody seems to do them. The menu is child friendly in that anything can be adapted for them, and the same goes for people with special dietary requirements.

The main cook has a farming background. She's very traditional in the home-cooked food that she does. I was very lucky to get her.

I get involved in the kitchen as well, because if you have someone in there without support all the time, then they will get tired and eventually their enthusiasm will go, which will impact on the quality of food they produce.

We only do food at lunchtimes as we don't want to be seen as a food pub. I think a lot of people just let food take over and it ruins things. We've got enough people passing through the pub in the evening for a good wet trade - we simply don't need to do food in the evenings. I make my money on my drink.

A lot of people make money on their food through buying in bulk. I buy fresh produce every day and use that to sell my beer, so I suppose it's the other way round.

On average we do 40 meals a day, but at weekends it can go up to 90. We operate in a tiny kitchen. I think that's partly why we got the award from Marston's - they were impressed with how we used what we had been given.

My staff

We've got six full-time staff and a few casuals that come back from university to cover people's holidays. I think there are a lot of advantages to having a small core team. The staff work much better together and the customers get used to them.

I'm lucky to have the staff that I've got - it's very difficult to get the staff with the necessary enthusiasm to run a small business well.

I always have enough staff on duty to cope with a rush; you never know how busy you're going to be, and if 70 people come in for

lunch and have a bad experience you could lose hundreds of customers through word

of mouth.

My catchment area

The village is very small, about 700 people, many of whom are involved with farming. They don't come in much because they work late and get up early.

We get a lot of passing trade and most of that is from the motorway. People don't drink much - a maximum of two pints if they're driving. Some people might see this as a problem, but it boosts my trade. I can see a complete turnover of faces in as little as two hours.

My drinks

We always have five real ales on, three that are constant and two pumps that either hold Marston's Pedigree or Jennings Cocker Hoop.

If there's a good guest ale available then we might put that on too. I don't have a wine list, but we always offer three reds, three whites and a rosé. We just make sure that they're decent and they sell really well. I tried to change one recently and we had an absolute uproar on our hands. We always make sure that we never offer wine that can be bought from the supermarkets. If it was me I would hate to have to spend upwards of £10 on a bottle of wine that I could get from the supermarket for £4.

The smoking ban

I don't think the smoking ban has negatively affected my trade. It used to get very smoky because we've got low ceilings and I think that stopped some people coming in - we didn't get many families and non-smoking couples.

We've got a very big jumbrella out the back with a couple of patio heaters and benches, but most of the time people just quickly nip out the door. I think people are smoking less and we're selling far more nibbles because people who are trying to give up are looking for things to distract them. If anything, the ban has benefited the business.

My plans for the future

I'd like to keep things pretty much as they are as we're still increasing the trade. We'll look at changing the menu soon and I want to increase local businesses' awareness of the function room. Once the trade peaks, the biggest challenge will be to keep it consistent. You've got to maintain standards while still introducing new things.

There aren't many pubs like mine left, so the most important thing, to my mind, is to keep it largely as it is - as an antidote to these plastic pubs that are springing up everywhere.

My pub company

We've got a great relationship with Marston's - they provide a good customer support service. It's the little things, like the draymen and the customer services on the other end of the phone, that make running a pub that little bit easier. They realise that we've got a good pub here - they even use it for business meetings because it's so near the motorway.

Facts 'n' stats

Tenure: Marston's tenancy

Turnover: Approximately £500,000

Staff cost as percentage of turnover: 12.5%

GP food: 63%

GP drink: 48%

Wet:dry split: 80:20