Inns and outs

Pubcos and tenants are investing wisely to make the most of their outside areas. Nigel Huddleston reports

Pub companies, their managers and tenants, have been investing heavily in outdoor spaces in a bid to win back custom washed away by last summer's rain.

Kent brewer Shepherd Neame has revitalised the sea-facing outdoor area at the Royal Albion hotel, a managed house in the Kent seaside town of Broadstairs, spending £80,000.

A terrace, previously grassed and prone to getting muddy, has been brightened up with contemporary stone paving and plants to provide colour and attractive smells.

Martin Godden, Shepherd Neame's retail property manager, says: "It's a key investment for the site. We used Trevor Tooth, who's designed gardens for the Chelsea Flower Show.

"We went for robust plants because it's an exposed location on the seafront, and created separate levels of decking to provide different areas -just as you'd get inside a pub."

Another Shepherd Neame pub, the Gardeners Arms, down the road in Higham, now lives up to its name even more appropriately after a £35,000 spend to turn a previously unused outside space into a two-tiered garden with water features and atmospheric lighting.

Licensee Frank Mead already reports a "definite rise in trade as a result of the transformation".

The Granta, a Greene King Pub Partners venue in Cambridge, invested an undeclared amount (up to £20,000) in a purpose-built barbecue area and outdoor furniture, which will be tested in its first full summer this year.

It now boasts three five-metre square jumbrellas, plus new outdoor tables and chairs for the pub's 250 external covers, which supplement 60 covers inside. Manager Richard Warrington says: "We charge £15 a head for a barbecue wedding for 200, but we don't charge room hire, so all the profit comes out of food.

"By selling a burger, a sausage, a 4½oz steak and a bit of salad in sufficient quantities, an investment tends to pay for itself pretty quickly."

For a pub with such a large proportion of its potential customer area on the outside, summer trade is vital.

"We go from £4,000 turnover a week in the winter to as much as £30,000 in the summer," says Warrington. "We're hoping to get a lot of office parties and corporate bookings now we've got this, which will help us even more.

"Overall, weddings are a big part of our business because people don't want the formality and expense of a big sit-down event these days."

If the weather stays fine, it could be a big summer for the Granta, which fared better than most, even during the gloomy summer of 2007.

"We did OK," says Warrington. "We were actually £10,000 up on the previous summer and the investment in the barbecue area didn't really happen until the end of the season, so its effect still hasn't really been felt."

Anther Pub Partners outlet looks towards unusual events to generate extra summer revenue. The Cricketers Arms, in Eastleigh, Hants, holds a beer festival twice a year for four days each - over Easter and in August.

It also has regular hog roasts, caters for live music and hosts two motorbike festivals in April and September.

Manager Jason Schinkel says: "We host local Motorcycle Action Group meetings in the pub and it's all come through them. Luckily, we can get between 400 and 500 motorbikes in our car park, and we've got another big area at the front of the pub.

"You have to take into account the effect on other trade, but the bikers spend about £5,000 at the bar, which compensates for other losses."

For most pubs, there are practical considerations in hosting such events, but if you're relatively isolated, have friendly neighbours and lots of outdoor space, it could work.

The Cricketers Arms also attracts more straightforward corporate events. "We advertise the facility on our A-boards and throughout the pub," says Schinkel.

The list of clients even includes local supermarkets, the supposed enemies of the on-trade.

"We did a big barbecue for the local Asda, and they brought along about 300 staff," says Schinkel. "We've also done a hog roast for 200 staff from a nearby B&Q.

"We do lots of smaller roasts for up to 100 people, sometimes as many as two to three a week at the height of the summer.

"We've got two jumbrellas at the rear of the pub, which means, to a certain extent, we can enclose the outdoor space if the weather's not too good. Someone's also given us a marquee, which is nearly new."

Success on a sliding scale

Perhaps the most extravagant investment of the summer is at the independently-owned Hannah's in Liverpool city centre, which is taking inspiration from the world of sports-stadium design for a major development.

Owner Gerry Conteh is installing a retractable roof over the pub's patio area so that it can become an indoor space in inclement weather.

"It means we can make better use of the space all year round," he says of the development, which he claims is costing £1m.