Local Hero: Recession busters!
When we launched our Local Hero initiative with WaverleyTBS last month, we could only guess at which of the many local individuals and causes we would be celebrating in the first month.
But when Recession Be Damned ale was served up for the first time at the Kingston Arms in Cambridge on the day of the recent Budget - winning the pub priceless publicity in The Sun - it was an opportunity too good to miss for Waverley and The Publican.
The Local Hero for licensees Paul Boggia and Jane Fairhall is the pub, and its customers - and the opportunity to stick two fingers up at the recession, the Chancellor's latest tax hike on alcohol, and the doom-mongers who dare to suggest that the English pub is on its last legs.
Paul and Jane, who have run the pub for eight years, are now planning to launch a whole new menu and drinks range for customers based on value and using the ale, named by Paul and brewed by Greene King under the Local Hero programme, as a platform.
The current trading challenges have prompted them to strip down their existing menu to five main dishes instead of 10 and to create a new 'recession-busting' menu to run alongside it. The chefs are being tasked with creating the same quality meals that they have always done but using more unusual, cheaper cuts of meat to lower the cost to customers. Three of the pub's 10 cask ales will be lower-priced, lower-ABV ales and they're looking for a similar range of wines.
Who needs lager?
Free of TV, pool, darts, a jukebox - and, more radically, lager! - the Kingston Arms attracts a customer base that loves conviviality, good ale and good food in equal measure, with university students mixing happily with academics, families and tourists.
Paul explains that the marketing strategy for the pub has been three-fold. In the early days they focused on their local market and set about creating their vision - the 'no lager' rule was a handy gimmick that served them well - and worked hard on promotions linked with food, meal deals for families, vouchers for students and the like.
Stage two was to expand beyond their local base and to become a destination outlet that visitors and tourists would seek out.
Paul's IT experience
writing hospitality software means the pub has an ever-changing website at www.kingston-arms.co.uk. The result was to attract the attention of Observer Food Monthly, from which they won three awards in 2004; 'Best Cheap Eats', 'Best Sunday Lunch' and 'Best Place to Drink' (along with the Cambridge Blue) in East Anglia.
And stage three, not always part of the plan, is now to consolidate through the economic downturn.
And Paul and Jane are confident that they can.
Recession be damned…
Who's your Local Hero?
The Local Hero initiative, run by WaverleyTBS in association with The Publican's Proud of Pubs campaign, sees licensees given the opportunity to sell a cask ale named after their very own 'local hero'.
Every month the Publican reader judged to be celebrating the greatest local hero or cause will get nine free gallons of the beer, brewed by one of eight regional brewers.
But every single stockist of Local Hero Beer, on sale until September, will receive a specially designed pump clip to celebrate their cause - as well as a free PR pack offering tips to promote their beer.
Anyone can order Local Hero Beer via any one of the WaverleyTBS depots. Go to www.waverleytbs.co.uk to find your local depot.
Or visit www.thepublican.com/localhero or call 020 7955 3710 to tell us about your own Local Hero - and put your pub forward for the monthly prize.
Other Local Hero Beers this month include:
• Terry Rowe Ale at the Swan Inn in Worthing, West Sussex - celebrating the pub's manager for the past 14 years, well known for keeping the best cellar and ale in Worthing!
• Whisky's Pride at the London Inn in Summercourt, Cornwall - locals wanted to honour the pub's Westie dog, Whisky
• One For His Knob at the Red Cow in Harpenden, Hertfordshire - celebrating the pub's cribbage team (it's a cribbage term!)
