Publican Local Focus: Bournemouth - beside the seaside
Bournemouth and stag parties go together like a pint of lager and a packet of crisps.
It's been called "the pretender to the throne of the British Riviera" and the south coast seaside town is certainly a popular destination for weekend trips away.
With a need to keep the masses happy, it comes as no great surprise that the town centre through to the seafront is dominated by chains and managed houses.
There are a handful of Wetherspoons, a couple of the company's Lloyds bars plus an O'Neill's, a Slug and Lettuce and a Spearmint Rhino.
People on the lookout for a more traditional establishment have to head out a little further, away from the pastel-painted hotels that line the seafront.
However, staying with the town centre for the time being, licensees have played their part in ensuring customers who arrive en masse behave themselves with their involvement in the area's Town Watch scheme.
This involves radio link-ups between participating pubs and cash being provided by venues to pay for marshals to patrol the area.
The town has also embraced Best Bar None to reward responsible retailers.
Some licensees had even agreed not to sell drinks for less than £1.50 a pint, but this voluntary arrangement has now been ditched by Town Watch.
Some of the above measures could well be used as examples of good practice by local MP Tobias Ellwood, who just happens to be the shadow licensing minister.
However, Bournemouth is not only for groups looking for a big weekend away. Gavin Haines, feature writer at the Bournemouth Echo, explained: "There are plenty of bars for drinkers to prop up in Bournemouth, and independent establishments are doing very well here, despite competition from the chains and the recession."
Sixty Million Postcards is a trendy pub that's part of the FiveEightZero independent pub company, and gets the art students' vote. Assistant manager Nick Lofts said the key was to angle themselves away from cheap, fast drinking.
Other pubs do good trade half-a-mile or more from the centre. Places such as the Goat and Tricycle and the Porterhouse survive mostly on local, regular trade rather than tourists.
At the Porterhouse, for example, licensee Jonathon Blackie focuses on Bournemouth's ale drinkers, and offers a cheap, basic lunchtime menu with sandwiches starting at £1.50. It's working for him - he's 12 per cent up on last year.
Wadworth pub the Goat and Tricycle is tucked away on a residential street, and despite being a little off-piste, pulls in the punters by stocking an impressive range of 10 guest ales, with five on constant rotation.
Overall though, rather than talking about pressure from cheaper competitors, the licensees we met expressed the concerns felt across the industry; the smoking ban, tax and wholesale price increases are all hitting trade where it hurts.
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Jonathon Blackie and his wife Andrea are licensees at the Porterhouse in Westbourne, a Wadworth pub just outside Bournemouth town centre.
How much will a drink cost me?
Ale is £2.70, wine starts from £3.80 for a 175ml glass, and Coke is £1.20 a bottle. A standard pint of lager - Foster's - is £2.80, and a premium pint £3.20.
Do you do food?
We do a small range of sandwiches and snacks, which start at about £1.50. We lost two per cent on beer sales over the year, but are 12 per cent up on the year because of food.
Who are your customers?
Primarily real ale drinkers, and we get some of the football crowd if Bournemouth are at home, both home and away fans, because people come across town for this pub.
What attracts people?
There are only probably three real ale pubs in Bournemouth, so we're on the circuit for the real ale drinkers. What you see is what you get here.
What are the issues affecting trade in Bournemouth?
I hate to say it but I think Bournemouth has gone downmarket. The other pressure is the brewery - the amount they charge for beer is horrendous, it's gone up over the year about 10 per cent. I'm surviving because of the small size of the pub and the type of trade we're going for.
Nicholas Lofts is assistant manager at Sixty Million Postcards near the centre of Bournemouth, which is part of independent pub group FiveEightZero.
How much will a drink cost me?
A pint of ale is £2.85, a standard pint of lager is £2.75, and Peroni, our premium lager, is £3.40. A soft drink is £1.50, and 175ml glass of wine is £2.60.
Do you do food?
We have bar snacks such as olives, chilli fries and wasabi peas. We try and make them a step above a bag of peanuts. I'd call our food tarted-up pub food, it's all home-made. The most expensive main is £7.90. We serve till 10pm in the week and 9pm Friday and Saturday.
Who are your customers?
We have a core of weekday regulars, and then a lot of our crowd are students from the universities. People come back here over and over again, so we see the same faces. During the week it's a hangout but at the weekend we get DJs in.
What attracts people?
There's only a few bars that have a specific 'look' in Bournemouth - everything else is a Lloyds or Wetherspoons doing cheap drinks.
We provide a night with a whole experience, so we've got a range of drinks, on tap and bottled, and it's not targeted at students. We've also had art exhibitions, and have events like craft days and put bands and DJs on in the evenings.
What are the issues affecting trade in Bournemouth?
All the chain pubs are competition, in that they are bars and serve cheaper drinks, but we're not in direct competition because of what we do.
Terri Stevenson is the lessee at the Dean Park Inn, a pub and hotel with 12 rooms, 15 minutes from the train station and town centre.
How much will a drink cost me?
Lager is £3.05, ale £2.55, half a Coke is £1.30 and a 175ml glass of house wine is £3.
Do you do food?
We have a separate restaurant area, with food every day, and all day on weekends. Our wet/dry split is about 65/35, and prices run from about £3.50 for starters to £11 for mains. We were full on Christmas day, so we do quite well.
Who are your customers?
We do have local trade, but we rely on passing trade quite a lot, such as tourists in the summer, when the rooms are all full. The rooms attract a real mix of people too. We also benefit from having Sky and a pool table, which not many places in the area do.
What attracts people?
We do quite a lot of food here, so that brings people. We're lucky with the hotel - we have 12 rooms, which always fill up in the summer. We get a lot of business people and language school students. Families use the restaurant.
What are the issues affecting trade in Bournemouth?
It's difficult with the dominance of chain pubs, there's new ones opening all the time. The smoking ban hit us hardest though, and tax has been unbelievable, added to competition with supermarkets - now, people can sit at home and they can drink cheaply and smoke.
Daniel Jesson is the licensee at the Goat and Tricycle, which is a CAMRA award-winning ale house.
How much will a drink cost me?
Drinks on average are £3, and a draught soft drink is £1.80. Ale averages £3, Foster's is £3 and Kronenbourg is £3.35, a 175ml glass of wine is £3 and a 250ml glass is £4.
Do you do food?
Yes, we range from burgers and baguettes up to main meals, we also do a goat curry. We try not to price over £10 for a main meal. Our wet/dry split is something like 70/30.
