Quality Focus: A change for the better in Northumberland

By Claire Dodd Claire

- Last updated on GMT

Related tags Local food

There's a pub I've stumbled upon a few times. It's on a windswept and craggy cliff. There's one of those castles, those impossibly Gothic castles...

There's a pub I've stumbled upon a few times. It's on a windswept and craggy cliff. There's one of those castles, those impossibly Gothic castles that you only get in Northumberland, propping up the cliff on the opposite side of the bay.

The beer garden, close enough to the waves for the spray to hit your face, is perfumed with the sweet smell of smoked fish. It wafts across from the crumbling cottage of a smoke house opposite.

But that's where the romance ends. The location may be dramatic, but the pub itself is a ramshackle, nicotine-stained dump surrounded by a carpet of fag butts and broken plastic garden furniture. What a waste.

"There's an awful lot of apathy here," says Helen Spark, a business relationship executive at Northumberland Tourism. "Very often the pubs in Northumberland are in fabulous locations and are going to get the footfall anyway.

"They're not bothered whether their visitor is happy or not because it may well be that they will never go back. Because of their location right next to a castle, they do enough. Average is enough."

On a mission

Not if Northumberland Tourism has anything to do with it. In what is a highly significant move, the board are on a mission to help pubs in the area clean up their act.

The important role that pubs play to UK tourism is at last being recognised. Not least by enjoyEngland who last year launched Inn England to help celebrate and locate great pubs in partnership with The Publican.

However, Northumberland Tourism has gone a step further and is directly targeting pubs in the region with practical workshops of free and independent business advice.

It's a dull March, Monday morning, and I'm at the Lindisfarne Inn nearly Holy Island for the final of three workshops to witness first hand the work the body is doing.

What started off as a project to celebrate great food and produce in the region has turned into a mission to resuscitate its pubs. After looking closely at feedback from tourists, the low quality of both the food and the décor in Northumberland's pubs caused concern.

"The majority of visitors to the region eat in pubs," says Helen. "When we started the Made In Northumberland project two-and-a-half years ago our aim was to get more local produce in local restaurants. The global recession changed all that and we had to get a bit more focused."

Pubs were really letting Northumberland down in visitor satisfaction surveys, Helen continues.

"There were complaints about the quality of the food, the lack of local produce. Venues lacked distinctiveness or decent décor," she says.

"It was obvious since the smoking ban they hadn't bothered to give it a light sparkle. I thought right, let's really take a look at these pubs and teach them about their visitor market and how they can make money from it."

Funding was secured from Northumberland County Council and development agency One North East, to run the free workshops.

Expert speakers including PR consultant Barbara Huddart and Simon Mcilwraith, an interior designer from Collective Design, were invited to give advice. topics included food sourcing, interior design, how to access funding, and working with the public sector on promoting local food and drink, marketing and all-round quality.

Making licensees more savvy

The key to everything has been to help licensees become more savvy, more aware of their selling points, what visitors are looking for and to open their eyes to existing business opportunities that are already literally on their doorstep.

"Pubs in Cornwall are 10 years ahead of us. In Cornwall they have realised and spotted the opportunities and they are capitalising on their location and local produce. That's what we have yet to do in Northumberland. We have no Rick Stein's here," says Helen.

"But we have got as many good, if not better products. We have amazing seafood. We have our own cheese makers from Hadrian's Wall. We have Doddington's ice cream makers with their Newcastle Brown Ale ice cream. There's no reason we can't be doing the same."

The selling point for many pubs is their locality. With a wealth of quality local food producers it's about working with what you've got.

Northumberland Tourism is helping pubs here too. Board member Lesley Williamson developed the Northumberland Menus Toolkit. It lists recipes using local foods, details of suppliers and guarantees 70 per cent profit margins.

They also offer help with creating marketing campaigns, websites and finding funding for renovation projects.

As an ex-licensee and former hotel manager, Lesley knows what she's talking about.

"Pubs here have no idea how special they are," she says. "Due to how rural the area is, we have a niche here, frozen in time, where the people that work in the pubs actually come from the local area. The food is important. The local ales are important. That the Crown is using granny's recipe for the chocolate cake is hugely important.

"In the past pubs have not had much support but they need to realise how sexy all of that is to consumers."

The team hopes to run more events in the future and is in touch with those licensees who attended to help them develop ideas picked up from the events.

Today's event, with about 20 licensees present, was well attended. It was a long day, but those who attended seemed focused on absorbing as much advice and ideas as they could.

For the licensees, Northumberland Tourism is an extra support team, an extra ear to bend. But it can't be forgotten that the relationship is mutually beneficial. A boost in the quality of pubs in the region will ultimately mean a boost in the number of tourists.

The question is how long it will take other tourism bodies to follow suit.

Did it work for you?

The speaker: Pascal Watkins

Pascal is Northumberland Tourism's secret weapon. He's a licensee at the helm of the hugely successful Angel Inn, near Skipton, Yorkshire, and was asked to share the secrets of his business with other licensees.

"There's an exciting opportunity in this region for someone to make a name for themselves," he says. "The workshops are about encouraging and inspiring excellence. There's no magic formula. It just takes one person with vision and courage. The raw materials are here."

The attendee: Nicola Hickey

Nicola is at the helm of Punch Taverns leasehold, Blackmore's in Alnwick. The pub had been newly refurbished when she took it on two years ago, from a wet-led local, to a smart bar, brasserie and hotel.

"These events reinforce what you know, but have forgotten. You need someone who is not involved in your business to remind you of the little things you can do that make such a difference," she says.

"Meeting other licensees in the same position is also so, so important. It lets you know there are other options. There are ways of getting funding. There are places you can target to get extra business."

Advice from Geoff Hodgson, chair of North East Tourism Advisory Board and former managing director of Northumbrian Taverns

• Offer a take-away food service or picnics

• Find other sources of revenue such as camping or caravan pitches

• Have regular stock takes

• Get free training from product suppliers

• Renegotiate rates on lending and utilities

• Speak to Business Link

• Speak to any local development agencies who can point you in the direction of funding

• Produce your own electricity and sell any surplus back to the grid.

For more information go to www.visitnorthumberland.com

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