Blue Parrot: profits flying high

Licensee Keith Flanagan tells Robyn Lewis how targeting local businesses and a £60 steak platter put him on course to turn over £1m in his first year at the Blue Parrot in Manchester.

How we got here​

This is our third site in the Manchester area and to be honest I'd been monitoring this particular spot for a few years before we took it on last November.

It's a part of Manchester city centre that was undergoing a lot of development and offices and shops were popping up everywhere, so it seemed like a good time to open a food-led venue. It's a Trust Inns site, as the other two sites are as well — I'm really happy to keep working with them as they have been really supportive throughout.

I had a very clear idea of what the Blue Parrot should be like right from the start. There's a lot of competition in this area from other high-street food chains and there's a Wetherspoon nearby as well. So we knew whatever we were going to do we were going to have do it well, if we were to stand any chance of succeeding. As a result, when I first started thinking about a refurbishment I knew it would have to have the "wow" factor.

Initial investment​

In total we invested £250,000 before opening, all of which was our own investment. We had to rip out the kitchen and put in a totally new one, which includes charcoal grills. Initially we were moving towards the steakhouse route, but that changed slightly in the end.

In fact we didn't intend to invest so much to start with, but it was clear that if we were to achieve the high-spec we wanted we were going to have to shell out a bit more. So we had several pieces of bespoke furniture made, used dark cherry wood throughout, suede Chesterfield sofas and so on.

It's a look I'd describe as chic, art deco meets top-end American grill.

All-day trade​

Clearly our main market around here is office workers and so we thought carefully about making sure our offer suits them. We open at midday and serve coffee and Danish pastries throughout the afternoon for people who use us for meetings. This crowd makes up quite a significant proportion of our daytime business, as the free Wi-Fi brings them in.

From opening to about 3pm we have the lunch crowd, then the after-work drinkers start arriving from 4pm to about 7pm and after that it's mostly evening diners, who we serve until 11pm when the kitchen closes.

In order to boost our evening trade after the office workers have gone home we have targeted hotels in the vicinity and that's part of the reason we keep the kitchen open so late.

After about 9pm we find most of the diners here are eating alone as they are staying in the area on business, so we do an offer of 25% off your bill if you show your hotel reservation, which we promote through the hotels.

Maintaining contact and loyalty​

We don't spend very much on marketing, but what we do is very effective. For example we've given up on flyers as we find they don't work for us — if you deliver them to office blocks they just get put straight in the bin — but what has worked for us is email alerts. We've gathered a database of more than 12,000 names and contact details since Christmas and it's growing rapidly.

Collating that data has been a mix of researching local businesses to find out contact details of individuals and incentives such as a chance to win a free bottle of Champagne if you leave your business card.

We've also designed a new loyalty card scheme to run across all the sites. If you sign up you get a card entitling you to 10% off your bill at any of the venues, a theatre offer, which gives you 25% off your meal if you show your theatre ticket and other benefits such as money off hiring the function rooms in the venues that have one.

We regularly email offers such as our £5.95 for a bottle of house wine between 4pm and 7pm deal to both loyalty card customers and the rest of the database, but I'm careful about how much we do in the way of promotions. Obviously deals and special offers are important although actually I think people aren't always looking for a reduction in price — I think it's more about perceived value and genuine quality.

Our best sellers​

Wine makes up about 20% of our wet sales and cocktails are also popular, our best sellers are Mojitos and Cosmopolitans, particularly when we run a two-for-one offer between 4pm and 8pm. We don't have any cask ale here as the cellar isn't suitable, but we do sell a fair bit of lager.

Tiger, which we have on draught here, is actually more popular at £3.95 a pint than Heineken is at £3.50 a pint. I think it's because it's something new and the font is quite striking on the bar. The branded glassware helps as well as it's quite attractive. I think people expect good branded glasses if they are paying nearly £4 a pint, as I said before it's not always about price, it's about value.

I'm quite satisfied with our wet GP, which is 69%, although it isn't as high as our dry GP, which is 72%. My background as a chef helps with that, it's all about kitchen management. We have deliveries every single day, for example, to cut down on waste. We use only seasonal vegetables to keep costs down and we plan menus very carefully to ensure that each ingredient we buy works hard, appearing in several dishes.

We serve between 80 and 120 meals a day here, along with coffee and pastries all day long, so the food side of the business is pretty steady. Our wet:dry split is about 65:35.

Franchises in the future​

It's going so well here at the moment — our turnover is nearly double what we initially forecast — that we are planning on rolling out the concept through franchise agreements. We need to wait until the business here is a bit more mature and proven though, maybe once we get past our first birthday, but we believe the concept will work in similar areas in other cities in the UK.

We are also looking at hosting more events here, we've just finalised plans for an open mic evening every Sunday, which will start in two weeks' time and are looking into getting a DJ or vocalist for a regular Thursday evening slot from 10pm until about 2am.

Facts 'n' stats​

Landlord: Trust Inns

Expected weekly turnover: £9,000

Actual weekly turnover: £18,000

Wet/dry split: 65:35

Wet GP: 69%

Dry GP: 72%

Staff: Five chefs, two kitchen porters, two duty managers and 12 part-time bar and waiting staff

Star idea​

One of the most popular initiatives has been our £60 steak platter, which we've become known for. We wanted to go big on steak and grills here as there isn't anything like that in the area and so we thought it would be a good point of difference for us. Steak is also something we thought businessmen in particular would go for in a big way and we weren't wrong.

It consists of four different cuts of steak, rump, rib eye and so on, and unlimited sides and chips. It serves between four and six, so it's pretty good value and comes on a huge silver platter that looks striking and gets people talking.