Diary at the UK Pub Retail Summit

By The PMA Team

- Last updated on GMT

Diary at the UK Pub Retail Summit

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All the gossip from the UK Pub Retail Summit, which took place last week and was hosted by the Morning Advertiser and M&C Report.

Whiteside — five family truce?

Punch leased boss Roger Whiteside told delegates at last week's Pub Retail Summit that he had a dream when he first arrived in the sector. His dream was that he could bring together, Tony Sporano-style, the "heads of the five families". Alas, easier said than done to get the BII, BBPA, ALMR et al to break bread and find common cause. Ironic, though, that as Whiteside was outlining his Mafia-style "five families" vision, head of the ALMR family Nick Bish was doing a passable impersonation of Marlon Brando in The Godfather thanks to raging toothache bulking out his jaw-line.

Fire sparks new bar strategy

Many wondered what Jonathan Downey would do next when his £1.5m East Room burned to the ground in March. An errant tea-light gutted his trendy Shoreditch flagship and the disaster has had a profound affect on the business strategy of Downey's Rushmore Group. As he told executives at the UK Pub Retail summit last week he has retrenched from expensive leases and fit-outs. "No more million pound fit-outs. They don't really work for us anymore." The solution: six sites in almost as many months. Since the demise of the East Room, the entrepreneur has opened Giant Robot, Tiny Robot, Redhook and Danger of Death. He also has plans for a further two sites. What's more, the numbers are better. A net capital expenditure of £150,000 will lead to an annualised turnover of £4.5m from the six sites and an EBITDA of £800,000.

Dyson has ears pinned back

Punch newby Ian Dyson is deep into his third week in the top job. Word is that he has found himself a pad in Lichfield and is impressing staff by pitching up at the Burton headquarters every day (predecessor Giles Thorley tended to spend only Tuesdays in Burton). And what does lease boss Roger Whiteside make of him? "He's made a great start, doing the right thing by meeting everybody and listening, listening, listening," he told delegates.

Mysteries of the customer mind

Mitchells & Butlers director of marketing and strategy Adam Martin turned up at last week's UK Pub Retail Summit to talk about how the company understands its customers. It gathers around 750,000 pieces of customer feedback a year — around 40 per pub per month. In the old days, mystery customer surveys were undertaken at the rate of a single visit per pub per month. "So we're getting 25 years' worth of mystery guest reports in six months." But, he stressed, the information needs careful analysis. And who does he employ to do the job? "The young, curious and confident."

Novus to big up birthday parties

Boss of London-based Novus Leisure Steve Richards is a big fan of joint ventures — Lucky Voice karaoke nights and Jongleurs comedy nights, for example. Now there's a new one on the way. Novus hosted 17,000 birthday parties at its venues last year — and plans to host 30,000 this year. So it's teaming up with moonpig.com, which specialises in online birthday cards. And one more interesting fact from Novus — it has six area managers and 110 sales staff selling birthday parties and other events into its venues.

Learning lessons from Laurel

Corporate restructuring specialist Paul Hemming describes his firm Zolfo Cooper as "the acceptable face of restructuring". They've seen a few in the pub sector over the past couple of years. He told last week's UK Pub Retail Summit that the Laurel pre-pack of early 2008 was the "pioneer of restructuring". And what are the lessons? "Robert Tchenguiz had to throw in his La Tasca business to make sure the deal got done. But (the pre-pack) didn't cut off enough of the tail and didn't chuck enough cash in."

Harvester reaps revamp rewards

Keen sector watchers will remember Mitchells & Butlers' (M&B) Harvester brand struggling a few years back. Good to hear from Amanda Coldrick, M&B's managing director, suburban, that the brand's now tearing up trees. A salad and grill mix-and-match menu has been introduced and Harvesters are having their carpets replaced by tiles. "Harvester was a completely out-dated concept," she says. "We've given choice back to our guests — and they say we should have done it years ago. We've had double-digit plus sales growth for the past two years."

Drake & Morgan gets thrifty at Ebay

Drake & Morgan, led by Jillian MacLean, will spend £2.5m on its latest planned site, the Folly, the 13,200sq ft outlet that opens later this year in Gracechurch Street just a few yards from its third outlet, the Anthologist, in the City of London. So it's good to see that despite the high spending and expensive fit-out costs the company still has an eye for a bargain. MacLean told the UK Pub Retail Summit last week that each of her pub managers has an Ebay account to help with fit outs. She told the audience that her managers, "are encouraged to buy from Ebay and flea markets". A move that should come in handy considering that the Folly, which is described as a "whimsical subterranean" bar, will have a bar, kitchen, deli, florist and potting shed.

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