Pub Mentors: Turning the Lyde tide

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Progress: Ali Carter is positive about the turnaround at Ben's pub

Ali Carter had lots of ideas when she last met up with Ben Scott, manager of the Great Lyde, in Yeovil, Somerset, to assess his pub operation and advise him on improving profitability. She is pleasantly surprised by what she finds on a return visit.

I’m delighted to see that Ben Scott is an imple-mentor! In October I suggested that he pay attention to detail and I was pleased to see that he had replaced blown lightbulbs, cleared rubbish and introduced Monday and Friday litter picks in the car park, with all areas checked daily.

Hedges have also been trimmed and I can see much has been going on since our last session.

Ben’s really upbeat — the last two weeks have seen record takings. He’s also had to administer CPR to a customer who had a heart attack in the pub.

Results so far

An EHO visit has earned the pub four stars. This should rise to five once Ben and chef Jason have made a few upgrades. The previous rating was two.

A Cask Marque spot check scored 20 out of 20, so cask drinkers know they have a good watering hole. Cask is an area that has suffered less in the slump, so Ben is appealing to this customer base as well as a lot of others.

Ben feels he has struck gold with Palmers Brewery as he has a fantastic array of top-quality ales giving him a unique advantage over the competition; and Palmers’ cask-ale training course has clearly equipped him well to develop this side of the business.

A big plus is the performance of the carvery, which for the last three Sundays has topped the 100 cover mark with record sales of around £1,000 with an additional £600 in the sports bar.

The atmosphere on Sundays in such a large building is definitely improving, with so many people deciding to dine.

When Ben took over in February the average Sunday lunch attendance was around 25 people — this fourfold increase I put down to Ben’s personality and the friendly team he is developing.

Profitability rise

Profitability is also improving, thanks to small things — for example, putting out tongs instead of large serving spoons means that people automatically put less on their plates. And pricey new out-of-season potatoes have been replaced with mash, which has gone down well and means less waste.

A Wednesday evening ‘Light Bite’ package of main and dessert for £5.50 using smaller portions is now bringing in around 20 diners where previously there were none.

Ben is advertising Great Lyde events in the pub loos — a great place with a ‘captive audience’.

With the need for a strong emphasis on cleaning, the vast amount of copper (he calls me Mrs Brasso!) in the pub is now being polished during five minute gaps in service, and it’s the same for dusting.

External bins have been tidied and discreetly hidden, litter patrols organised and screw-to-the-wall ashtrays installed outside. External planting is also being planned to brighten up the façade.

On the back bar, all blown light bulbs have been replaced and the area looks sparkly and cared for. Ben has had the bright idea of auctioning off the large collection of miniatures that normally stand there to clear room to make this his real shop window.

Fleshing out plans for events

Ben’s events schedule is paying dividends. The Halloween Kids’ Disco with party games and dancing on Friday 28 October attracted 50 children, with an adult’s version the following day. The event was held during the late afternoon so it didn’t impinge on evening trade.

Rather than pay a DJ for the night Ben invested £250 on a PA system that he plans to make use of for future events.

As well as taking more than £1,300 compared with the normal £800, it provided a great opportunity to advertise the Kids’ Christmas party. The event was so successful that Ben is going to market the pub as a kids’ party venue and has had the idea of a colouring competition to gather information for the database.

Gearing up for Christmas

There are menus everywhere advertising the Christmas offer. Ben is also doing some direct marketing based on last year’s database. Attractive booking forms have gone out designed to encourage larger parties to hold their Christmas celebration at the Great Lyde.

What the licensees think

We were so pleased when we were selected for the Pub Mentors scheme, because although we knew we had a great pub, we thought we had tried everything to make it work, but just might be missing a trick to unlock its full potential.

Jay Smith was selected to be our mentor, again a stroke of luck for us. Jay asked us to send him some figures and a bit of background, then came and stayed over in one of our rooms for the night to get a fuller picture.

He made great suggestions and he really did give us the courage to make a big change that we had thought of before, but not had the confidence to carry through.

He showed us how changing our bar into our restaurant and vice versa would help improve the business all round and importantly encourage more affluent drinkers in the village to come to us. Doing this solved lots of problems, such as the noise problem that had worried us before and the distance from the kitchen to the restaurant.

Jay also worked with us on figures and showed us our correct break-even figure. He showed us how to work with cash sheets, and simply cashing up every day has helped us greatly with keeping control of our cash flow.

Thanks also to Coca-Cola Enterprises for sending Martin Sampson who gave us loads of great ideas about improving soft drink sales and bar displays.

The next step is a big open night in January to show the village and the papers what we have done and to sample some canapés of food dishes and a bit of wine tasting too.