The Big Interview: Kevin Charity
In every game of Monopoly there comes a moment when you know who’s going to win. Red hotels spring up where once there were green houses, and the other players shuffle their fake cash nervously.
Kevin Charity is enjoying that moment. Towards the end of last year the founder and managing director of the Bulldog Group sold his last traditional pub, meaning he now has hotels on every property. And he’s certainly winning.
“We’ve had three fantastic years with growth every year at every venue,” he says. “In November the group was 10.3% up on 2010.”
Total annual turnover has hit £5 million for the five outlets — about the same figure as at its peak, when the company had 24 pubs.
“It’s like Monopoly, when you swap your houses for hotels. We had too many different concepts before. Now we’re very clear about what we want to do.”
Charity grew up in pubs. His father Brian ran the Town Pump in Boston, Lincolnshire, the town where Bulldog is still based. By the time he was 18, Kevin was not only working in the business but had become the trade’s youngest licence-holder.
A period of expansion culminated in the formation of Bulldog Pub Company in 1996, by which time brother Paul, the former editor of the Publican’s Morning Advertiser, was also on board.
Charity bought out the rest of the family in 2001 and continued to expand. But in 2007 a thorough-going review of the business caused him to take a bold step.
“We decided to call it a day with traditional wet-led pubs. The estate we had was a very loose collection of different sorts of pub and it was difficult to run as a business. We had to alter a promotion 10 times to fit each kind of pub.
“The 2003 Licensing Act had the biggest effect on us, though — more so than the smoking ban. It changed everybody’s drinking patterns. Before it came in it was very simple. From 6pm to 8pm you were busy, by 9pm you were full and at 11pm you closed.
“Then everything got later. People didn’t have a set pattern to their drinking, and you need a certain mass of people in at the same time to create an atmosphere. For us there was more cost and less revenue.
“We were doing well at a lot of the pubs but we were having to work harder to keep up revenues, and costs were rising all the time. We couldn’t see it getting any better so we threw in the towel on pubs. And we timed it perfectly. We got some handsome prices for them, before the downturn hit.”
Bulldog’s last wet-led pub, a Bateman’s tenancy in Sleaford, Lincolnshire, called the Nag’s Head, had been in the family for 16 years.
“It was the only one we kept, as it was so profitable. But it didn’t make sense to continue to keep it.”
There’s barely a hint of regret about that from Charity, and in fact it wouldn’t be true to say Bulldog had totally exited the pub market. It’s more that the categories we’re forced to use are failing to keep up with a fast-changing hospitality industry.
Bulldog’s ‘hotels’ are really hybrid businesses. Across the group the sales mix is split equally between wet, food and accommodation. “It’s a healthy mix. It makes us more secure, more resilient.”
A sense of individuality
The Old Bridge at Holmfirth, Yorkshire, part of Bulldog for a decade, gets through 300 barrels of cask ale a year. It may be a hotel, but it’s also a good old boozer.
And the idea that locals can pop in for a pint creates the kind of relaxed, informal mood that permeates the entire estate and no doubt makes the hotels nicer places to stay. A lot of effort, too, goes into making sure they are individual enough to respond to the local marketplace.
“We go out of our way to match the food offer to each locality,” says Charity. “At Holmfirth the plate is bigger and broader while at the White Hart Royal in the Cotswolds everything has to be more delicate.”
Tweaks aside, he’s consistent about the kind of businesses he’s running.
“We figured that if we had coaching inns with a good food and beverage trade and accommodation, historic buildings in tourist destinations, we shouldn’t go wrong — and so far that’s been spot-on. If they’re the focal point of a town they’ll always be recommended by people and always chosen for meetings.”
Each Bulldog site has a curiously similar history, having been through the hands of firms such as Trust House Forte and Old English Inns.
“Like most coaching inns they had a reputation for being fuddy-duddy. But we make people realise it’s worth eating there, and we make it casual dining to take away the stuffiness. It’s the kind of thing that’s working in the market at the moment.
“They’re still pubs, but at the end of the day it’s hospitality. I love the fusion that’s going on across the industry between pubs, restaurants and hotels. There are some great ideas coming out.
“You shouldn’t pigeon-hole businesses. The industry is a completely broad church. The high street’s raising its game and it’s never been better for the customer.
“The stuff that’s closing? Maybe it’s a self-adjustment, getting the dust out of the carpet.”
Service secrets
Charity believes that it’s standards of service that can set an operation apart.
“Every member of staff gets a two-day induction in how to look after people. We tell them our theory, which comes down to three words: respect for people.
“Give your customers absolute consistency in product and service and you’ll get results, regular customers. It’s a winning formula — but it’s hard to do. People will still pick out what’s wrong.
“So attention to detail makes all the difference. When we introduce a new menu each item is explained to staff. Having staff who know what they’re talking about makes a far better experience for the customer.
“You’ve just got to do everything well, really.”
Investment paid for by selling the pubs has also proved effective in turning round tiring businesses.
The White Hart in Boston, bought in 2006, had been closed for two years, but it’s been busy ever since. The company’s most recent acquisition, the Admiral Rodney in Horncastle, Lincolnshire, was “on a downward spiral but had a fantastic core customer base. It just wanted some TLC”. Since its £200,000 refurbishment, take has gone from £10,000 to £27,000 a week.
The White Hart Royal, which Charity says is “still establishing itself” is currently rated in the best five in the Cotswolds by Trip Advisor.
Now the Talbot in Oundle, Northamptonshire, is undergoing a £1m refurb, and will reopen in the spring. And a sixth site, in Nottinghamshire, is in the pipeline.
“It’s enjoyable at the moment — exciting,” says Charity. “I’m enjoying the size. It was fun when we had 20-plus pubs but it had its downsides — all the time you’d have to spend on the more troublesome places.
“But you get hungry again once your desk is clear, and if the proposition is right we are interested in buying. We’ve been self-funding up to now and we’ve got enough money to do another. Then, later this year perhaps, we’ll look at external funding and equity partners.
“There’s an optimum number for what we’re doing. I have 15 at the back of my mind. It’s about economies of scale. That number works really well I think.
“But we don’t want to make any mistakes. We look long and hard at every acquisition.”
My kind of pub
“I love the Portobello Gold in west London every time I visit. It’s unique: old-fashioned hospitality, great design and a laid-back atmosphere.
“A few years back the electricity went off, but we still got fed and it was no trouble.”
Key dates
1982
Kevin Charity starts work in his father Brian’s pub, the Town Pump in Boston, Lincolnshire
1983
At 18 years and 10 days he becomes the youngest licence-holder in the country
1989
The Charitys set out to develop a multiple operation in East England
1996
Founds Bulldog Pub Company with his father, brother Paul and Mark Porcher
2001
Buys out father’s and brother’s shares. Wife Lily becomes a director
2006
Purchases White Hart in Boston
2007
At 24 pubs, Bulldog pulls out of traditional, wet-led pubs to focus on hotels
2008
Purchases White Hart Royal in the Cotswolds
2009
Adds Talbot at Oundle, Northants
2011
Admiral Rodney at Horncastle, Lincolnshire, joins the group
