What do pubcos look for in a lessee?

While job application processes have moved away from cliché candidate grillings, the increased emphasis on showing, rather than telling, why you should be a company’s newest hire brings challenges of its own. 

What exactly can a potential pub lessee do to stand out? 

Drive and retail savvy​ ​

Matthew Ralphs, recruitment marketing manager at Ei Group – which boasts more than 4,500 pubs in its predominantly leased and tenanted estate – explains that prospective pub lessees need to demonstrate commercial and community savvy if they’re to successfully operate a pub business. 

“Running your own pub business and supporting your local community has always been more of a way of life than a job,” Ralphs explains. “However, the fundamentals of operating a successful business have significantly changed over the years and publicans now need to be more retail-focused than ever before. 

“When we’re meeting potential publicans, we’re keen to discover what their vision for the pub might be and how they articulate their plan to build a profitable and sustainable business. 

“Demonstrating research and a good understanding of the local market is also important. Have they visited their chosen pub to experience daytime, evening and weekend trade? Have they also checked out the local competition and what they do well (or not so well)? Where can they offer something that will be a point of difference to customers?

While Ralphs highlights that being able to showcase a strong CV, business acumen and experience in hospitality are important, entrepreneurial flair and leadership are equally valuable.

“The vast majority of publicans who approach us have experience in the hospitality industry, but come from a variety of different backgrounds,” says Ralphs. “The hard part, which we’ve placed a concerted focus on and improved drastically, is targeting and identifying the right publicans for each pub. This may involve prospective publicans being flexible about location, but they will reap the rewards in the long run. 

“Additionally, in this digital world, we look for publicans who are savvy in how they proactively market their business to their customers and give personality to what they do. 

“Interestingly, we’ve seen a significant spike in applications by 24 to 39-year-olds, who often have a higher digital skill set. Competition is intense so they need to have creativity and the drive that will help their business evolve and stand out.”

Passion and a plan​

Star Pubs & Bars, the leased pub division of Heineken, is landlord of just more than 2,900 pubs. Hance McPherson, recruitment manager at Star, explains that prospective lessees who demonstrate passion and a plan are on to a winner.

“The qualities that are essential to success and what we look for in candidates are a passion for pubs, a strong vision for the outlet, a plan as to how they will go about delivering it and making it profitable” says McPherson. “We also want to make sure they have the commitment and energy to give 120% to getting their new business up and running; everything else can be trained or learned.”

As with Ralphs, experience of running a pub is not essential. While McPherson recommends that inexperienced candidates should sample the lifestyle on the other side of a bar before jumping into the industry, there is in-house training available to build industry knowledge as well as means of supporting candidates from other sectors. 

“We take on people with transferable skills from a wide variety of backgrounds, often completely unrelated to the pub industry, as well as those from within the sector, such as pub managers, who have lots of experience of the licensed trade, but who might not have had their own business before.

“For those with retailing and people management skills, but perhaps not the business experience or capital required to develop and market their offer, we have [the] Just Add Talent [scheme], where the food, drink, promotions and marketing are centrally driven by us and executed by the operator. This gives the operator time to concentrate on the important stuff – executing the retail offer and employing and managing staff.”

Craving character​ ​

Ceri Radford, recruitment and training executive for Admiral Taverns – which operates a nationwide estate of 845 predominantly wet-led community pubs – explains that personality is paramount.

“Anyone who has visited a great local pub will tell you that the licensee is the core to that pub’s heart and soul. Our pubs vary in terms of their trading style and location but you can be confident that behind any successful pub there will be a passionate and dedicated entrepreneurial licensee whose personality shines through in every detail. 

“When we are recruiting for a new licensee, our main focus is to find an individual with a really strong vision for the pub who is ambitious to make it succeed. For us, experience is not the number one thing we look for – it’s passion, enthusiasm and entrepreneurial spirit. 

“We have a bespoke training offer, which supports all skills sets, so whether you are a first-time licensee or an experienced operator, we have the training to help you get the most from your business. This includes support from a business development manager (BDM) but also commercial skills and management training, as well as catering advice. We believe there is always more to learn and more we can do to create the best offer for the local area, so continual training is a very important part of what we do.”

Radford explains that Admiral’s simple recruitment process represents a departure from old-school, long-winded, application processes – encouraging candidates who navigate a simpler, more conversational process to showcase their vision for a pub as soon as possible.

“Once they’ve met with our BDMs and recruitment team, the next step is to complete a business plan demonstrating their ideas and vision to support them in going into the pub. We also need to ensure that our licensees hold their personal licence and have an understanding of the industry and the agreement they’re about to take so we ensure all licensees have completed pre-entry awareness training.

“We’ve employed people from all walks of life, not just from the pub industry. Some of our most successful licensees have come from completely different backgrounds and we love this because it brings a fresh look to the pub business and provides different, interesting ideas about the best ways to appeal to the wider community. 

“At Admiral, the perfect licensee is an individual with a strong vision and a desire to succeed. That strong vision will be unique to them so we recruit on an case-by-case basis to find a great licensee who we can be truly confident will run a great local pub.”