The historic and vibrant city is set to have increased footfall in the coming years, delegates heard at the MA Leaders Club, held at the Rooftop Social Club on Thursday 19 June.
Ian Gordon, founder IKO Projects, which runs four sites in the city including Liquor & Co and Lockwood & Co, said: “From our perspective the fact we have opened four sites in 10 years is bit statement in how we believe in the city. “
He added: “Chester has the same problems that everywhere has and they are no different regardless of town or city you operate in.”
He said that the company has been successful in targeting different income streams of venues targeting the same people at different times of the day.
“We have to work harder than we have ever worked but the reality is it is a city and 95,000 people live here and there was 1.4m visitors in April so the footfall, the tourism, the spend is always there”, Gordon continued.
Balancing tourists and locals
Meanwhile Hickory’s director Jason Bligh described it as an “exciting and vibrant city” that has the challenge for operators of balancing tourists and locals.
More than 250,000 people a year descend on the city for the horseracing, bringing with it an increase in custom but also some challenges.
Bligh said that Hickory’s looks after its regulars with a booking system that recognises its loyal customers and prioritises those bookings.
But Chester is seeing an increase in footfall as a destination, with figures already up by 7% this year according to the Chester Business Improvement District (BID).
Chester BID CEO Carl Critchlow highlighted that it collects data on debit card spend, which gives an indication on how the city is trading.
“Across the whole of last year we were just shy of £300m just on debit cards. We are already ahead of that this year and the biggest increase last year was on food and drink offer.
Strong market
“It shows how strong the market is in Chester for hospitality,” he said.
Despite this Bligh said he is looking to close some of its restaurants earlier to respond to the trend to people eating and drinking out earlier.
While Gordon has had to adapt his businesses to the changing consumer habits.
“Pre-covid we were very much late-night operators and we traded to 2am, 3am to 4am in the morning in the sites. It became very apparent if we had stuck to that path we were all eggs in one basket,” he said.
The company is now operating in a broader offer with earlier evening trading, food and family trade.
Critchlow added the biggest change the city is likely to see will be the increase in city living: “It is something that the BID has been pushing for, for a while. It is quite a compact city but you don’t have that many people living in the walls. We have been lobbying hard for more residential.”
Financial experts also discussed the challenges around finding investment within the hospitality sector at the MA Leaders Club meeting in Chester. Read more here.
