MY PUB: The Engineer, Harpenden, Hertfordshire

As a Harpenden resident who grew up and still lives a stone’s throw from the Engineer, Mann has a special affection for the busy pub, which is used by his family and friends.

Three of Mann and Fisher’s sites, which include the Engineer, are leased from Star Pubs. Here, Mann tells The Morning Advertiser all about the Engineer.

The pub

The Engineer was purpose built as a pub in the 1860s and is a top-quality local in an attractive location within walking distance of the centre of Harpenden.

It’s next door to a church, close to lovely walks on the common and surrounded by housing.

While the pub caters for the whole community, we have zoned it so that different types of customers can simultaneously enjoy a variety of occasions without disturbing – and often without even seeing – each other. This is key to its success.

The pub has three distinct spaces: a spacious adults-only main bar with comfy sofas; a large family-friendly garden room with board games that is also used for dining, and a kids-free sports room – with its own bar and toilets – kitted out with a dartboard and screens showing TNT and Sky Sports.

Outside there’s a teepee-style awning covered area with a bar; six heated and lighted pods with background music; a terrace, and two lawns where children can play.

The sports room and garden room can be separated off for private functions and the garden is designed so that each can be booked with a private outdoor covered space.

The look of the pub is another reason for its success – it’s attractive, comfortable and well-maintained, this entices people out as it’s a really nice place to spend time. Star Pubs supported us with a £200,000 investment in 2019, and we’ve put in a further £500,000 over the 23 years we’ve been here.

The Engineer is predominantly a locals’ pub. However, because of the quality of the offer and its large carpark, it’s a destination venue, as well, that attracts people from neighbouring villages and towns like St Albans and Luton that are in a six or seven-mile radius.

The publican

Mike and I met in the Engineer. He’d had a career with Allied Domecq and was thinking about taking the pub on. I was just 22 and a regular. I’d worked in relatives’ pubs from a young age and was doing management training in Waitrose, so despite being young, I understood pubs and service.

We got chatting and found we shared the same vision for the Engineer and thought it had massive potential. Long story short, we ended up taking it together. Two decades later, we still have a very happy business partnership. I handle the operations and Mike does the financials for our pub group.

As far as the Engineer is concerned, it’s very much my baby because I live down the road. I’m based there two days a week and although it has a great manager, I’m still seen as ‘the guvnor’ by people in the town. All my friends are regulars and want to come here when we go out, so I’m usually a customer at least one night a week.

I’ve known the Engineer all my life, it’s where I drank when I was younger and is still used by everyone in my extended family who lives in Harpenden. It’s a big part of my world and I’ve got a great relationship with Star, I can’t envisage ever leaving.

The trade

The Engineer is a truly a hub of the community; it’s where the majority of residents meet up and all ages – including multiple generations of many families – use the pub, often two or three times a week for different reasons.

We have loyal, polite, friendly customers, which makes for a wonderful atmosphere. Like any good local there are lots of laughs and fun, but people look out for each other, notice when someone hasn’t been in and help each other through any difficulties, too.

Trade is 70% wet and 30% dry. We have a well-established and clearly communicated rhythm of the week that also impacts on trading patterns.

Ale Monday with 25% off cask ales is popular with the more mature clientele. The Trivia Tuesday Quiz packs out the pub with up to 110 quizzers. Buy one, get one free Gin Wednesday goes down particularly well with groups of school mums and a local cycling club. Fizzy Friday when it’s £20 for house Prosecco is big for the after-work crowd and kids having tea out while their parents enjoy an end of the week drink.

On Sundays, our homemade roasts bring in a lot of families and nearly always sell out. During the football season and major sporting tournaments, the sports bar is busy throughout the week.

Many of our regulars have been coming here for the past 20 years and their use of the pub changes in line with their stage of life – because of the different areas and offers we have we can accommodate them and don’t lose them as customers.

In addition, we host all kinds of functions for up to 70 people from wakes and birthday parties to business meetings. We have a professional buffet menu with five options and a marketeer to promote the service, which helps us compete with other function venues. Functions account for 5% to 10% of trade and constantly introduce new people to the Engineer.

The team

The Engineer is known for its warm, friendly staff and people are always commenting on their excellent service. Many of the team are local and have been here a good number of years, they therefore know the customers well, which adds to the pub’s great atmosphere.

The Engineer has 26 staff and its own manager, Martyn Jackson. Mike and I sign off their plans, but the team is encouraged to run the pub as their own. This gives them a sense of ownership and job satisfaction that translates into the service they deliver.

Good staff are vital. We go all out to make the team feel valued. We provide uniforms and discounted meals and, after three months, a discount card giving up to 30% off for them and three others in the pub. The discount is tiered depending on the number of hours they work.

In addition to in-house training, we fund external training via an online portal, enabling staff to complete modules, such as first aid, which add to their CVs.

There’s an Employee of the Month based on feedback from customers via our comments box and the manager. For the whole team, we have a Pub of the Month for the site in the Fishermann Group that performs best financially.

We like to promote in-house and move staff up to larger sites to extend their experience. To ensure a good working environment and consistent levels of service, we have a pool of a dozen or so staff who are fully flexible and travel between sites covering any absences or providing extra support at busy times.

The drink

Some 70% of our sales are drinks – quality and the perfect serve are therefore everything. The Engineer has SmartDispense, so the beers are super chilled, and we use the appropriate glassware for all our drinks, from frosted glasses for lagers to ballon glasses for gins.

The pub is very wine and beer-led in line with our regulars’ tastes. We have a wide range of beers; Moretti is our biggest seller followed by Guinness.

We scored full marks in our Cask Marque assessment and have four cask ales on the bar – three permanent and one guest through the SIBA Scheme. Among the guest ales, those from nearby Tring Brewery tend to go down best.

We curate our own wine list, which is the same for all our pubs and changes twice a year. We capture different countries, grapes and blends to give customers an interesting choice with price points ranging from £25 to £32.50 a bottle.

On the spirits front, gin is by far our best-seller and we have a dedicated menu with a selection of 19. There’s not much call for shots or drinks like rum & cola and we don’t offer cocktails as there’s a good cocktail bar in town, and we don’t believe in offering pre-packaged. Prosecco is very popular and fills that kind of higher tempo occasion.

The food

Our menu focuses on freshly prepared good-quality pub classics that are designed to be an affordable everyday treat. Customers have less disposable income these days. To enable us to benefit from economies of scale and keep prices down, we have streamlined the menu to offer a sensible amount of choice but with something for everyone – wings for the sports bar and scampi for senior citizens for example.

Sunday roasts, burgers and fish & chips are our top sellers. A daily specials boards with a starter, two mains and a dessert keeps our offer interesting and provides variety. Our menu changes for winter and summer. We have an accompanying kids’ menu offering wholesome smaller portion versions of our adult dishes and with games to play on it. There’s also a dedicated menu for Sundays.

Recruiting kitchen staff is challenging. Though our core menus are homemade, they’re designed to be easy to execute and can be delivered by our cross trained bar staff while maintaining standards in the absence of the chef.

We have a good regular food trade every day of the week – 65% of diners book and the rest are walk-ins. Sunday is our biggest day for food. Weekday lunchtimes are predominantly retired people and ladies that lunch and tea times are people who want a night off from cooking. However, the quality is also good enough that people choose the Engineer for celebrations with family and friends.

Every bit of business is worth having. To avoid losing peckish customers when the kitchen is closed, we offer a pizza menu with a choice of four good-quality pre-prepared pizzas to eat in or takeaway.

The events

Other than our rhythm of the week offers, are main activities are our weekly quiz, sports screenings and Christmas.

Customers like knowing the pub is available for food, drink and socialising, and putting on more events would disrupt their ability to drop in at any time knowing what to expect. I write and deliver the quiz myself – people appreciate that, it’s a clear demonstration of how much I care about the pub.

We have 10 screens around the pub showing all the sports – football, the Six Nations, Wimbledon and the Masters are the biggies – and we open and provide food for tournaments that have an early start time, such as the Lions rugby.

We mark all sorts of occasions with a tweak to our food and drinks – for example spooky cocktails at Halloween – but reserve events for Christmas, for which we’re known. We put on wreath making sessions, a carols night with the choir of the next door church and a Christmas market with live music, craft stalls and festive food and drink.

To reflect our position at the heart of the community, we’ve selected two local good causes to back rather than spreading our support thinly. We sponsor Harpenden Cricket Club and help the local schools for example with vouchers for free meals for any fundraisers they’re holding.

The future

We’re passionate about what we do – we want the Engineer to be the best pub in Harpenden, and we never rest on our laurels. We’re always thinking about how it can move with times. We work in partnership with our staff and customers, consulting with them on their ideas rather than dictating what happens, and we analyse market trends and visit the competition.

This research informs our offer, which is constantly evolving. One option we’re currently considering is whether to introduce an element of competitive socialising at the Engineer.

As far as the wider Fishermann Group is concerned, for all the doom and gloom about the economy, we’re confident about expanding. In our experience, if pubgoers are getting quality and value, they still come out and don’t mind paying a bit more for something good.

Investment from pub companies and licensees is vital – you have to spend to offer a high-quality environment that will attract people out when their disposable income is squeezed. At the same time, we’re also putting a laser focus on our supplier contracts to keep our prices as competitive as possible.

Leased pubs are the only option for smaller operators in Hertfordshire. On the rare occasions an attractive freehold pub comes on the market, it’s snapped up by investors.

We hope to take more pubs with Star Pubs. They’re fair, approachable and help us achieve our goals and make money. We enjoy working with them and have had a great partnership for over 20 years, during which time we’ve undertaken seven joint refurbishments. As well as improving our business, we believe investment is essential for the sector helping keep the tradition of the great British pub alive and relevant.