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Cheshire Cat has developed over the past 16 years. We have seven pubs of which, three are freeholds and four are long leaseholds.
All the pubs were closed with ‘no hope’ when we came along to rescue them. Only the Cholmondeley Arms was trading but struggling. The pubs are all individual. One could never call them a chain of pubs.
Cheshire Cat facts 'n' stats:
Number of sites: Seven
Number of employees: 200
Location: Cheshire
Years the business has been running: 16
Mary and I wanted to create individual pubs we would love to visit ourselves, simple really, but there is a lot of detail in each which makes them very special indeed.
The average number of covers is 79 per pub yet the turnover is £10.6m-plus net last year.
The pubs operate with their own menus and their own style of drinks with a pub being dedicated to whisky, then gin, port, rum, brandy, wine and ‘old world wine’. Each pub therefore has a uniqueness as well as all doing cask ale etc.
The customer journey around the pubs in one of individuality but with a common expectation of high-quality fresh food and drink being served with friendly knowledgeable service. Our pubs ‘hug you on the way in and grab your leg on the way out!’ They all have special atmospheres.
What is your USP?
Our teams, our individuality, the atmospheres we create, our food and drink, our use of local produce from cask ale to using local farms to deliver to our doors but most importantly… consistency in all we do over a long period of time.
The Bull’s Head was ‘15 years old’ this year and has grown turnover every year since we have had it. All seven pubs had record years last year, meaning Cheshire Cat had another record year too.
How is trade at the moment?
Despite the challenges we all face as an industry, we have just enjoyed another record year with turnover up 12.1% like-for-like, up c£1.2m year-on-year with average net sales at £1.5m-plus per pub. In a very established estate, we are delighted.
How are you feeling about the sector currently?
The sector isn’t appreciated enough by Government for the wonderful role it plays in people’s lives. In particular, their wellbeing and servicing their respective communities.
We are seen as a threat to the NHS rather than the one thing that helps people while having a responsibility for how people behave and how they drink - unlike supermarkets.
We need to fight on and a deal with one challenge at a time. First up is business rates then we need to focus on VAT reductions and then something that changes the trend towards supermarkets and gets people back to the pub.
There are a lot of challenges operators are battling currently, what is the biggest challenge you’re facing?
Like everyone, our biggest challenge is ensuring we continue to grow our sales enough to cover the additional taxes and cost price increases. We must sell our way through this. Never will customer service, value and quality be more important… all done consistently well.
How are you overcoming it?
We are doing it firstly by motivating our teams, looking after our teams, by working hard every day. Hospitality really is a seven-day a week business and you must work exceptionally hard to succeed in it. Making sure everything we do is high quality but always considered good value for money.
How are you seeing consumer behaviour?
We see people coming to our pubs for all the positive reasons mentioned above. Friendliness, consistency, high quality, a great atmosphere, supporters of local business and employment and good value is what the consumer wants, and we give it to them to the best of our ability.
What is your strategy on recruiting and retaining staff?
When people join Cheshire Cat, they join a family. Our ‘Champions’ programme ensures they get the knowledge and experiences they need to develop. All our managers have developed from within and all our head chefs too.
Our teams recruit like-minded people who love what we do. Recruiting the right people is key but we find people come to us because they want to be a part of what we do.
Even if they leave for good reason, like travelling, they come back to us. Our recruitment strategy is simple: keep your existing people excited, look after them and recruitment is barely needed, but when it is we recruit like-minded people.
Retention of our team is vital to a consistent future for Cheshire Cat. We believe in building a working atmosphere that people really enjoy and want to work within in the long term.
They know and respect it is hard work but, ultimately, they also know we are all here for the guest and the guest’s experience with us. We all have the same role to play – look after the guest better than anyone else.
