Wall, who was appointed managing director of the community wet-led arm of Admiral Taverns six months ago, said his early months in the role were focused on understanding the estate before driving it forward. Now, the business is targeting consistent site growth.
He told The Morning Advertiser (The MA) the company was aiming to add or convert between 20 and 30 pubs this year, with plans to grow its estate, which currently consists of 238 sites, to around 300 over the next few years.
However, Wall stressed expansion would not come at the expense of standards.
“Community wet-led pubs are absolutely critical. They’re resilient, lower cost to operate and they bring people together”, he said.
“But it’s not just about numbers, it’s about quality. We want to be the number one community pub operator, but that doesn’t mean being the biggest, it means sustainable expansion and strong operators.”
To support its ambitions, the business has allocated £8m in capex for this year, Wall explained. A further £10m has also been set aside for growth in the next financial year.
Steady growth
When assessing potential acquisitions, the business favours larger sites that can accommodate darts boards and pool tables and already have strong community ties.
However, while the pubco recently acquired a portfolio of sites from RedCat Hospitality Group, the managing director said the primary focus for Proper Pubs was converting and maintaining existing sites rather than pursuing large-scale acquisition packages.
“We could scale rapidly, and there’s part of me that’s interested in towns and cities where we’re not represented, but we’re not in a rush, we want to grow steadily”, he continued.
Recruiting and retaining the right operators is also central to delivering that growth, Wall added: “Our BDMs are absolutely focused on getting outstanding community-minded operators. There’s a lot of growth in the community-led space with us and our competitors, so we need to ensure we attract the right talent and keep it.”
Alongside site investment, Proper Pubs is also exploring additional revenue streams to drive longer dwell times and boost sales.
These include third-party food partnerships, enhanced sports experiences and interactive competitive socialising.
Though community continues to be at the heart of the businesses, with all Proper Pubs sites hosting regular fundraising events for local causes or individuals, chosen by their operators.
Wall also told The MA customers are looking to trade up as part of wanting more interactive and social experiences in pubs, especially when it comes to larger, stout and low and no options.
Sticking plaster
“Customers are trading up and they want experiences, like sport, but it’s got to be executed well. We do live entertainment, we do quiz nights, we do meat raffles, we do lots of things that you would expect to see in a community pub, but it has to be executed well”, he said.
The managing director added he was particularly proud of the recognition the business has received with these efforts in mind, noting Proper Pubs is a finalist in both the Best Community Pub Operator and Best Pub Operations Team categories at this year’s Publican Awards.
Despite his confidence in the model, Wall warned Government policy continued to pose significant challenges for community wet-led pubs.
“It’s quite sad that our biggest headwind is the Government approach to pubs at the moment. The recent U-turn [on business rates] is helpful compared to the position we were in the Autumn Budget, but overall, our pubs are still going to experience a small increase. The impact is going to be less, but it is still just a sticking plaster.”
He added Proper Pubs operators were particularly concerned about rising employment costs, including increases to National Insurance and the National Minimum Wage.
To support them, the business has planned to strengthen its training offer, with a new three-month training programme set to launch in December, designed to help operators develop their teams, alongside wider training to improve efficiency and workforce scheduling.
Wall’s comments come after Admiral Taverns boss Chris Jowsey told The MA he has ambitions for the pubco to grow its estate as a whole to around 2,000 pubs.
Though similarly to Wall, Jowsey said growth would come at a manageable pace.
