One of the founding fathers of the powerhouse Craft Union pubs, back in the days of EI, Croft is hoping for the same alchemy with Punch Pubs & Co’s Unity Social concept, but this time with a heavy, and impressive, emphasis on societal change.
And with a strong team which includes David Crabtree as ops director and Laine founder Gavin George as chair, they’re off to a flying start, expanding from its three original pubs to 80 now in less than two years.
And their aims are impressive: “We’re driven by people,” says Croft, group strategy and commercial director. “If you ask me what in the future would success look like? For us, every community we’re in, no-one is lonely. If anyone feels alone, they can come to our pub, that’s the measure of our success.
“We are extremely focused on trying to tackle loneliness in our communities. It matters massively to us. It’s sort of an obsession, really.”
And that mission to target loneliness is gathering pace with the team expecting to surpass 200 Unity Social pubs by next year.
Community hubs
But what is a Unity Social pub? Part of the wider Punch Pubs business, this is a concept that seeks to transcend the usual pigeon holes. It’s not value focused, but aims to offer value, or as Croft puts it “fair pricing”, it also places strong investment into sport and entertainment technology, but wouldn’t be defined as a sports pub or an entertainment operation.
“I don’t recognise the notion of value in what we do, it is fair pricing in the market place,” Croft reinforces. “In a nutshell we create high-quality, wet-led pubs built around entertainment, sport and belonging. Our simple aim is to ensure that no-one is lonely in the communities that we serve, that we have a great reputation for creating places where nobody feels alone.”
Is that refusal to conform to industry standards confusing? Perhaps not - at its heart, unity social is looking to take pubs back to their traditional position, a community hub which caters broadly for all - a place where the vicar can rub shoulders at the bar with brickies, the traditional levelling ground - community hubs.
There’s no template for a Unity Social pub he’s keen to reinforce: “There isn’t a common theme, if you went round all of our pubs, we think they’re beautifully put together, with care and attention, but the offer is not homogenous.”
And the results so far have been impressive with individual sites flying - the Merry Mermaid in Skegness is doing over 1,000 barrels now Croft points out, and the Grapes in Wandsworth has gone from three to four thousand pounds a week to never taking less than £15,000 a week.
Values are key
Part of that success has been finding the right partners to run the right sites: “We’re seeking people who share our values,” Croft says and they don’t necessarily come with an industry background - one site, the Sun Inn, in Prescott, is run by the head of geography at a local school.
The Unity Social model operates under the managed partnership scheme, with operators, called Unity Social Partners, being remunerated through a management fee which the company says is “equal to an agreed percentage of the sales”. The operators fund the staffing, but everything else is provided by Punch, leaving the USP’s to focus on running the pub and delighting customers.
And all of this is underpinned by exceptional support from the Punch head office support team, says Crabtree: “I’ve worked three or four bigger operators, but the Punch support team is streets ahead, and the attitude and culture is great.”
“That business support centre,” adds Croft, “has enabled us to go from a standing start to opening over 60 pubs last year and being at 80 now. The support we get from Punch is literally off the charts.”
On top of that central support, Crabtree’s team sees area managers providing close support to operators, and he says those area managers will never have more than 12 pubs under them which allows them to work “shoulder to shoulder” with the operators.
Croft adds: “We’re building a movement, so you need to bring your people together to do that. You walk into a Unity Social pub and you won’t be surprised to see the area manager there, maybe behind the bar. They’ll be helping out doing whatever is required, in the pubs twice a week at least, and they never leave a pub with anything unresolved.”
Strong investment
And the pubs are well invested, with the average cap ex investment in each new Unity Social at around the £200,000 mark. “That’s my number,” says Crabtree, “James’ is like a bit more than that!”
And that investment and development is part of the magic according to Croft: “Honestly, its the best fun you can have, if your care massively about communities and tackling loneliness.”
Crabtree adds: “It’s brilliant opening new pubs.Going through that process, when you open the pub, the genuine delight of the local community, they’ve got their pub back - it’s really rewarding seeing that going on.”
And Croft says another key aspect to Unity Social’s success is its chairman. “Having Gavin as our chair, not only is he an industry legend, but the great thing we have is our authenticity, and Gavin’s experience of building a business like Laine, deeply rooted in its values, famous for pushing boundaries in areas like activity - that’s the perfect partnership.”
Clear mission
And George says that ambition to target loneliness was key to him coming on board: “It’s really important that a business has a very clear mission, and this one does.
“There are four levers for me, which drive sales and make successful pubs. The first is the people that you engage in in running your pubs, their ability to give hospitality and engage with their community.
“The second lever is the environments that you create, and these are well invested. They’re comfortable. They’re safe. They’re attractive. The third lever for me is the content you put in. So we’ve got we’ve got a great range of beer at very fair pricing. But on top of that, there’s the activity, the quizzes and stuff, and we’ve got some good tech solutions as well.
“And then the final thing for me is the engagement with customers and the community, and that kind of pulls the other three things together.
“And the result of that is great hospitality, and I’m seeing that in spades in Unity Social.”
And his role is to keep the train on the track: “We’re doing this at pace. I think part of my role as chair is to ensure, given we are building a movement here, that we have a culture that’s sustainable and that’s more difficult to do when you’re moving at that that kind of speed - governance is important.”
And with the pub estate now stretching from Scotland to Cornwall, and more in the pipeline, that pace shows no signs of slowing.
And what does the future hold? 200 pubs by the end of 2027, but there’s no end target or number in site, says Croft - they’re on a mission to eradicate loneliness, and perhaps that knows no boundaries.