Pricing
This is perhaps the most difficult one to embrace as it will mean fighting against all that you have probably been taught or experienced in your career. By taking a leaf out of the supermarkets’ books you too can run a loss leader – the same as they do. Cheap supermarket booze is often cited as a key factor in the decline of pubs and one that you can do little about. Make it a selling point of your pub that you sell your food as your loss-leader (typically this will mean resigning yourself to significantly lower Gross Profits on food even down to 50% GP).
By reducing GP on food you will be able to offer great value and afford to carry out the second two steps whilst buying into the concept that drinking in pubs is a luxury “value-added” experience. Admittedly you will do little to encourage your drinks-only clientele, but they will always find the money to go to the pub and you can look after them in different ways. What you will do is capture parts of the market that your competitors who slavishly follow the big-boys formulae with all the 2 for £8, ping-cooked bland offerings cannot hope to do.
I took what had been a managed pub from one of the large groups that was being disposed of to the leased market. It offered the typical fayre of sandwiches, burgers, processed, pre-packed micro-waved chow. Whilst recognising that many of the menu items were firm favourites through sales records I soon realised that many simply were not selling. So my first step was to reduce the menu by nearly 50% (limiting all sections to those we could sell). My second step was to reduce the prices on the “new” menu by 10 – 20% on some items and stop offering 2 for £8 and the like.
By setting a target of 40% GP on my food account I was able to offer main meals at reduced prices (full on 8oz Rump and all the trimmings for £8) and introduce daily specials and a two-course lunch offering for just under £4.
The main menu continued to attract regular custom and the new offerings, especially the lunch and specials, soon attracted new customers. As this was not a food-led pub when I took it on I did not have an unreasonable expectation and was only ever pleasantly surprised to see food takes gradually increase beyond those I took on. Meal numbers increased significantly (by some 30%) and this was reflected in our beverage and bar sales.
Local Sourcing
The second step was to source as much product as possible from local sources. Within ½ a mile of the pub was an award winning butcher whose USP was that his meat was sourced from within 15 miles and was all free-range. Also within this radius was a deli (with a huge selection of meats and cheeses) and a fruit and veg shop that bought from local markets and suppliers. With a little research I am sure the majority of pubs could find similar suppliers within easy reach of their premises.
Over the first three months we were able to reduce non-local food by some 60% from what had been previously been used in the pub (by cutting out frozen meats and vegetables). This we trumpeted loud and clear in all our advertising and on our menus and the staff continually talked this point up to customers. Without the reduction in food GP that I had decided on we would never have been able to “afford” much of this locally sourced food.
A bonus was the cross-pollenation of the pub and these local suppliers whose staff and customers began to frequent the pub and became ambassadors for the business.
Of course the ultimate local sourcing is when you produce certain foodstuffs at your own premises, for instance something as simple as “home cured” bacon can be a selling point.
Seasonal Foods
By sourcing locally I was able to then undertake the third phase which is to follow the seasons with our food offering. Whilst we still had to source non-local food to satisfy some customers demands we were able to create a vibrant seasonally adjusted menu of specials and accompaniments. This too became a talking point within the pub and the local community, especially when we started to print simple recipe cards for both butcher and green-grocer to use in their respective outlets that followed the food year round. See separate article on Seasonal Foods by clicking here.