A year of delights – and disappointments

Last Saturday marked the end of our financial year, which I feel is a good time to reflect on some of the highs and lows of the past 12 months as well as looking forward to the coming year.

Probably the major high, and the one that gives me the most confidence to face the future, is our business performance.

In Lincoln, we have been up against a continual stream of new openings, but have still shown a very healthy 6% increase on sales. Scunthorpe has benefited from a competitor closing, and increased sales by 18%, while Louth has increased its share of a static marketplace to show a 10% uplift.

Of course, these figures would not be generated without the obvious efforts of the whole team, who have all put a lot into the business.

One of the lows has been the realisation that our choice of floor covering when we refurbished some 18 months ago was clearly ill-judged. The cost of carpet cleaning is unacceptably high and the look of the carpet is poor even just a few days after cleaning.

This means that we are going to have to scrap all the carpets next January and replace them with something else. The current favourite seems to be a mix of a different type and colour of carpet with an area of wooden flooring.

Two years ago we offered all our team members the opportunity to enrol on a course at our local college which would, if successful, lead to membership of the HCIMA. Both our assistant managers in Lincoln grasped this opportunity.

Bearing in mind that studying had not been part of their lives for some time, they have exceeded perhaps even their own expectations. Both have gained a great deal, including Kathy being named Student of the Year (sorry, Linda, despite your best efforts, there is only one award) and they will both shortly be recognised as HCIMA Associate Members. A terrific result and a definite high point.

Moving the business forward has to be a continuing priority, and opening a new branch would have involved each and every one of us to some degree. The site was right, the timing was right and the finance was in place. We overcame design problems and even placed job adverts to fit in with a very tight programme, but in the end the deal fell through - the lowest point in a terrific year.

JOHN DOWNS is managing director of Lincoln-based Jay-Dees Family Restaurants Next diary from John Downs: 6 September