Local authority
Kevan Draper is spending a month in the country. His pin-striped suit has been temporarily replaced with overalls and a hard hat.
As proprietor of the Royal Oak of Luxborough, in Exmoor National Park, he'll need to muck in over the coming weeks if the pub is to meet its 1 November deadline to bring it up to level one fire requirements.
In a remote area it's hard to find skilled labourers, so Draper's involvement is critical. But he's glad to find an excuse to spend more time at the Royal Oak, and less at his London-based information technology consultancy.
"I spend most weekends at the pub anyway," he says. "But I'd like to be there more often and the long-term plan is to move down here. I don't want to be an absent landlord."
Moving down will also allow Draper to play a fuller role in a village community for whom the pub is the nerve centre. Papers are delivered there, youths come to play pool, milk and bread are sold there and it is also the local take-away.
But there are drawbacks to being the hub of a community. When he bought the Royal Oak as an outsider two years ago, Draper soon realised that there were things he would never be able to change. The bars are badly in need of refurbishment, and the exterior could do with some attention. But changing the public areas would incur the wrath of locals, some of whom come in twice a day and view the pub as an extension of their homes.
"I think they see me as someone who has come to run their pub for them," says Draper. "Some of the locals are more resident landlords than I am!"
In any event Draper is not keen to make any structural changes. The cracks in the fabric all add up to the country-pub charm which first attracted him and his mother Rose to the Royal Oak. "My mother had sold her flat and we had some money to invest in a business," Draper recalls. "Neither of us had any experience of the industry and we weren't sold on the idea of running a pub. But as soon as we saw the Royal Oak we knew this was what we wanted to do."
When change does not threaten the sacred public areas it's easier to instigate. When Draper took over the pub it had two letting rooms. Now it has eight with plans for two more by the end of 1997.
But these have brought their own problems. Under English Tourist Board classification criteria the Royal Oak has three-crown commended status. Draper feels that three-crown highly commended or even four crowns would better reflect the quality of the rooms. But the public areas bring down the overall rating and here Draper is tied to the wishes of the locals.
ETB fees of £145 are paid up until the middle of next year but once these run out Draper is considering withdrawing from the scheme. Being only three-crown but charging similar prices to those charged by other four-crown operations in the area puts the Royal Oak at a disadvantage.
Withdrawing from the scheme would mean no more tourist board promotions and no presence in guides issued by Exmoor National Park and other official tourist bodies.
Fortunately, the pub has a variety of revenue streams. Around 50% of trade is repeat business. Some 60% of new business comes from Camra's Good Beer Guide; 20% from Egon Ronay's Pubs & Inns guide; the remainder from recommendations and other sources of which the ETB is one.
Uncertainty over the future of Egon Ronay's Guides is worrying, and will force Draper to find new sources of business. With an annual advertising budget of just £2,000, money will need to be spent prudently. Possible options include the Exmoor Visitor, a free hand-out generally found in libraries and guesthouses which will cost Draper £200-£300 a month, and the Eating Out section of the Somerset magazine at a cost of £20 a month.
Key to success will be to encourage weekday business. With the shooting season now in full flow there could be an opportunity to become better known among the affluent set who descend on Exmoor during this time.
Already Draper has secured 12 bed nights for the season from sporting agency Roxtons. At £30 for single occupancy, Roxtons had told Draper that the Royal Oak may not appear expensive enough and asked him to create a package.
Draper came up with £70 dinner, bed and breakfast, including unlimited drinks except wine. Guests on this package can choose from anything on the menu. The calculation is based on rack rate of £30, plus the most expensive main course of £10.95, the most expensive starter at £3.95 and the most expensive pudding at £2.50 and allows for about £20 of drinks per person.
Once the fire regulations have been met, Draper can turn his attention to the two new rooms. Having more rooms will help meet the weekend demand, which currently exceeds supply.
But for every problem solved another arises. Laundry is currently done in-house with one industrial washer, one industrial dryer and two domestic washer-dryers. But this is unlikely to be able to cope with the linen from all 10 rooms as well as serviettes from the restaurant.
Draper is currently considering whether he should outsource this need or buy more industrial machines to cope with the increased throughput.
Problems such as these are a far cry from Draper's world of IT consultancy, but nonetheless it is a challenge in which he clearly revels.
Next visit to the Royal Oak will be on 30 October
