Lucky 13

14 February 2002 by
Lucky 13

Restaurant chain Blubeckers is opening the doors of its 13th outlet, and owner Ann Street Brewery intends to bankroll three new restaurants a year. Susan Clark learns more.

Based in the Channel Islands, Ann Street Brewery paid £10m for the 12-strong Blubeckers chain of restaurants in September 2000, buying it from Anthony Hancock, who had started the chain in 1977. Now, eight Blubeckers outlets offer country kitchen dining with an average spend of £20, while five Edwinns operations offer more elegant, sophisticated decor and attract an average spend of £30. Combined, the two brands have an annual turnover of £15m.

Couldn't refuse
The Stock Exchange-listed Ann Street Brewery produces beer and soft drinks.Through subsidiary Lionheart Inns, it owns Conquest Inns, with several pubs in the English West Country. Ann Street also owns three hotels on Guernsey, including the four-star, two-AA-rosette, 132-bedroom St Pierre Park in Rohais. The company wanted to broaden its horizons and move into the UK, and made Hancock an offer he couldn't refuse.

Hancock, who continues to consult for the company, opened the first Blubeckers in 1977 with 85 seats and a promise of traditional family fare of burgers, ribs and salads. Now the restaurant has 100 seats and does 1,100 covers a week, but the brand continues to rely on traditional, familiar food for a reasonable price, and the decor tends towards the country kitchen look.

Many of the restaurants are in listed buildings, such as the latest venture, which is in a converted pub. The Tally Ho in Eversley, Hampshire, has taken four months to buy and convert, at a total cost of £750,000.

Director Ann Lye is confident the new site will do well. Despite the cloud of economic downturn that has threatened the UK, she reckons that, within a few months, the restaurant will be doing 1,300 to 1,400 covers a week, bringing in a tidy £25,000 in turnover.

Her confidence stems from similar figures produced at fellow Blubeckers restaurant the Gomshall Mill, at Gomshall in Surrey, within weeks of its opening last year. The total cost there was £1.5m to purchase and set up and, with such an investment, it is crucial that the restaurants earn their keep. However, the downturn has hit profits. The cancellation by British Airways of its Christmas parties meant that the Edwinns branch in Shepperton, near Heathrow Airport, missed its December target of 4,300 covers by 500.

Just down the Thames at Hampton Court, there has been a drop in the number of people coming in for the early evening to take advantage of the company-wide promotion of 33% off meals booked for 6pm. "We usually do 60 covers in the early evening on a Monday night, but in October and November that went down by 50%," says Lye. "But we are still booked for the later evening, and getting 30 people in at 6pm isn't bad."

In light of the economic climate, Lye will ensure that 50,000 leaflets will be dropped through letterboxes within a 10-mile radius of the new restaurant, while adverts carrying discount vouchers will run in the local press.

Free rein Lye, like fellow director Lisa O'Connor and Blubeckers managing director Richard Brown, worked for Hancock before the Blubeckers sale. Starting as a waitress, trainee manager and part-time waiter, respectively, the three have been given a free rein to move the company and its 500 staff forward by Ann Street Brewery. "Ann Street wanted to buy the company as it was, with the management team intact, and it wants to progress the company with that team," says Lye.

Chefs are trained in-house and every restaurant uses nominated suppliers, but each chef is responsible for his own ordering, stocktaking and gross profits. Lye says: "Graham Day, our kitchen manager, oversees each restaurant and our main menu, but the chefs come up with their own specials."

Specials are sold as part of the deal offering two courses for £11.95, and might include haddock-and-chive fish cakes with rocket salad and lemon crème fraîche, or saut‚d calves' liver with smoked bacon, Lyonnaise potatoes, red wine sauce and fresh vegetables. The menu for the Blubeckers chain includes steak, mushroom and Guinness pie (£9.95), and grilled lamb steak with rosemary-roasted potatoes (£12.50).

Blubeckers

Owner: Ann Street Brewery, 57 Ann Street, St Helier, Jersey JE1 1BZ
Restaurants: eight Blubeckers and five Edwinns
Average spend: Blubeckers, £20; Edwinns, £30
Total turnover of company: £15m
Number of staff: 500
Founder: Anthony Hancock, in 1977
Key staff: Richard Brown, managing director; Ann Lye and Lisa O'Connor, directors; Graham Day, kitchen manager

History

1977 Anthony Hancock opens first Blubeckers in Shepperton, Middlesex.
1983 In North Warnborough, Hampshire, second Blubeckers opens with 250 seats.
1988 First Edwinns in Shepperton, Middlesex, opens close to the original Blubeckers, with formal and stylish setting and 85 seats.
2000 After growing it to 12 outlets, Hancock sells company to Ann Street Brewery for £10m.
2002 Ann Street Brewery opens 13th Blubeckers in Eversley, Hampshire.

Tally Ho pub

Eversley, Hampshire
Opening: mid-February 2002
Seating: 150
Investment: purchase of leasehold and refurbishment, £750,000
Projected turnover: £25,000 a week
Projected spend: £11.95 for two courses or £14.95 for three; children's menu from £3.75

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