Pub managers don't have to be robots

Why is it that people always want to categorise pub companies? Why has there been so much speculation about whether this or that company is "specialising" in managed or tenanted estates? And why is it always assumed that managed houses have to be bland?

A commonly held belief is that managed pubs depend very little on the personalities of the people who run them, that they are basically "plastic" pubs with little character, all made from the same mould and therefore losing something in the replication.

But pubs or restaurants or hotels or, in fact, any hospitality venue cannot rely on decor, food and drink alone. There are few people who do not respond to a friendly face and a warm personality, and in pubs in particular this is of paramount importance.

Yes, there are some chains of pubs and pub-restaurants where people seem to have been replaced with "image", but these are in the minority. Often, the people working in such establishments have been chosen to fit the image exactly, so they effectively disappear.

Run by individuals

However, the vast majority of successful pubs in Britain are those run by individuals - and each one is unique.

And I am not just talking about free houses and tenancies. There need not be that many differences between managed and tenanted estates. It is quite possible to run a managed estate with managers taking a similar role to that of a tenant in another company.

In fact, by removing some of the more mundane problems, such as purchasing agreements and upkeep, while allowing the managers to imprint their personalities on the businesses, you can have a real recipe for success.

I am not saying that pubs cannot use some help from the centre. But there is room for individuality. Changing menus, dropping signage and removing all branding has been done to good effect in some of our pubs. I know it sounds simple, but we have found that by really listening to our staff about what their customers want, we have increased like-for-like sales in the past 12 months - and that has to be the proof of the pudding.

The idea that a manager might "spoil" the brand is one that has no place in modern pubs, as Bob Ivell said in this magazine recently (Caterer, 27 January, page 26). A brand is best used as a standard. In the right environment, innovative managers can take that standard forward and make it their own.

Of course, brands can be powerful, particularly when it comes to drinks - serving well-known brands of lagers, wines and spirits is obviously a winner for a pub company. And there are all sorts of positive messages to be had from using brands that are known and that make people feel comfortable.

But I believe that a "branded pub" is almost a contradiction in terms. To me, what makes a pub a pub is that element of individuality that comes from the people behind the bar.

Pubs are a unique part of British culture and, although the café-bars that mirror Continental offerings are great, they are not pubs.

Room for everyone

The great news is that within the "traditional" pub market there is room for everyone, from a specialist free house offering haute cuisine, through the value-for-money food and drink offered to family audiences, to the drinking pub where people meet at weekends. What makes them all real pubs is the people who make those customers welcome.

The message here is that not all pubs are the same, and neither are all pub companies. Obviously, it is possible to run a successful managed estate with your managers sticking closely to the rule book and letting head office make almost all the decisions. And sometimes managers find the responsibility of running the pub themselves too much. But even in these more regulated environments, the customer still makes a judgement on the man or woman behind the bar and, for that reason, the buck stops there.

Categorising is not helpful to anyone but the stock dealers. When it comes down to it, hospitality is about people, and success hinges on all of us understanding how different people can be.

Rufus Hall is managing director of Tom Cobleigh