Refeathering the

THE days when all a publican needed to do to keep his customers coming was pull a good pint of beer are fast becoming a dim and distant memory. At least, so argues Alan Fell, who leases the Little Owl pub on the outskirts of Cheltenham from brewing giant Whitbread.

Fell says that, over the past 10 years, the pub industry has faced increasing competition for consumers' leisure time and money from all sorts of sources. "Once upon a time, the fish-and-chip shop was our only competition," he says. "Now, Marks & Spencer's food, the increase in take-away food outlets, Channel 5, satellite TV channels and videos are all offering people an alternative way of spending their leisure time rather than in a pub."

This trend has kept Fell on his toes and over the decade has led him to totally transform his business to ensure it continues to attract both locals and visitors to the area. "In order to survive," he explains, "I've had to diversify and keep a constant eye on what my customers want."

Quality pub food

When Fell first moved to the Little Owl in 1987, it was closed for a major refurbishment. The restaurant was being taken out and replaced with a pool room in a bid to drive up wet sales and confirm the venue as a strongly drinks-led operation. After just two years, though, Fell felt this had been a wrong decision. "We were also trying to offer good-quality pub food," he says, "and sensed a clash between our more established, more mature customers, who came to eat, and the younger element, who came to drink."

Consequently, the pool room was reconverted into a wood-panelled restaurant, and during the next several years the Little Owl established its reputation as a place for "decent pub grub".

Two-and-a-half years ago, Fell wanted to take the pub upmarket. At the time, many pubs in Cheltenham were offering a pint for a pound. Fell says: "We simply could not afford to get into that kind of market, and I also felt it would do us no favours with customers' perceptions of us - we wouldn't be seen as a quality operation any more."

So he recruited Harri Hughes, who trained under the Roux brothers, to move the pub upmarket both with the food and front of house. "Harri felt it was time to bring classic cuisine into a pub setting," says Fell, "while his partner, Li Harding, had the warm personality we needed to provide exceptional customer service."

Fell hit on a winner with his recruitment of the couple, and the pub's reputation for food has grown over the past two years. It has served between 350 and 500 covers a week over the period and is now listed in the AA's Best Pubs & Inns.

Now, Fell has sensed that the pub needs to move on once more and he has spent £10,000 revamping the restaurant, which still had the dark wood panelling. The room was separated from the rest of the pub by a wrought-iron gate. "Tables were also formally laid up," he says, "and I felt the atmosphere could be putting some people off. I've noticed over the past couple of years our customers are dressing less formally, even the older generation, so we needed to reflect this."

Also, both Fell and Hughes felt it was time for the menu to become less formal and tied to the classics. Fell says: "We realised we had to move on and reflect the growing popularity of Mediterranean food and Far Eastern influences in cooking."

Three months ago, the Little Owl got an extensive facelift. Out went the wrought-iron gate and the dark panels, to be replaced by pastel-coloured walls and semi-abstract pictures of food. Also out went the starched tablecloths and formal table settings, to be replaced by plain wooden tables, with wine glasses in the middle of the table and cutlery all placed to the left of a setting, "bistro-style".

"Before, our customers were faced with a separate 40-seat restaurant or 40-seat bar," says Fell. "Now, it's light and airy and people can sit anywhere - it's far more inviting." The newly launched menu is similarly intended to be more inviting and accessible.

With the changes to the restaurant only completed a matter of weeks ago, it is still too early to be able to really tell what their impact is on the business, says Fell. Certainly, the numbers of covers served has not declined but, with the World Cup having created a fluctuating market, and with many of the pub's regulars away on holiday during July and August, Fell says he cannot yet build up an accurate picture of his turnover.

"One effect I have noticed," he says, "is that my sales mix has changed, with gross profit on wet products increasing by 2% following the change and staying at this new level. This means we're selling more wine and spirits as against beer, which suggests more people are eating."

Converted

In addition to the restaurant and pub side of the business, Fell converted a run-down skittle alley adjoining the pub into a conference venue three-and-a-half years ago. "It was dilapidated, hardly used and was creating virtually no revenue," he explains.

He managed to convince Whitbread to invest £100,000 in the project, also investing £50,000 of his own money. The initiative resulted in the creation of the Annecy Suite, named after Cheltenham's twin town in France. This can accommodate wedding breakfasts for as many as 100 guests or conferences for as many as 50 delegates. This turned out to be a shrewd move indeed, as the venue now hosts an average of seven functions a week.

As for the future, Fell is sure the number of businesses and distractions with which the pub has to compete will only increase, so he expects to continue diversifying his own operation to meet the challenge. His next move, he predicts, could be to set up an outside catering wing. "We've been asked to do several functions," he says. "That could be a new revenue stream that will take off." n