Rooms for improvement
Many businesses use their second year of trading to consolidate on the first. This has not been the case at the Carrington Arms in Moulsoe, Buckinghamshire, where proprietors Edwin and Trudy Cheeseman have not had time to sit back and reflect. "Absolutely everything is happening. It has gone ballistic," says Edwin.
When Caterer left the Carrington Arms in May last year, the pub had made a turnover of more than £350,000 with a food gross profit of 56%.
Turnover for the past year saw a 44% increase while food gross profit rose by four percentage points.
With business so good, the Cheesemans are tempted to sell the pub and move on. The Carrington Arms, with its eight rooms, has attracted some interest. "The lack of rooms around here makes it very sellable," says Edwin. "I'd love to expand the food but we've never been interested in the rooms."
Despite this, the rooms are bringing extra business to the pub. Last year, one room was sponsored by motor racing company Lister. This year, however, two more companies, Polygram and Rohm Electronics, have each decided to sponsor a room.
Sponsorship means the companies pay for the rooms to be upgraded and decorated to their specifications. Polygram has chosen to decorate the room with gold and platinum discs while Rohm, a Japanese company, has opted for futons and silk pyjamas. Any company representatives using the rooms pay a standard rate of £38.50, but if the Cheesemans let the room to anyone else the superior rate of £48.50 is used. Sponsoring companies get first refusal on "their" room, which is like a home-from-home for their clients. In addition, there is kudos attached to having your own room.
As well as having the rooms upgraded, the Cheesemans have made some additions of their own to the pub. The introduction of CCTV in the car park was costly, at roughly £5,000, but customers were suffering from a spate of car windows being smashed and radios stolen. "The car park is remote from the building. It's amazing the difference CCTV has made," says Edwin.
Plans to increase capacity in the 96-seat restaurant by building a conservatory have not yet come to fruition. Planning permission has been the main stumbling block, because the pub is a Grade II-listed property. In the meantime, the Cheesemans are using a marquee, which seats 60 people, for restaurant overflow. It also comes in handy for local events such as Chamber of Commerce lunches and Cranfield University's Summer Ball.
The Cheesemans are always keen to promote the pub through local events and Edwin's latest idea is to organise a Moulsoe Oyster Festival. He has been involved in four Woburn Oyster Festivals and is keen to be involved in the fifth. He has issued a challenge that his team can open oysters faster than anyoneelse. If no one rises to the occasion, then he will launch the first Moulsoe Oyster Festival.
The Carrington Arms' involvement in the local community has increased its profile and exposure in Moulsoe. In the past, if anyone asked a local taxi company where the best place to eat was, the pub was not on the list, and many didn't even know where Moulsoe was.
It's a different story now. Two new employees at the pub asked taxi drivers where was good to eat and the Carrington Arms was recommended in both cases. Word of mouth has built up restaurant trade to the point where the pub is catering for some 2,600 people a week. All this has happened without the Cheesemans investing in any advertising.
The pub's relationship with the local Chamber of Commerce has been particularly profitable lately. The Cheesemans invited 100 local businesses to an afternoon tea, which cost them roughly £2,000 to host. Less than a week later, the Carrington Arms was already receiving new business from at least 10 of these companies.
A further boost to business came from Saga Holidays, which did a write-up on the pub last month. Ever since, it has been besieged by the over-50s market.
The pub has also obtained recognition from the guides. Adding to last year's success as Newcomer of the Year in Egon Ronay's Old Speckled Hen Guide 1996 Pubs & Inns, the Carrington Arms is now listed in Egon Ronay's Guide 1997 Oriental Restaurants under the Thai section. "We're the only English restaurant in the Thai section and the mention is for our bar menu, which is our second food operation," says Edwin. "The guide says it's well-researched and authentically produced."
Despite all the exciting changes at the pub, the Cheesemans are keen to move on to other projects, and are in the process of buying a second pub, the Fitzwilliam Arms in Peterborough, to develop along the same lines as the Carrington Arms. The new property will have a 150-seat restaurant with an oyster bar, and will follow the cook-in-view concept the Cheesemans have made so successful at the Carrington Arms.
If the project goes ahead, the Cheesemans will try to live between the two properties and let staff at the Carrington Arms run the pub on a day-to-day basis.
With the help of a recruitment agency, the Cheesemans have now built up a team of staff they are confident leaving in charge of the business. "They are beginning to act like they're in business and have given me the confidence to go off and do something else," says Edwin. The pub now has a full quota of seven full-time staff plus 17 part-timers, who are all keen to get to know the business and see it prosper.
As well as the Peterborough project, the couple are negotiating with a brewery to establish more of the cook-in-view food operations. "It's only now beginning to have the spin-off effect of being in Caterer," says Edwin. "It's going to go ‘bang' one of these days when we decide which way to go."
