Set to expand
With its year as an Adopted Business coming to a close, the Carrington Arms is profitable and looking to expand. Proprietors Edwin and Trudy Cheeseman may even open up another pub based on the same successful cooking-in-view concept. Although the existing menu revolves around high-quality steak and fish, the new venture doesn't have to be the same.
The Carrington Arms stands up against anyone's measure of success. The business is profitable (not just a high turnover), has a regular customer base and its sole form of advertising is word of mouth recommendation. The best gauge of all is that it achieved the Newcomer of the Year award from Egon Ronay's Pubs and Inn 1996 after it had been open for less than a year.
Edwin and Trudy believe that three points helped with the success of their venture: they opened within 10 miles of their previous pub; the pub is located near the M1 and the centre of Milton Keynes; and the building itself doesn't look like a country pub, hotel or restaurant.
Only one area in the end of term report gets a "could do better" and that is staffing. Here Edwin and Trudy end the year as they started it - looking for staff. But this is not a bad reflection on the pub, believes Edwin, but on the industry as a whole. "There is a lack of young, well-qualified and motivated young people; and those that are don't want to work in pubs because we have a real image problem.
"When I left my job as a chef and started in my first pub, my mother told everyone I ran a guesthouse! And today even if a young person did decide on a career in pubs, which is unlikely, what do you think their parents would say?"
Edwin admits that the graduates recruited by chain operators are being trained but not, he says, in a way that helps the industry. "The chains teach staff how to work within their particular system, and that's not helping the industry."
The couple have enlisted the help of a recruitment agency with some success and also have a graduate keen to work with them. "We have also resorted to poaching staff. We thought ‘Why not?' That's how we moved jobs at first and other people are doing it to us. But that's not really the way for the industry to behave," adds Edwin.
The difficulty in finding staff is, to a degree, self-inflicted. Edwin and Trudy expect their staff, like them, to do everything from cleaning the kitchen to cooking and serving customers. But the key isn't the lack of skills - Edwin is happy to train people - it's finding the right type of people to fit in with the concept.
And that is another of the reasons for the Carrington Arms' success. Edwin is emphatic that the staff must spend time with the customers, explaining what they do, how they do it and why. "We spend as much time telling people what we don't do as what we do."
The cooking-in-view concept revolves around serving the highest-quality ingredients in a simple, fast way. The grill, being in the middle of the pub, allows customers to choose what they want from the butcher and fish-shop display and then see it cooked on the grill.
"We get many new people saying they want a sandwich or soup and chips. We then explain that's not what we do. I would rather send them somewhere else than change to try to suit everyone. Besides, when people eat here their biggest surprise is often how fast the food can be served and how different it is."
Fast movers
It was the speed of service at the pub that was the real turning point in the success of the Carrington Arms. After deciding to join the local Chamber of Commerce, the Carrington Arms hosted a Champagne and oyster reception for 100 founder members. Then, all the guests were treated to a lunch the pub served to them in only 17 minutes. The idea was to not only show off the quality of food served at the pub, but also the speed with which it can be served.
The investment paid off as guests from that lunch have now become regular business customers.
That type of promotion is typical of the Carrington Arms' approach. The Cheesemans identified the business sector as their key customers and with great determination worked to attract them to the pub and turn them into regulars.
Planning is an important part of the strategy. While Edwin and Trudy don't spend hours pouring over business plans, spreadsheets and financial data, they do know exactly where they are going and who they want to attract.
The couple have been completely unmoved from this course, and it has paid off. While the idea of attracting this type of business may not be unique, the methods they have employed to get them are unusual.
These have included a free barbecue for a car company at a local fête, the Chamber of Commerce reception, no Christmas specials, no booking for tables less than eight - the list goes on.
The most important point, Edwin says, is to identify your market and then go for it without being distracted: "It does not matter what type of pub you are: a boozer, young person's pub, family pub, quality-food destination - whatever. But it's vitally important that you tell people what you do and where you are."
And it's that thinking that is behind Edwin and Trudy's future plans. Both admit they are becoming bored with the Carrington Arms. After the excitement and hard work at the beginning, neither wants to remain in the same place just managing the business.
The aim is to get a good management team in place at the Carrington Arms and then open up another similar venture elsewhere.
"But it may not necessarily be steak and fish. The concept is not the food but the people behind it. We match the right people with the food and customers. The big part really is selling.
"We don't go in for the hard sell. Just like the supermarkets, we make our wares available in the right surroundings and give customers the opportunity to buy.
"We also sell comfort. The regular customers become comfortable with us - what we do, the surroundings, speed and the price. And that works with all types of food. If you match the right customers with the right food the rest should follow," he says.
