Shoppers' salvation
Birmingham's new Bullring Centre has arrived just in time for Christmas. The city's most hated architectural landmark has been demolished and replaced by a £500m consumer haven of epic proportions.
The new shopping centre, with three floors and 140 stores and restaurants, is dominated by two household names. At one end is Selfridges, the £40m futuristic fashion store encased in more than 15,000 spun-aluminium discs. At the other end is Debenhams - a little more down-to-earth design-wise, perhaps, but no less innovative in concept.
For this is one of the company's "2010" stores, where innovation is de rigueur. In this shop there are 25 enhanced customer services, the aisles are wider, and customers can book their own personal shoppers. There are award-winning children's facilities, a VIP lounge for tired shoppers, state-of-the-art shop floor design and - wonder upon wonder - a restaurant that's not hiding up on the fourth floor behind the coats.
"The 2010 campaign is about coming up with new ideas for Debenhams stores and thinking outside the box," says Peter Barrett, divisional director for the company's in-house restaurant division. "We were all encouraged to move forward and take risks, and the result is the store we've got here. The whole place is an example of innovation and stretching boundaries."
Barrett's first challenge at the Bullring was to put the restaurant in a more prominent position. Traditionally, Debenhams' restaurants are sited on the upper levels, but here it's on the first floor opposite one of the entrances. "We thought we'd be tucked away on one of the top floors, but this is one of the most successful locations, and it has become a focal point of the store," says Barrett. "Generally speaking, the restaurants are put on the top floors where nothing else goes."
The store and restaurant have been open for just over three months and projections have been shattered already. Visitor numbers to the centre hit the six million mark after only a week, and the 160-seat restaurant is currently serving about 1,000 covers a week or more - exceeding forecasts by 50% - and looks set to retain that figure, if not better it.
It's all music to the ears of Barrett, whose passion for his Debenhams restaurants (attempts to give the store's restaurants individual names have failed persistently) is plain to see. Between 18 and 19 million people are catered for in the stores each year, and one in five customers in Debenhams eats at the restaurants. Barrett's focus, he says, is on the remaining four.
"My mission is to create something radically different, with superior customer appeal, improved profitability and the potential to roll out the concept. One of the biggest challenges is differentiating ourselves from the pack, so we employ talented people who look into food development trends, go to conventions, do research and spend more time in other people's restaurants than our own," he says.
The result is a restaurant in a prime location with a contemporary feel, focused on providing something for everyone, be they vegetarians, Atkins dieters, young mothers or those with specific allergies.
The design throughout is bold and bright with clear signage, from the VIP baby counter - offering free baby food, bibs and a microwave for warming bottles - to each self-service food section. There's a large menu up on the wall at the entrance, with dishes marked as vegetarian, gluten- and nut-free, organic or low-fat where applicable.
Next to the menu is the Debenhams Food File, a folder of information listing every dish in the restaurant and its ingredients. It's something Debenhams has offered to customers ever since a young woman died of anaphylactic shock after eating a Debenhams cake that contained nuts. The food file also lists whether a dish contains gluten or soya, is low-fat, vegan or vegetarian or contains E numbers. An even more detailed file on ingredients is available on request from behind the counter.
Children's counter
There's a salad bar and an extra-low children's counter, where the smaller customers can pick and mix their own lunches from pediatrician Dr Miriam Stoppard's "naughty and nice" selection of fruit, milk drinks, crisps and chocolate bars. Baby food, crayons and colouring books are free.
The wide restaurant entrance opens out to a number of self-service counters, all with open kitchens behind. Sandwiches are ready-made or made to order at the sandwich counter, while bruschetta pizzas are cooked in a stone-fired pizza oven alongside organic soups. A double hot-meals counter helps to ease queues and has open grills where steaks and meats are cooked in front of the customer. There's the obligatory Christmas turkey with all the trimmings on sale, but also winterberry meatballs, stews and pasta dishes. Pagers are given to customers who want cook-to-order food so they can sit at their tables while waiting.
There's no fuss about finding a table, either, as staff with radio headsets sort out a table for customers when they come through the entrance. Eating areas are partitioned into separate spaces and there is a play area for children next to the VIP baby station.
In the run-up to Christmas Debenhams has so far served 10,000 customers at an average spend of £4. For Barrett, it's a job well done, although that doesn't mean he can stop there. Ideas and concepts need to be constantly updated.
As he says: "If you don't keep developing, you're dead in the water. We get the competition in, but by the time our ideas have been copied we've moved on. You need an appetite for change. I love what I do, but the only thing that gets to me is the widely held view that department store restaurants are some sort of backwater. The perception of Debenhams has transformed dramatically, and we've done some excellent work on repositioning ourselves. But we don't have a right to it - we're only as good as our last cup of tea."
Austin Reed
Austin Reed's flagship store on London's Regent Street (pictured above) has recently completed a £12m redesign. This has included opening a caf‚-bar for the first time in the store's 100-year history.
Caterer Everson Hewett started a one-year rolling contract in September to run the caf‚-bar on the lower ground floor. Manager Kitch Davies is also in charge of the restaurant at the nearby National Gallery and is able to move staff between the two sites as required. Davies says his customers are domestic shoppers and tourists, but most repeat trade comes from local business people.
To drum up awareness and position itself as a corporate events venue, the caf‚ has hosted a series of drinks parties for cardholders and shareholders, and organisations such as the Japanese Tourist Board, the Crown Estate and the Institute of Directors. "We're tapping in to Austin Reed's marketing and business development strategies," explains Davies. Currently the Times is running a promotion offering 10% off at the caf‚ and 20% off the store's goods.
Davies stresses the strength of the relationship with Austin Reed. "It absolutely has to be a partnership. The style, theme and badging of the caf‚ is very much Austin Reed, reflecting traditional British values," he says, handing me a menu decorated with Jeeves and Wooster-style 1930s cartoons. "At the same time it's a great place for us [Everson Hewett] to show ourselves off."
In the two weeks before Christmas, all the caf‚'s customers will be entered into a daily draw to win a magnum of Champagne. Average spend at the 30-seat caf‚ is £12. Afternoon tea costs £14.95, and there is a full cocktail bar for the late afternoon. Everson Hewett predicts sales of £1,000-£1,200 a day.
Selected menu items
Austin's winter salad: pear, Stilton and walnuts in a honey, mustard and poppy seed dressing, £5.20/£9.95
Salmon and warm potato salad, £5.95/£11.50
Leek and goats' cheese tart, £7.95
Bangers and mash, £8.95
Seasonal fruit crumble, £4.50
Liberty
"I can't bear turkey. It's too dry," says Liberty's catering manager Christian Bayley. He would have liked to serve turkey carpaccio this Christmas but, unsurprisingly, couldn't find a supplier. What? Raw, thinly sliced turkey? Good God, man! Are you having a laugh?
So, the famous London store is a turkey-free zone at Christmas. But surely, in a store as traditional as Liberty, the customers will have something to say? "Not in the slightest," he replies. With a strong clientele of "ladies who lunch" on salads and light meals, turkey is not missed, according to Bayley.
The menu is full of lighter seasonal alternatives such as warm winter vegetable salad, St Petersburg hot smoked salmon, or mulled plum chutney with Suffolk ham.
Besides, the historic store doesn't want pungent odours getting trapped in its Tudor wood-panelled rooms. In fact, limited back-of-house facilities mean there is minimal opportunity for prime cooking. There is a convection oven for roasting meats, a pasta boiler, and that's about it.
Bayley is employed by Digby Trout Restaurants, which runs Liberty's Art Bar Caf‚ on the second floor and Arthur's Caf‚ Bar on the lower ground floor. The Eliance Restaurants division is two years into a three-year contract, and the two caf‚s have a combined annual turnover of £650,000. One-third of these sales are taken in November and December.
The Art Bar Café was refurbished earlier this year and reflects Liberty's classic design values. All the furniture, pictures and tableware are the same as those on sale in the store. Arthur's has a more laid-back feel and is popular with media and fashion types who work in the area.
Of course, at Christmas, the store's cafés are invaded by what Bayley calls the serious shopper. "Fast is the operative word, because people want to get as much shopping done as possible. And then, during the January sales, people want even faster service. The staff are quite relieved when February comes around."
In-store catering holds great growth potential for contractors, according to chairman Digby Trout, but he is selective when it comes to choosing contracts. "We want to be able to achieve a higher spend at stores where customers will pay for quality," he says. He has found Liberty and Heals on London's Tottenham Court Road to be a good fit with the Digby Trout portfolio, which includes Kensington Palace, the British Museum and the Royal Court Theatre.
Liberty's in-store cafés have been outsourced since the early 1980s, initially to the Forte group. Trout says Liberty would make far more money per square foot if the café space were given over to retail. So why have them at all?
"Stores with a restaurant are viewed as more heavyweight. And because they are often quite well hidden, they move shoppers around the store, increasing the opportunity for impulse purchases," Trout explains.
Selected menu items
Arthur's
Roast pumpkin and parsnip soup, cheese scone or bread, £6.95
Finest blue Stilton, apple cider chutney, raisin and walnut bread, £7.95
St Petersburg hot smoked salmon, roasted new potatoes, herb salad, capers, lemon dill dressing, £10.75
Suffolk honey roast ham, mulled plum chutney, toasted bagel, £9.75
Art Bar Café
Wild boar terrine, toasted hazelnut salad, onion chutney, £9.75
Oven-roasted butter squash and beetroot salad, rocket, toasted pumpkin seeds, £8.95
Roast chicken breast, Puy lentil and wild mushroom salad, tarragon and white wine dressing, £10.75
Liberty fruit cake, £3.50
Berry meringue, clotted cream, berry compote, £3.50
Glazed stem ginger cake, £3.50
Jenners of Edinburgh
Jenners of Edinburgh is the oldest independent department store in the world, having maintained its original position on Princes Street since 1838. Its restaurants and bakery are well-loved institutions that have always been run in-house. During the war, women would bring their sugar rations in so the chef could continue making their favourite meringues.
These days, there are four restaurants or cafés in Jenners, which all serve products baked on the premises. Catering manager Gillian Mitchell says: "We like to keep up traditions over Christmas." In the weeks before the Christmas rush, the bakery builds up a stock of shortbread, Christmas cake, mince pies and florentines.
Café 2 is in the men's fashion department and serves coffees, teas and pastries for a quick stop. It is four years old and was designed to fit in with the surroundings of men's designer wear. It attracts local office workers who pop in for a caffeine fix and also serves take-away coffees and teas.
Kenningtons restaurant, on the first floor, has 50 seats and waitress service. Mitchell says that, since a makeover in 2000, it has attracted women lunching with friends and gets a lot of bookings for office Christmas lunches.
The self-service Princes Street restaurant (left) has 220 seats and is the busiest venue. Its great view attracts families, friends and tourists. The 105-seat Bistro, on the fifth floor, serves snacks, salads, hot dishes and desserts. A complete mix of customers comes to eat here.
Selected menu items
Beef Wellington with vegetables and potatoes, £7
Traditional Christmas lunch with all the trimmings, £6.50
Turkey and cranberry pie with a selection of salads, £6.50
Christmas pudding and brandy sauce, £1.95
in-Store operators
Compass recently announced a new 10-year deal to run Woolworths' in-store restaurants. The contract to cater at the 68 previously self-operated outlets is worth £29m in annual turnover. So who holds some of the other in-store catering contracts?
Store Operator Safeway in-house
Woolworths Compass
Asda in-house
Sainsbury's in-house
John Lewis and Waitrose in-house
House of Fraser Massarella Catering Group (Compass at stores in London and Scotland)
Debenhams in-house
Liberty Digby Trout Restaurants
Fortnum & Mason in-house
Harrods in-house
Austin Reed Everson Hewett
Littlewoods Massarella Catering Group
BOXHEAD: Howells of Cardiff
BOXTEXT: Sheffield-based Massarella Catering Group has run the restaurants in about 50 House of Fraser stores across England and Wales for the past 18 years. Marcus Gardiner, area manager for the South-west region, says that restaurants double their takings during the 12-week Christmas and January sales period. Weekly sales can jump from £6,000 a week to £12,000 or more.
At flagship Cardiff store Howells, Massarella runs three restaurants. The customer profile varies from women aged 40-plus on the top floor to a younger crowd on the first, and a mixture in the table-service basement restaurant.
Operations director and managing director Mark and Stephen Massarella have a monthly meeting with House of Fraser's restaurant operations manager Piero Sardano when menus and strategy are discussed.
In the past five years House of Fraser has repositioned itself as a youth-orientated designer brand store. Particularly in major cities, the restaurant managers have the task of attracting and serving the young, fashion-conscious shopper while not losing the traditional customer's loyalty.
Selected menu items
n Traditional Christmas lunch with Christmas pudding or mulled wine cheesecake, one course £6.95, two courses £7.95
n Turkey feast sandwich with strawberry black pepper chutney, sage and onion stuffing with mayonnaise, mince pie and chocolate, £3.95
n Hot roast pork baguette with apricot stuffing, roast red onions and apple sauce, £3.50
