The lunch mob

It's hard to see how the management at Savannah could put more effort into marketing. They have been developing contacts with local businesses ever since building work began last summer; they hosted a string of special events to mark the opening in October; the database of regular customers is mushrooming; and thousands of words have been written about the restaurant in local and national press.

They're in no doubt that there's more to do, however, and they want to do it themselves. So the PR agency is going to be taking a back seat for the time being, and general manager Saher Sidhom is relinquishing much of the day-to-day responsibility for running the restaurant and moving into a role as marketing manager. Sidhom's job will be to "run Savannah on an external level". David Pike, the new general manager, will be looking after the restaurant itself, while managing director Stuart Campbell concentrates on his strategic role.

Sidhom is already something of a marketing specialist. He worked for Campbell as marketing manager with the Down Mexico Way brand for three years, and interrupted an MA in marketing at Kingston University to join the team at Savannah last year. He's hoping to be able to complete the degree on a part-time basis, but for the moment all his energies are going into the new business.

"It's a huge task," he says. "My job is to be in charge of promotions, to target specific groups such as tourists and students, and to build up the relationship with the local people and local businesses. Marketing is so important that we had to bring it inside, rather than being dependent on external people."

For the moment, the approach is to use direct methods. Two months ago, Sidhom and Campbell tested out two special lunchtime offers: they distributed 9,000 leaflets in various ways, offering potential customers either a free glass of wine or two main meals for the price of one. The second offer turned out to be the more popular by a ratio of about 10 to one, so last month 36,000 leaflets offering two lunches for the price of one were distributed in the Oxford Times‘s business supplement.

This initiative, coupled with a concerted direct-mail campaign and leafleting sessions at Oxford's railway station, has helped to kick-start lunchtime trade, just about the only disappointing feature of the restaurant's trading profile so far. Savannah is now serving almost 40 lunchtime covers daily, a big improvement on the 15-25 that was typical in the early part of the year.

They still want to persuade more people to try Savannah during the day, of course, and it's mainly a matter of education. "Either people don't know we're open for lunch, or they know we're open but think we are too expensive," Sidhom explains. "In fact, the lunch menu is very good value. You get free water, free salad, and you can order a small steak for £6-£8 so your bill could be just £10-£12. And the free wine-tasting operates at lunch as well as dinner, so the value is great compared with a lot of other places."

Campbell has another reason for focusing on lunchtime trade. "In order to build a strong business you need it to have life and energy throughout the day," he says. "We want to get to a position where we are doing well enough to cover all of the costs of the business. If we do better at night then that's when we make more profit, but we don't want to be losing money at lunchtime."

Overall, the business has grown rather more slowly than Campbell had at first hoped, but there are plenty of positive signs. The management know they already have a large number of regular customers, but they don't outnumber the newcomers. "On a Saturday night I ask everybody who comes through the door if they have been before, and even now half of the people I speak to are first-timers, which I find quite surprising," Campbell says. "I think we are learning that people here are slower to take up a new restaurant offering than they would be in London."

There's no decision yet to go ahead with the opening of a second restaurant, and it won't now be until next year that another Savannah is launched. Guildford and Reading, where the company has the freehold on a suitable site, are still the primary targets, but they are going to have to wait until the Oxford restaurant has built up its turnover to a sustainable level.

That point is not too far away, however. The restaurant's break-even turnover is a little over £17,000, and when it reaches £22,000 a week, Campbell and the other directors will sit down and decide whether the time is right to start expanding the chain. At the current rate of progress, Savannah should pass this figure by the end of the summer.

It hasn't tuned into the rapid roll-out Campbell had wished for, but he's undaunted. "It's supposed to be the first of many so it's important that we take the right decisions at the right time building that business. I still have complete faith in the concept and the feedback we get from customers is extremely strong. We will get there, it's just that it will take slightly longer than I had projected."

Savannah

17 Park End Street, Oxford OX1 1HU
Tel: 01865 793793
Web site:www.savannah.uk.com
Managing director: Stuart Campbell
Restaurant manager: Saher Sidhom
Seats: 150
Average spend: £22-£25
Average weekly sales in April: £16,318
Average weekly covers in April: breakfast: 152; lunch: 167; dinner: 495
Average weekly sales in May: £18,663
Average weekly covers in May: breakfast: 142; lunch: 236; dinner: 533
Average weekly sales in June: £20,834
Average weekly covers in June: breakfast: 138; lunch: 265, dinner: 614

The story so far

Savannah is a new restaurant company, planned from the outset as a chain. The first outlet opened in Oxford in October last year, on what used to be the ground floor of the Royal Oxford hotel.

The menu is centred on free-range beef - about 65% of main courses served are steaks - and customers can watch the chefs cooking their order, to their own specification, in the open-plan kitchen. They can also taste up to three wines before deciding on a glass (or a bottle) to accompany their meal.

The company is led by Stuart Campbell, formerly group operations manager for Gioma UK. Head chef is Charles Noorland, formerly regional head chef at Belgo.

In the evening the restaurant regularly serves more than 100 covers, and the management team is still looking for ways to bring in more customers at lunchtime.

The company is hoping to build up a chain of about 15 restaurants over the next few years.