One step at a time

01 January 2000
One step at a time

Edwin Cheeseman says he doesn't do any research when opening a new pub, but strictly speaking that's not true. What he means is he doesn't do number-crunching on paper.

Instead, when he comes across a site he thinks will make a successful business, he drives around the area for a few days. He checks the local railway station, counts cars in nearby business parks, looks at the work local residents are doing on their houses and finds out where the roads lead.

When Cheeseman followed friends' advice and looked at the Fitzwilliam Arms in Castor, near Peterborough, he found the much-visited spot where The Railway Children was filmed, a huge business park and the newly-built four-lane A1. He also noticed that many houses in the area were having building work done.

These factors prompted him to agree a 20-year lease with the owner, Milton Estates, at a cost of £25,000 a year. Along with Trudy, his wife and business partner, he moved out of his first business, the Carrington Arms near Milton Keynes, and left managers in charge.

Edwin secured a £75,000 bank loan to carry out work on the Fitzwilliam Arms. The couple had worked out that building and alteration works, including re-ridging the thatched roof, catering equipment, crockery and furniture, would cost a total of £158,000. They were given £43,000 for dilapidations by the previous tenant, Allied Domecq. They invested £40,000 of their own money and took out the bank loan to make up the difference.

Edwin was so confident that he would secure the finance he needed that he went ahead and booked the builders. He admits he made up the design as he went along: "Even the builders had no idea what we were doing, but they loved it."

The building is listed but there were no planning problems because the local authority was glad the pub was being renovated. It even advised Edwin and Trudy to apply for a grant to pay for the doors.

The rest of the work involved taking the beams back from matt black to their original state, repainting the ceiling, which was red, and removing the red carpet. The Cheesemans employed a company to source bric-a-brac and four weeks after opening they were still adding pampas grass, wall-hangings and other curios.

While the Fitzwilliam Arms was taking shape, Edwin started to drum up interest in the new venture. He made sure there were plenty of skips outside so people would ask what was going on. He arranged business lunches for local companies and contacted the local chamber of commerce. Four companies that brought business to the Carrington Arms had relocated to Peterborough, so Edwin was assured of their custom.

Things were going well at the Fitzwilliam Arms, but not in Milton Keynes. Edwin and Trudy's sudden absence was too drastic a change for staff at the Carrington Arms. Trudy explains: "All of a sudden, staff who were the best of friends started bickering. There were things we did that we took for granted, but which other people did not."

One problem was that procedures the couple had tried and tested - such as cleaning out the fridges on a Monday, when stock was at its lowest - started to slip. "We do these things because they work. People weren't sticking to our rules - but they have to find these things out for themselves," Trudy adds.

To solve the problem, the Cheesemans took key staff from the Carrington Arms and put them in the new pub. Then they moved into a hotel room at the Carrington Arms. "We didn't want to have all the excitement and interest on the new place and we realised the Carrington Arms couldn't survive without us," says Edwin. He even installed the oven range he had earmarked for the Fitzwilliam Arms at the Carrington Arms instead.

By the book

But moving back into the Carrington Arms did not solve all their problems, so the Cheesemans decided to develop training manuals - like those deployed by some larger companies - to ensure every member of staff followed the same practices. The couple felt disappointed at having to do this because they had sworn it would never be necessary.

"We had to introduce more systems and do more training sessions. If anyone had told me we'd need to have a training manual, I would not have believed it. We had to do it because we can't be here all the time and things were going drastically wrong," says Trudy.

Some members of staff thought the cook-in-view concept - the basis of the Cheeseman's businesses - was too simple and tried to tweak it. Grilling or steaming a piece of meat or fish may seem easy, but it becomes complicated when you have to produce thousands of meals to the same consistency. Now the training manuals give exact details of how everything is done, with colour photos showing how the dishes should look.

Expansion plans

By refocusing on their first business, the couple finally managed to sort out their operational problems and the Carrington Arms is firmly back on track. The Fitzwilliam Arms is also starting to pull its weight. The pub is already selling about 300 dinners - and earning £5,000 to £8,000 - each week.

The Cheesemans are now confident that with two successful pubs, it will be much easier to expand. Their target is to have eight pubs in two years' time. They have set up a limited company, Thieves Kitchen, to develop the business further, with even the potential of a stock market flotation in the longer term.

Trudy tends to be the more cautious half of the partnership. She says: "We've said eight pubs, but I don't want to force it. There's only Eddie and I, and if the sites aren't there, we won't do it."

The Caterer Breakfast Briefing Email

Start the working day with The Caterer’s free breakfast briefing email

Sign Up and manage your preferences below

Check mark icon
Thank you

You have successfully signed up for the Caterer Breakfast Briefing Email and will hear from us soon!

Jacobs Media is honoured to be the recipient of the 2020 Queen's Award for Enterprise.

The highest official awards for UK businesses since being established by royal warrant in 1965. Read more.

close

Ad Blocker detected

We have noticed you are using an adblocker and – although we support freedom of choice – we would like to ask you to enable ads on our site. They are an important revenue source which supports free access of our website's content, especially during the COVID-19 crisis.

trade tracker pixel tracking