10.01.2022
Mark Holden FBII - Director of Inn Cornwall, highlights good practice and the small steps that can add up to big wins when it comes to executing sustainability in his pub businesses.
TRANSPARENCY ON FINANCES
“We run our payroll weekly. It’s labour intensive and comes with a cost but by doing it we create a profit and loss account every single week for all our managers and team members. They can see how their site is operating. It means if changes need to be made we’re not waiting a month for it to happen. We have a very clear view of what needs to happen. Off the back of that we have incentive schemes for our leadership teams. They are all rewarded against the net profitability and performance of each business each week. If someone has been doing particularly well and smashed it out of the park on a Sunday, the reward is processed on Monday and not forgotten about. It adds another level of motivation.”
REAL TIME AWARENESS
“We try to make sure our financial records are up to the trading speed of the business. We provide our kitchens with a sales purchase margin tracker. We input all of the food invoices, as they come in during the week, and it gives our chefs a cumulative figure to compare against sales during that period. If they’re heading into a busy weekend and they have received a report that shows -£2,000 of stock, it gives them a kick up the backside to check stock levels. When levels are looking high, it gives them a prod to think about slowing down purchasing and using up some stock. We’re not reliant on our external stocktaker coming in every six week or two months. We have that as an additional check, but we’ll know pretty much what that’s going to look like by tracking on a weekly basis.”
EXPANDING NETWORKS
“I’m in a mentor programme, through Be The Business, getting help from a senior leader in BAE Systems. It’s a fantastic programme that’s free to subscribe to. He has no experience in hospitality or the pub trade but it’s all about communication, leadership and management of people, and having the headspace to deep-dive into problem solving in our business. We meet up once a fortnight over Zoom and talk about the business progress and it helps to ensure that you’re actioning things and tackling issues inside the business. We’ve done a lot around structuring of meetings, being more direct with our managers, and making sure communication drip-feeds all the way down – small improvements that overall have a really big impact. It keeps you on your toes.”
CLOUD AND CLEAR
“We’ve gone a lot more cloud-based with our technology. It means we’re able to work more on the go and can share information from our till systems between our sites. It’s created an added level of competitiveness between our pubs and managers, but has also added a level of celebration. If one site does particularly well, they’ll be messaging each other to say ‘well done’. It motivates people and leads to much more collaborative learning and problem solving. A little bit of competition is healthy, if it’s managed well.”
WASTE MANAGEMENT
"All our cellars now have the Carlsberg Quality Dispense Systems. That has cut energy use and wastage, provided a more consistent product and the yield is a lot more stable. Our pouring yield on draught is 103%. We’ve also used the iDraught app alongside that to input our sales data and monitor yields. That has made us a lot leaner.”
SAVING ENERGY
"We pivoted last year and created a delivery brand called Pub Grub and we were lucky to be lent some electric vehicles by two local companies who had less use for them. We built on that and now have our own electric car fleet and we’ve installed charging points at venues for our vehicles and those of guests. We’ve just finished a 44-panel solar installation at one of our sites with the help of St Austell Brewery as part of a long-term investment project – and we renewed our electricity contract in July to switch to power from green sources. We are paying more for that but it was a moral decision and is assisting us to move closer to net zero. We don’t use brokers for energy contracts. We go direct to the big six and play them off against each other to try to bring down the unit price as much as possible. Monitoring energy use is key, having access to data and sharing that with team members.”
NURTURING TALENT
"We’re doing a lot around career paths in hospitality. We’ve maxed out on our apprenticeship funding, with 12 apprentices signed up across Levels 2-4 in management. Hopefully, by 2023, we’ll be working with our education providers to have a Level 5, which will be a foundation degree in hospitality. The idea is to have lots of really good talent and for people to have careers inside the business. We’ve got kickstarters, traineeships, work experience projects and apprenticeships.”
This article originally appeared in the print version of BII News Winter 2022, published in January. BII Members can access this online here.
05.08.2022
Be Inclusive Hospitality (BIH), founded by Lorraine Copes to advance racial equity in Hospitality, Food and Drink, is proud to announce its inaugural UK BIH Spotlight Awards, taking place on 24 October 2022.
The awards will celebrate businesses and individuals of exceptional talent and achievement from Black, Asian and ethnic minority backgrounds working within the hospitality industry today.
NOMINATIONS OPEN ON 1 AUGUST 2022 FOR 11 AWARD CATEGORIES:
Chef of the Year African Food Caribbean Food East and South East Asian Food South Asian Food Middle Eastern Food Bar/Pub of the Year Drinks Professional of the Year Writer of the Year Head Office Impact Rising Star The public are invited to put forward nominations across all categories, and self-nominations are also welcomed. The shortlist and winners will be decided by our expert judging paneI.
In addition, there will be two Peoples’ Choice awards which will be decided upon calculating the most nominated person and restaurant. The Peoples’ Choice Person of the Year The Peoples’ Choice Restaurant of the Year
Entries will be open via the BIH Spotlight Awards website from 1 August to 9 September 2022. The shortlist will be published on 24 September 2022 and winners announced at a live event ceremony on Monday, 24 October 2022 at Percy’s London.
The judging panel for the BIH Spotlight Awards will be co-chaired by two of the industry’s most respected personalities, TV presenter and celebrity chef Andi Oliver alongside CEO and chairman of luxury restaurant group, D&D London, Des Gunewardena.
Joining them on the judging panel will be food and diversity consultant Mallika Basu; Masterchef winner and restauranteur, Shelina Permalloo; author and chef, Mike Reid; global rum ambassador, Ian Burrell; wine and sake educator, Shane Jones.
Andi Oliver comments: ‘I am thrilled to be working with the brilliant Lorraine Copes and Be Inclusive Hospitality on these hugely significant awards. We all love our industry but there is no denying it needs a shake up! The way that we view excellence can and should be expanded. There are amazing chefs from a plethora of backgrounds, working all over the country, who are creating stunning food that reflects the multiplicity of culture in the UK. This is a way to uplift and celebrate their work! And right on time it is too!’
Lorraine Copes, founder of Be Inclusive Hospitality says, ‘Our aim for the BIH Spotlight Awards is to present opportunities for the nominees and winners alike enabling them to advance and widen their business networks and audiences. We look forward to celebrating the success of some of the brightest stars of the present and the future’.
For further information on the BIH Spotlight Awards: www.bihospitality.co.uk Social Tag: @beinclusivehospitality
National Pubwatch is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. The voluntary organisation, which supports over 800 pubwatches across the UK, works to promote safe, secure and social drinking environments in all licensed premises throughout the UK. In celebration of the voluntary organisation hitting 25 it is handing out special commemorative coins, which feature the Red Lion pub in Westminster, London on one side, to thank people within the industry for their support. Chair of National Pubwatch Steve Baker OBE said: “National Pubwatch has been helping local pubwatches for 25 years ensuring that pubs and licensed premises can offer safe and responsible premises for people to drink in. “We would like to acknowledge everyone who has helped us along the way. We are a small, voluntary organisation that relies on donations to fund our work and would like to thank our supporters. The members of the National Pubwatch committee and our regional representatives are people that are dedicated to helping promote responsible social drinking environments. We are committed to help licensees and the trade to continue to offer safe venues for the next 25 years and beyond.”
Emma McClarkin, chief executive of the British Beer and Pub Association OBE, said: “For 25 years National Pubwatch has provided an invaluable service through helping to enable safe and comfortable drinking spaces for everyone across the country “Working alongside businesses, local agencies and the public pubwatch helps our industry thrive through the promotion and prioritisation of inclusion and community and for that, we thank them.”
It was 1997 when two publicans and a former police chief made the momentous decision to set up National Pubwatch.
The three founders - Raoul De Vaux, licensee and magistrate, often known as the “politicians’ publican” during his stint at the Red Lion in Westminster, Malcolm Eidmans, a former police chief superintendent and licensee Bill Stone, - recognised the importance of supporting local pubwatches in their fight to provide safe drinking areas.
The aim of the organisation was to support existing pubwatch schemes, and to encourage the creation of new pubwatches across the country.
The ethos, which is still relevant today, is that pubwatches should be run by licensee members for their own benefit, but that they should work positively in liaison with the police and local councils.
The last 25 years has seen a raft of ground breaking developments from the voluntary organisation. In 2009 the NPW Court Not Caution campaign led to official recognition from the Sentencing Council that an assault on bar staff was an aggravating feature (a fact that increases the severity of an act).
In the same year the Haverhill court case broke new legal ground. A builder called Francis Boyle tried to overturn a pubwatch ban in Haverhill, Suffolk. National Pubwatch approached JD Wetherspoon for help who entered the case as an ‘interested party’ and instructed Kingsley Napley to represent them. His Honour Judge Mackie QC held that individual licensees have an unrestricted right to exclude anyone, particularly those who they see as troublemakers, from their premises.
The ruling also said that licensees were entitled to form groups or associations to pool information and make the exclusion of potential troublemakers more organised and systematic.
National Pubwatch launched its first national conference in Clerkenwell, London, in 2003; created the first national database of pubwatches in the UK; encouraged and supported several pub companies to adopt positive policies towards pubwatch; opened links with industry bodies and the Home Office to ensure it is regularly consulted on new legislation and provides support for various industry initiatives on social responsibility, such as the Proof of Age Standards Scheme and Best Bar None.
The voluntary organisation has also launched its range of free training to help licensees to tackle issues such as vulnerable people.
The National Pubwatch Awards, the Malcolm Eidmans Award and the Award of Merit now recognise both those in the trade and the police that support the licensed trade.
Image: Steve Baker hands a commemorative coin to Sofia Vancke, manager at the Red Lion pub in Westminster where it all began.