Elite approach

Whilst the opening of a nightclub and cocktail bar has diversified the portfolio of Elite Pubs in the past 18 months, it is country pubs where owner Martial Chaussy’s heart lies and the company’s future strategy is focused.

The nine-site operator opened Junipers, co-sited with The Herbalist in Maidstone High Street, and The Cow Shed, behind its Farmhouse in West Malling, last year. But it is more pubs like most recent opening The Pig & Sty in Bethersden, near Ashford, which are planned for 2020.

“The bars are trading well,” says Chaussy. “We get lots of private hire at The Cow Shed too. But we are better at doing country pubs like The Pig & Sty. We seem to understand that better. Going forward that will be the main focus rather than more cocktail bars.”

Converting sites

But one trend that has continued from Junipers/The Herbalist is converting former Indian restaurant sites back to pubs, with The Pig & Sty, which saw around a £1.1m investment, returning a restaurant back to a pub a decade on.

“There was a trend of traditional pubs being converted into Indian restaurants but that seems to be going back the other way. We have converted three Indian restaurant sites back to pubs now. We are hoping to sign on another soon. At The Pig & Sty, which opened in late September, we have increased turnover tenfold. It shows the demand for what we do.”

Kent remains the expansion focus for the company, which also has one site in East Sussex (The Gun, Heathfield), with two sites planned for opening in North Kent next year.

‘Size matters’

“In terms of customer disposable income, North Kent works well for us. Our model is for large properties, a similar size to our largest site for covers The Poacher & Partridge in Tonbridge, with big gardens, large car parks and sitting on two acres of land.”

He adds: “Size matters when it comes to pubs. The running costs of pub restaurants today are very high and I feel small pubs in towns are not fit for purpose any more. You need to employ a large team of chefs and a front of house team who are paid well to support a slick operation. For that you need to generate a sizeable turnover. It is all about the site. Fewer pubs, but bigger ones.”

Chaussy is passionate about British pubs and likes his sites to be seen as modern country pubs. He says: “British pubs are incredible in that they can attract a whole spectrum of people, from builders for a pint at 5 o’ clock to business leaders for a lunch meeting to families at weekends. There is no limit to who can come in and is welcome. With pubs, you are targeting absolutely everyone.”

Still self-funded

It is 15 years since Chaussy opened his first pub, The Great House in Kent, financed by borrowing against the value of his house. Now at nine pubs and two more in the pipeline for 2020, impressively the company is still self-funded.

“My wife and I own the business outright. We have no partners. We have mortgage loans on freehold properties and refurbishments are all paid for by cash flow.”

Accommodation is also an important focus for the business going forward, with plans to build letting rooms at its two new sites. The company also has four bedrooms at The Vineyard in Lamberhurst, six opening at The Potting Shed in Langley this month, and work is also starting on converting a house, on the border of The Farmhouse in West Malling, into four letting rooms which will open in March/April next year.

Environmentally aware

Like many companies Elite Pubs has also become increasingly environmentally aware, with initiatives including the use of roof solar panels at The Potting Shed to generate pub electricity and electric car charging points, and free water fill-up stations at all pubs. Bike hire is also offered at each of its country pubs.

Overall the business remains food-led and has a wet/dry spilt of 35:65, with a wood-fired pizza offer remaining a key part of its strategy for food sales. Eight of its sites have a ‘Pizza Shack’ menu section, delivered by wood-fired pizza ovens imported from Tuscany by supplier Gozney. The latest site to get an oven, to be installed in January, is Chaussy’s favourite pub The Dirty Habit. The ovens are located in the pubs’ dining rooms to create theatre for customers. The company also has 20 pizzaiolo working across the business, most from Italy.

Pizza is key

Takeaway pizza is offered at all sites and The Herbalist/Junipers also has a window counter serving takeaway pizza. New childrens’ pizza-making workshops have also proved a sell-out and are now planned for all school holidays. “Pizza will be a key part of the offer in our new sites too. People love seeing their pizzas cooked in front of them. We use British ingredients and also the best ingredients.”

Pizza sales account for 15% of food sales in autumn/winter and 25% in spring/summer. Its off-peak pizza offer which runs from 3.30pm to 5.30pm and Sunday evenings is one of its most successful regular offers, along with its weekly Tuesday steak nights.

Outside catering

Summer ‘Burger Shacks’ in the gardens of five sites have also proved a winner in increasing food sales, enabling them to double their catering capacity, with around 300 extra covers served on busy summer days.

Menus change four times a year and are complemented by weekly specials. Each site’s head chef devises their own menus and specials but with guidance from executive chef Lucian Pancone, who started with the company as a sous chef.

Around eight vegan dishes are featured on each menu, with around 15% of all food sales now vegan including 25% of burger sales.

A big focus in the past year has been expanding the operations team and investing in new systems, such as its Black Bx Wi-Fi integration system to help personalise customer marketing, and a Micros Epos/till system, which has improved stock control and enabled front-of-house ordering on tablets.

Experiences also continue to be an important part of the business, with gin and cocktail masterclasses and comedy nights among the most successful. Experience vouchers are sold through the company’s website, with afternoon tea the most popular. Accommodation package vouchers will launch next year.

Developing talent

Elite has enjoyed big success in developing people through the company, with 90% of head chefs and general managers home-grown. This development of talent has been given further focus by the launch in the past year of its own training platforms, The School of Elite and Elite Academy, to provide bespoke continual training and development opportunities.

Training is delivered through its team at its HQ in West Malling and through external providers including Flow and HIT Training. “Staff are the most important thing to all businesses. Certainly to our business they are our best asset and our best success.”

He adds: “Through the School of Elite and Elite Academy we are helping people become really good at what they do, but also help people progress through the business. It has been really positive in helping to improve our workforce, retain them for longer and to recruit people too.”

Elite Pubs’ workforce is a mix of British and European workers, though with the weak pound and fears over Brexit they are seeing far fewer people from Europe applying. “I think they are worried about what is going to happen after Brexit. But we have a good reputation and we get lots of recommendations for jobs from our team, so we are doing well with that.”

‘Get Brexit done’

As a Frenchman one might expect Chaussy to be sad about Brexit. But he says: “Personally I think it is positive for the UK to go ahead with Brexit and for the UK to move away from the EU as that is what people wanted. But like everyone else, I just want to get it done now.”

Chaussy also believes Brexit is having an impact on the company’s sales growth. He says: “Last financial year we saw 8% growth year on year. This year has been slower and we are tracking around 4/5% growth. This summer was not as good as last and I think Brexit is certainly having an impact, with people not spending as much and being more cautious.”

For 2020 he is excited about carrying on developing and improving systems and training and developing Elite’s people. He adds: “We will also be working on our products because the market is changing all the time. We will continue to serve our customers the best way we can.”