CASK ALE SELECTION

The choice of cask ale is ever increasing and we believe that it is a challenge to ensure that publicans understand exactly what they are offering.  By chopping and changing casks all the time can be detrimental to the overall business. 

By creating a carefully thought through strategy in a trail of 20 pubs in London, the improvement in all of the pubs was an average of 20% in cask ale and overall pub volumes of drinks by 7%. This was done with a combination of re-invigorated the Cask Ale offer, focusing on the pubs’ core cask offer ensuring that certain beers were permanently on and a well organised season or topical rotation, together with events such as festivals. Note the word ‘Festival’ as we believe that this the key word not necessarily cask ale!
 

RETAIL STANDARDS TRAINING

We undertake a number of training sessions/courses for both new and very experienced operators where we have written the courses completely from the ‘consumers’ perspective.  This means we are challenging both the standards of the brewer’s dispense equipment as well as the standards of the operator, whether Managed or Leased.  Its principal focus is on making money!  The reception we have had for these courses has been tremendous and the average improvement has been impressive.  The only way we have been measured is by tied beer volumes but for the last 8 years the average improvement is 3.5%.  We challenge the attendees to make a change / changes and record their action points to review at a later stage to measure success whether it be yield, margins, turnover or efficiencies.
 

PINT SAMPLING

Pint sampling sounds straight forward, but by looking at all the pubs draught product dispense, is the beer/product being poured to the brewers specification?  There are only two things that can go wrong with the beer dispense equipment.  We have devised an objective process which checks the pubs dispense equipment against the brewers standards to ensure that the pub is not just delivering an OK beer but a great beer.  In addition this allows you to challenge the service and presentation standards, glassware and general bar operation from a customer’s perspective.  Why is this important?  It’s all about the customers value for money and the pub's margins.  
 

DISPENSE AND CELLAR OPERATION

Here we review the lessees or managers performance, moral and pubs profitability.  If the pub appears to be struggling or moral is low, we have a look at the pubs operation and dispense of draught beers.  In our experience there will be a number of factors that are causing the pub to underperform which can be tackled once identified.  This can be as simple as cost control or the dispense equipment.  With the delivery of great retailing standards, revamped cellar and possible dispense equipment if required, the average upturn was a 12.6% improvement of tied draught beer volumes.