Business Development in Licensed Retailing

Guy Lincoln, Conrad Lashley

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2012
• Print ISBN: 9781138175518
• eBook ISBN: 9781136423833
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Hospitality, Travel & Tourism Industry
• Index: Business

'Business Development in Licensed Retailing: a unit manager's guide' details the indispensable skills and techniques needed to manage units within licensed retail organisations in a flexible and entrepreneurial manner. This book: · Forms the basis of a complete course for a unit manager's development. · Provides an overview of the range of skills needed for effective unit management. · Supports the development of techniques with examples from existing best practice and case examples from companies such as JD Wetherspoon's, TGI Fridays and McDonald's amongst others. Business Development in Licensed Retailing considers the functional management techniques required at unit management level, covering recruitment, human resource management, operations, service quality and customer relations, financial measurement and analysis, promotions and strategic planning. The analysis systematically provides all the practical know-how you need to produce of a comprehensive business plan for your unit. Ending with a comprehensive case study that demonstrates all the aspects of business development working in a real-life scenario, the text is ideally suited for lecturers and management development personnel to use as a learning resource through which readers can apply the principles and techniques outlined.

1

What business are you in?

Learning objectives

After working through this chapter, you should be able to:

highlight the key features of licensed retail service

identify different types of licensed service operations

explain the key drivers of licensed services types

contrast and compare service management techniques.

Bar and pub services management

In the past, many people thought that the key to successful pub business was ‘location, location, location’ – in other words, the location of the pub or bar was the most important factor in determining its success. However, there are many successful bars and pubs that are in poor locations yet still manage to build sales and good profits. It's not so much where your pub or bar is located, but what goes on inside it – in particular, how the landlord and staff deal with customers.

This chapter aims to show that although licensed retail services are different, customers expect the quality of product and services to match their expectations. Good unit management understands what customers want, and recognizes that employees – their selection, training, motivation, reward and management – are key to customer satisfaction.

Licensed retail services

Licensed retail organizations provide drink and/or food and/or accommodation in a service context. In most cases, these services are both produced and consumed on the premises. In the case of the ‘off trade’, the product is consumed away from the premises in a manner much closer to general retail services. Whilst reference will be made to the off-licence dimensions of the business, this book is largely concerned with the management of on-site licensed retailing because these businesses are more complex and involve a more detailed service transaction than simply retail. It is important to recognize that bars, pubs and restaurants offer services that have a deep-seated meaning to customers that touch on the domestic and cultural meanings of hospitality. These meanings will be briefly touched on later in the chapter, but the host and guest relationship, where the licensee/landlord is in effect inviting customers into his or her home, is an important element of the service being provided.

This book is aimed at licensed retail operations where bars or pubs are directly managed as part of a chain. Licensed retailing involves an increasing focus of bar and pub services on brands that make a clear offer to an identified profile or segment of customers and the occasions on which they use pub and bar services. Whilst much of the book applies to the management of all bars and pubs, and can be applied both in the free house and in the ‘tied trade’, the book is specifically concerned with identifying issues associated with licensed retail units that are managed as part of a chain (Table 1.1).

Licensed retail organizations that operate through chains provide these services in a way that is increasingly:

1 Branded: services are usually sold under a brand name, traditionally a brewery or beer brand. Brands are chains of bar, café and pub outlets that trade under the same name. The brand may represent a cluster of attributes or benefits to customers, who have an idea of what to expect when entering the premises. Traditionally this was the brewery beer brand, although increasingly brands are trading names that shape customer expectations and cluster round similar service offers.

2 Customer focused: a consequence of branding is to shape the nature of the products and services that make up the brand to particular customer types, needs and experiences. Issues such as age, gender, social class, income, region, family and lifecycle, consumption patterns and service needs help retailers to focus the brand and the messages required by customers.

Brand name	Licensed retail service	Number of units	Owner corporation	Main service predominance
J.D. Wetherspoons	Pubs with significant food offer	500	J.D. Wetherspoons	Wet led
Chef & Brewer	Pub and restaurant service	95	Scottish & Newcastle Retail	Food led
TGI Fridays (UK)	American restaurant and cocktail bar	40	Whitbread Restaurants	Food led
Harvester Restaurants	Traditional restaurant and pub	130	Bass Leisure Retail	Food led
John Barras	Community pub and restaurant	155	Scottish & Newcastle Retail	Wet led
Brewers Fayre	Pub and restaurant services	273	Whitbread Restaurants	Food led
Brewsters	Pub and restaurant services	120	Whitbread Restaurants	Food led
All Bar One	Cosmopolitan bars serving food	54	Bass Leisure Retail	Wet let

Table 1.1 A selection of major licensed retail brands as at May 2001 (source: Martin Information Guide to Pub, Bar & Nightclub Brands (2001)

3 Standardized: though this will vary according to the nature of the brand and business, standardization follows from the requirement of customers for consistency and predictability. Typically, the range of food and drink items, the prices charged, decor and building layout are standardized across all units.

4 Consistent in quality: management of the experience has to be concerned with ensuring that customers get the experience they expect. That is, not only the physical products but also the type of service they get from staff must be consistent and in line with customer expectations. Thus service quality, staff training and performance appraisal become important tools in unit management.

5 Managed via operating systems: consistency and standardization across hundreds of units frequently require that all operate to a centrally designed system that guides the way in which products are purchased, assembled and served. In many cases these systems also lay down how training, recruitment and other staff management issues are to be handled.

6 Sales driven: using techniques from the retail goods sector, licensed retail businesses are concerned to ensure that communication with customers is clear. The nature of the product and services on offer are stated in a way that allows minimal confusion and misunderstanding. Point-of-sale material and staff training in ‘up-selling’ techniques, together with an array of other techniques, attempt to maximize the sale to each customer.

7 Mass marketed: to generate customer identification and to shape clear communications with customers, licensed retailing organizations increasingly use mass advertising through television and newspapers, as well as other promotional techniques, to inform customers about the brand and services on offer.

8 Location defined: these managed pubs and bars have a distinct set of location characteristics that define their typical size and high street, suburban or trunk road locations, property types, age characteristics, parking facilities, or proximity to transport links, etc.

Table 1.2 illustrates some brand features of a sample of licensed brands.

Brand	Style/target customer	Ideal sites	Locations
J.D. Wetherspoons	Traditional basic pub, no frills style, but food growing in importance	Empty buildings, not usually pubs, in good positions; 5 500 sq ft	Nationwide from London origins, most major cities
Chef & Brewer	More up-market pub restaurants; a long established brand	Minimum 3 000 sq ft front house, 1 750 sq ft back	Suburban, country and ‘city village’ sites
TGI Fridays (UK)	Licensed from USA; smaller units (200 seats) being developed; some next to Travel Inn	7 000 sq ft	Early, city centre sites; now more major roads and suburban
Harvester Restaurants	Country farmhouse-style eating places; casual family dining	Off major motorways and roadside sites	Mostly located in South East and Midlands
John Barras	Victorian-style community pubs	On main road and community sites	Most located in Northern England
Brewers Fayre	Pub restaurant aimed at the adult market	Out of town, 1–3 acre sites by towns with 50 000+ population	Suburban, within short distance of motorways
Brewsters	Pub restaurant aimed at the family market; some re-branded from Brewers Fayre	Out of town, 1–3 acre sites by towns with 50 000+ population	Suburban, within short distance of motorways
All Bar One	Cosmopolitan bars, quality food and restaurant-style service	High street locations, vary in size	Affluent urban areas, major cities

Table 1.2 Some brand features of a sample of licensed retail brands

Over the past few decades, branded licensed retail services have taken an increasing share of bar, café, restaurant and hotel business in the UK and other western countries. The consistency of service, lower costs through the scale of their operations, and appeal of a variety of brands to target markets have ensured wide success.

As a unit manager working in one of these branded businesses you are required to understand the nature of the brand in which you are working – that is, what is it that customers are buying into? With this understanding you are able to focus on customer expectations and what has to be done to ensure that customer expectations are met.

Most importantly, as a unit manager in branded business you are required to understand and work within the disciplines of the brand. Customers who experience different facilities, prices, quality and service in different establishments in the same brand...

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Foreword
• Preface
• List of Figures
• List of Table
• 1 What business are you in?
• 2 Looking for more than breath on the mirror in recruitment
• 3 It takes happy workers to make happy customers
• 4 It’s people, people, people
• 5 Now you see them, now you don’t
• 6 Training improves business performance
• 7 Serve hot food hot, and cold drinks cold, and everybody smiles
• 8 Get it hot to the table on time
• 9 On turning a profit
• 10 On turning more profit
• 11 There’s more to it than cutting wages
• 12 Meeting and exceeding customer expectations
• 13 Let’s keep in touch
• 14 Improving the chance of reaching your destination
• 15 Seeing the wood for the trees – case study
• Index