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Pub Diversification
7 Answers
I am a licensee of a rural pub. The pub is run under a free of tie lease. How do I convert a dedicated skittle alley into a shop for the local community as the current village shop is closing.
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Amateur response: Why is the current shop closing - unprofitable or lack of demand perhaps. Providing closing the alley doesn't lose you much drinking business, I suppose you just need to install shop furnishings, find yourself a good wholesaler (I guess you may have one already for the pub business), and go for it. Do you have enough staff for the extra footfall ?
Not much help I'm afraid but it will pop the thread back at the top of "Latest Posts".
Not much help I'm afraid but it will pop the thread back at the top of "Latest Posts".
A few ‘first thoughts’ from me:
I’m assuming that you want to create the type of community shop that’s run by local volunteers, rather than trying to commercially develop the pub.
Start by getting the local community on your side. Speak to parish councillors and district councillors. Get something in the parish newsletter. Put up posters. Send out flyers. You’re going to need some sort of committee behind you, so the sooner you can get that in place the better.
Work together with your new-found colleagues to decide what’s practical in terms of any physical alterations needed at the pub. You’ll have to decide whether the shop will be a completely separate entity from the pub, with no common access, or whether it will be within the pub itself. The latter is clearly the simpler option, as volunteers running the pub will need somewhere to go to the loo and to wash their hands, whereas the former presents fewer security problems. Once you’ve got a basic outline of your proposals, speak to the freeholder to find out if they’re happy for you to go ahead and then have a word with the council’s planning department to see whether there might be any problems with planning consent and/or building regulations. Also speak to your insurer, to find out what the implications might be for your policy.
Your committee will need to decide upon whether or not to register as a charity and/or to set up a limited company to run the shop.
You’ll also need a bank account for the shop. When seeking an account, you should look for a bank that offers free banking to not-for-profit groups, so that you don’t get stung for the costs of business banking. You’ll also need to think about where you can pay in cash and also get change from. Further, you’ll need to look into the est way of accepting card payments.
Investigate ways of fund-raising to bring your plans into effect. They can include traditional fund-raising events (such as dances, fetes, etc) in your local village hall but you could also seek grants from relevant bodies, such as The Prince’s Countryside Fund, the NFU Mutual Charitable Trust, the Yapp Charitable Trust and the National Lottery. (That’s another reason why you’ll need a committee with a formal constitution. Such grants are only made to registered charities or other not-for-profit organisations. You wouldn’t be able to obtain one if you simply applied as a private individual).
Working with your new committee, decide upon things like whether or not it will be necessary to have a new electricity meter added to the property. Doing so would mean that the costs of lighting, heating and running fridges and freezers could be paid from shops’ profits, entirely independently of your own electricity bill. If a separate meter is deemed impractical, a decision will then be needed about how the shop can reimburse you for the extra electricity that the pub will then be using. You might also need to receive money from the shop to pay any increase in your insurance premium or, alternatively, your committee might decide that it’s better for the shop to have its own policy
Getting back to any physical alterations that might be needed, you’ll need to consider who will be doing the work. Are there volunteers in your local community with the relevant skills or will you need to employ professionals? Such considerations can make very big differences to the viability of any plans that you might make.
Thinking ahead to when any necessary physical alterations have been completed (and you’ve decided upon such issues as to how the electricity bill for the shop is to be met), you’ll need to think about what products the shop should stock and, importantly, where the shop will obtain them from. The easiest stuff to stock is non-perishable or long-dated items, such as canned products. However they might not actually be what local people need. For example, if someone is able to get to Tesco (or similar) a few miles away once per week . .
I’m assuming that you want to create the type of community shop that’s run by local volunteers, rather than trying to commercially develop the pub.
Start by getting the local community on your side. Speak to parish councillors and district councillors. Get something in the parish newsletter. Put up posters. Send out flyers. You’re going to need some sort of committee behind you, so the sooner you can get that in place the better.
Work together with your new-found colleagues to decide what’s practical in terms of any physical alterations needed at the pub. You’ll have to decide whether the shop will be a completely separate entity from the pub, with no common access, or whether it will be within the pub itself. The latter is clearly the simpler option, as volunteers running the pub will need somewhere to go to the loo and to wash their hands, whereas the former presents fewer security problems. Once you’ve got a basic outline of your proposals, speak to the freeholder to find out if they’re happy for you to go ahead and then have a word with the council’s planning department to see whether there might be any problems with planning consent and/or building regulations. Also speak to your insurer, to find out what the implications might be for your policy.
Your committee will need to decide upon whether or not to register as a charity and/or to set up a limited company to run the shop.
You’ll also need a bank account for the shop. When seeking an account, you should look for a bank that offers free banking to not-for-profit groups, so that you don’t get stung for the costs of business banking. You’ll also need to think about where you can pay in cash and also get change from. Further, you’ll need to look into the est way of accepting card payments.
Investigate ways of fund-raising to bring your plans into effect. They can include traditional fund-raising events (such as dances, fetes, etc) in your local village hall but you could also seek grants from relevant bodies, such as The Prince’s Countryside Fund, the NFU Mutual Charitable Trust, the Yapp Charitable Trust and the National Lottery. (That’s another reason why you’ll need a committee with a formal constitution. Such grants are only made to registered charities or other not-for-profit organisations. You wouldn’t be able to obtain one if you simply applied as a private individual).
Working with your new committee, decide upon things like whether or not it will be necessary to have a new electricity meter added to the property. Doing so would mean that the costs of lighting, heating and running fridges and freezers could be paid from shops’ profits, entirely independently of your own electricity bill. If a separate meter is deemed impractical, a decision will then be needed about how the shop can reimburse you for the extra electricity that the pub will then be using. You might also need to receive money from the shop to pay any increase in your insurance premium or, alternatively, your committee might decide that it’s better for the shop to have its own policy
Getting back to any physical alterations that might be needed, you’ll need to consider who will be doing the work. Are there volunteers in your local community with the relevant skills or will you need to employ professionals? Such considerations can make very big differences to the viability of any plans that you might make.
Thinking ahead to when any necessary physical alterations have been completed (and you’ve decided upon such issues as to how the electricity bill for the shop is to be met), you’ll need to think about what products the shop should stock and, importantly, where the shop will obtain them from. The easiest stuff to stock is non-perishable or long-dated items, such as canned products. However they might not actually be what local people need. For example, if someone is able to get to Tesco (or similar) a few miles away once per week . .
. . . to do a ‘big shop’ (either because there’s a community minibus to take them there or because a kind neighbour or relative can drive them there), what they’ll need in between their trips to the supermarket will actually be short-dated items, such as milk and bread. So you’d need to find out if local bakery and dairy firms would be able to deliver to your shop. For long-dated products though, you’d need to work out who, if anyone, on your committee was able to drive to the nearest cash-&-carry outlet from time time, how you’d refund their expenses for doing so and what implications there might be for their car insurance.
As you move towards the final stages of your plans, you’ll need to decide when the shop will be open and to draw up a rota of volunteers to staff it. You could also look into things such as persuading the Post Office to place a mobile post office outside the shop once or twice per week.
There are probably a million and one other things which might need to be considered but a decent committee should have enough people, and enough ideas, to deal with all of them!
Good luck!
As you move towards the final stages of your plans, you’ll need to decide when the shop will be open and to draw up a rota of volunteers to staff it. You could also look into things such as persuading the Post Office to place a mobile post office outside the shop once or twice per week.
There are probably a million and one other things which might need to be considered but a decent committee should have enough people, and enough ideas, to deal with all of them!
Good luck!
I've just found this online. It appears to mirror much of what I wrote above but it fills in far more detail for you:
https:/
https:/
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