Greene King’s chief executive Nick Mackenzie spoke to the Evening Standard about the work that has gone into reopening pubs, and the latest government measures to help the hospitality sector. The interview took place at The Wilmington in Clerkenwell, and Mackenzie had a Ice Breaker pale ale.
What has been one of the hardest parts of the Covid-19 lockdown?
I think the hardest part for me was actually having to tell people, and see our teams, to let them know that the pubs were going to close. To tell people suddenly, and many of these people have worked in the pubs for many years, to suddenly say you can’t do it was really really tough. We closed on Friday 20 March. I was finding that incredibly difficult.
The people in this industry are incredible, and actually to see the hardships they’ve had to go through and the difficulties they’ve had to go through, for me has been the toughest thing, because I know they love it.
On the counter side to that, since we reopened on Monday, to see the positivity, the excitement, and the real goodwill of those guys now coming back is really uplifting.
What are some of the changes you have implemented across the estate?
The most important thing is to keep our teams and customers safe. We have gone, I think, a long way in some of the work we’ve been putting in over the last three months to get ready, and it’s a comprehensive package.
Across all our businesses we’ve introduced a thing called Pub Safe. It is a set of five promises to our customers and teams. Every pub you go into will have a welcome station, and every one will have someone welcome you, basically to say how things are now going to work in the pub, that starts off with track and trace, either through our booking system or app, we’ll ask you sanitise your hands as you come in, and then we’ll allocate a table.
We also have an allocated person whose job is to go round and make sure the pub is clean, the tables are clean. Tables have been changed around a bit to get social distancing in place, and in some places we have added screens (between some areas and a number in front of till points).
There are some subtle changes that people will notice when they come in, but so far [since reopening this week] people have been very accepting of it, and actually the feedback and comments we’ve had and social media has been extremely positive. I think it is very clear we are taking it seriously.
What are booking trends looking like?
I’ve been pleased [with the way it has been seen since reopening on July 6]. We are still down year on year. We have had a very wide range of performance depending on the type of pub. London has been the most challenging, and when I say London I mean central London, and that is primarily because of loss of tourists and loss of office workers.
I would say on the positive side our locals businesses, pubs located in communities where people live, have been really strong, and our tenanted pubs have also been strong.
How confident are you feeling about the future of British pubs and why?
The industry has been through, over the years, many many crises and survived, and I think it absolutely will on this one. I think we’ve got a tough next 12 to 18 months, and I think government support across hospitality is going to be absolutely pivotal. Yes we’ve got customers starting to come back, but we’ve got real restrictions on capacity, and we know that is going to be challenging. The support we’ve had from government, and hopefully continue to get, is really important.
On the new news [Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s latest update] I think it is fantastic the government has recognised the importance of the hospitality sector.
I think the VAT cut is a really good thing, and I think what they’ve done is great, but I’m disappointed on the wet-led side that VAT on alcohol has not been reduced.
On the "eat out to help out" discount, I think it is positive. What we need to do is create more demand for people to come into our businesses, and that will help certainly.
I’m really pleased that the government has accepted and recognised the hospitality sector’s importance to the overall economy.
