The Fox and Duck

How we are turning a struggling village pub into a thriving business.

The first week we took over The Fox and Duck in Therfield, Hertfordshire, I remember saying to myself, “Get me out of here….fast!”. I had forgotten how hard the pub business was.
We needed to make some quick decisions. Would we open for Christmas lunch? Should we accept a booking for a birthday party on the same day as the massive “New Year’s Walk”, (the pub is a popular starting point for many walking groups). What time would we open and what time should we close?
I would say that, basically, we said yes to everything. The problem was that we needed to turn the business around after the previous owners had lost interest.
When we took over, the pub had been closed on Sunday afternoon and evening, also Monday evenings and Tuesday evenings. Then every day after 2.30 pm the doors were locked and not opened again until 5 pm. There was no food offering except a few sandwiches in the bar.

We have been told of some unbelievable horror stories. Like the time a customer was sitting in the garden with their lunch and a beer, next to others also eating their lunch, only to find that the pub’s shutters had been pulled down and the doors locked! No chance of a sweet then?
We knew we had a difficult hill to climb but we were determined to do it.

This was our plan of action:
Of-course, the first thing we did was to re-open the kitchen.
To start with, our menu was small and full of old favorites like Chilli, Beer Battered Haddock and Lasagna. We provided soup and sandwiches in the daytime for the walkers.

We made the decision to open the doors at 12 pm everyday and to stay open all day. We wanted people to have confidence that if they chose to make the detour to visit us in our little village that they would find us open.

But would they visit us? Would they make a detour to Therfield just for pub grub?

Our changes improved things a little but it didn’t take long for us to realize that the walkers and the locals were not going to bring in enough to turn this business around. We needed a “niche”. We needed something that would make us different…something that would bring people in from afar.

That’s when we thought of, “STEAK at The Fox”.
After extensive research it occurred to us that many of the top chefs were championing English Beef, some of them were even in the process of opening STEAK restaurants. This had to be a sign. We would provide the best steak menu in the area. Not just one steak on a menu, a complete menu of steaks…T-bone, fillet, rump, sirloin, rib-eye even tuna, lamb and pork.
Of-course, it’s not just the steak, it’s what is served with the steak. This is where, I, as the chef could really allow my creative juices to flow. I developed a selection of delicious sauces, old faves like peppercorn sauce and new ones like Bois Boudran. But what really makes our steaks different is the way we serve the steaks on sizzling platters with home made chips all topped with garlic mushrooms and a massive pile of home made, beer battered, onion rings.

So now, when you say, “I fancy a nice steak…where do you think you’d head for? Would you choose to go to the restaurant that has just one steak on the menu or somewhere that has a fantastic selection with all the trimmings?

So what could you do with your business that would make you different? You need to find your niche, your unique selling point that will stand you out from the crowd.

If you don’t know how to cook a good steak then…take lessons!

Pat is Owner/Chef of The Fox and Duck, Therfield, Hertfordshire. She is a Fellow of The Royal Society of Arts. She is also a professional blogger – Read her Business Tips and Internet Marketing Blog at – http://www.PatSutton.com

Pat Sutton has a Twitter Account known as "TheBizWoman" it is where she has been Forbes listed as one of the top 30 women entrepreneurs to follow on Twitter.