22 November 2017, Pubs & Bars
Heavitree Brewery PLC is a tenanted and leased pub company concentrated in the Exeter, Devon area. Ran similarly to a family-owned pub operator, the estate has a wide cross section of pubs from community locals to award winning, destination food pubs.
Terry Wheatley, Trade Director at Heavitree Brewery, says that the key to the businesses success is a focus on sustainable quality across their operation. Heavitree Brewery is dedicated to investing in its properties through recruiting motivated, experienced tenants and by using Vianet’s iDraught technology to help steer the business in the right direction.
The Heavitree Brewery team has high ambitions for its estate of 61 pubs and is determined to provide the same high-quality consumer experience in its tenanted pubs that customers would receive in managed and freehold outlets. One of the big challenges is maintaining high standards of beer quality throughout the business.
Terry says iDraught delivers direct savings to the bottom line by reducing beer wastage through over-pouring and improving the beer quality by monitoring line cleaning performance. He says: “We’ve used iDraught for eight years now. At first it was just a policeman in the cellar but now we use the system to gauge the quality and standards of outlets. iDraught supports both us and the tenants.”
He adds: “The ultimate goal is for all of our customers to receive a pint served to exactly the same quality as if you were purchasing a coffee from somewhere like Costa; wherever you are in the country a Costa always tastes the same, so why can’t we achieve that with our beer?”
“iDraught constantly helps promote and maintain high standards throughout our business, from ensuring the cellar equipment is performing correctly to the best possible training available and the outcome of this combined effort is invaluable.”
Terry says: “Line cleaning is our most helpful report, along with reports on pouring and yield. It is another piece of the jigsaw that helps to improve quality throughout the estate.” However, Terry explains that tenants must firstly be persuaded as to the value of a weekly line clean.
“Earlier this year, we kick started an incentive campaign to raise weekly line cleaning standards above the 80% which they currently operate at. The results were extremely successful, and we plan on rolling this out again next year.
“Part of the success is down to iDraught, which efficiently monitors these improvements. We can’t speak highly enough of the system and how it helps to support our team.”
