Geronimo's Ed Turner: pubs with a difference
Ed Turner, managing director of pub chain Geronimo, prides himself on his brand being a little bit different, and in a fiercely competitive market, his business ethos has proved to be a winning one. Neil Gerrard reports
It's a little after 9am and Ed Turner, managing director of pub and restaurant firm Geronimo, has just finished what he calls ‘the Drumbeat' as Caterer and Hotelkeeper arrives to interview him.
The Drumbeat is a slightly unusual form of management catch-up that involves Turner calling his executive team at 8:46am precisely. Then, at 9:01am, he calls his operations director Mark Ashley to discuss the nightly figures. The idea is that by 10am, every day, everyone in the company knows what is going on.
"We got it from the one management book we ever read, which was about this thick," he says, gesturing the thickness of a shortish novel with his thumb and forefinger. "It said to do it at an unusual time because everyone always remembers it."
Despite that, 2013 was an unusually quiet period for the company. There was a rare year-long break from new openings until Geronimo opened its latest pub, the Bull's Head in Barnes, London in December 2013 (see below).
RAPID EXPANSION
A little consolidation was probably necessary. After all, it is only three years since Geronimo was acquired for £60m by London pub firm Young's, during which time it has opened another nine sites, taking it to 35.
"We did a lot very quickly and then we stopped, but do you know what? Thank god we did, because the summer was so amazing. It has been the best year Geronimo has ever had, and we weren't totally weighed down," he says.
Meanwhile, in February last year, former managing director Rupert Clevely announced that he was stepping down after 16 years. It was the end of a long working relationship between Turner and Clevely. Turner joined Geronimo from Mitchells & Butlers in 1999, having run the famous White Horse in London's Parsons Green as well as helping to start M&B's Castle pub concept.
But how has be found the transition following Clevely's departure and his promotion to the top job?
"I still speak to Rupert probably two or three times a week, because that is what mates do," Turner says. "They are very big shoes to fill. I think the hardest thing is not having the sparring partner and having to create and find new sparring partners. When you have worked with someone for that long, it is difficult. That is why I am delighted that Jo [Clevely] is still around, because Jo has somewhat become my sparring partner.
"But I am probably the luckiest person in the pub industry because I have taken on something I can keep evolving. I can shift in the direction I want because we have got the core estate as well as airports and places like the Oyster Shed in the City of London, so actually there is a broad field."
Part of Turner's role will be to tweak and adjust what is already a successful business as it tries to stay ahead of the competition.
"As long as I feel that we are better than our nearest competition, I think we are doing the best job we can," he says. "The crux of all of it is that when you go into a Geronimo pub, you know you are in a Geronimo pub because the people are enjoying themselves.
"Because of the way we invest - a small amount every year, rather than investing a lot and then waiting and then investing a lot again - we keep it fresh. We change a colour here and there. You tweak little things like that because our punters are intelligent. They can see something has changed and that something is different. It is a bit like home."
One such small change since Turner took over is the introduction of Geronimo's own newspaper, available in each of its pubs, called One Who Yawns (the original name of Geronimo the Indian, according to Turner).
Crucially, the paper isn't an advert for the pubs, but instead contains articles about lifestyle, comedy, alternative careers and so on. On the back of one of the recent issues is a list of this winter's "must-visit" après ski bars.
Technology also features increasingly heavily across the company, whether it is the planned introduction of handheld terminals, a wall-mounted iPad in Tufnell Park's Lord Palmerston to allow customers to check the web and print out whatever they need, or a recent series of online videos loosely aimed at recruiting staff, featuring comedian Marek Larwood. The recruitment videos were downloaded a total of 20,000 times, according to Turner, and Geronimo has also produced others, including a video guide to being British in the run-up to the Olympics.
"Can we prove that those helped us when people came over? No, not directly, but it is like PR and we have never tried to analyse the return on PR. If the business is doing well, the PR is part of that," says Turner.
ROOM TO BREATHE
Of course, the quirky approach requires an understanding owner. The fact that Turner and his team have been allowed to continue in this vein following Geronimo's acquisition demonstrates that Young's recognises the need to give the business its own space.
"Stephen Goodyear [chief executive of Young's] is very protective over Geronimo. He says: 'Ed, if you tell me that it doesn't fit the DNA of Geronimo, I am not going to get in the way'," Turner explains. "If he thinks he can challenge you and help you find a better way, then great, but you have the final say."
That attitude is evident in the fact that first Clevely and now Turner have taken a place on the Young's board, despite the fact that Turner runs 35 pubs - a relatively small number against the overall size of the Young's estate.
The Young's deal has given Geronimo greater access to newer and better training courses. "In a young company like Geronimo, you are moving at such a pace that keeping up with things like training is very difficult," Turner admits. "We have been able to slow that down and really look after people and develop them. Something like 75% of our appointments are made internally, because we train people up better. In the past, we knew they were right, but they wouldn't necessarily have the tools to do the job properly."
The growth of the business looks set to continue - at least until it hits 45 sites, which Turner views as the next milestone. "When we get to 45, we will ask ourselves whether we can go to another one," he says. "We had the same conversations at five, eight, 12 and 16. As long as we can keep the DNA going, and as long as I have still got space where I can get all the managers and chefs in for our quarterly pow-wow, then we will keep going."
THE BULL'S HEAD
In December 2013, Geronimo re-opened the Bull's Head in Barnes following extensive refurbishment and remodelling. But it wasn't all plain sailing.
The pub is famous for having hosted live music performances - mostly jazz - since 1959 and is considered be on a par with Ronnie Scott's.
Geronimo acquired the pub last year after former leaseholder Dan Fleming retired. But convincing jazz aficionados that Geronimo still valued the tradition of live music has been a challenge, particularly after Turner and his team decided to relocate the renowned music room from its original location in the centre of the pub to an adjoining former stable block. The decision sparked a campaign by music enthusiasts who opposed the changes, claiming it would "destroy a cultural and iconic music space of the London music scene". The petition garnered over 4,000 signatures and attracted the support of members of Parliament, as well as musician Jamie Cullum.
Turner had to reassure music fans that Geronimo had never considered closing the music venue in the pub, and met over 100 musicians, locals and local journalists in the process.
"We want to do jazz there for another 50 years, but we also want to make sure it has more than just its older appeal, which was slightly dictated by the age of the building," Turner explains.
He aims to offer simple, well-sourced food at the pub, marking a change from its drinks-led past, and also put a public bar back into the venue.
"It's a place where anyone who wants to sit and have a pint, a Scotch egg and a natter can go. The rest of the pub is for people who want to come and eat, but there is also a little private sanctum. I don't know how many people are putting in public bars nowadays, but there aren't many," he says.
In fact, the total investment in the pub has hit somewhere around the £1m mark - investment that was sorely needed in Turner's view. And it is a commitment that he hopes will win over the doubters, despite the changes. "The jazz room was right in the middle of the pub and the one thing this pub didn't have was a kitchen. What we needed to do was move the jazz room into what was the restaurant at the back. It is a slightly different shape - not quite as practical - but it is different and it is new.
"It is going to have the same number of people in it, but we are reusing the building properly. We are creating a pub that is worthy for people who pay good money to live in Barnes, and to be honest they probably didn't really get that before.
"A lot of the people who travelled a long way to get here, would come in, listen to jazz and leave. Now they can come in, have a bite to eat - and it might be a pork pie or a nice piece of Dover sole - and then go into the jazz room. Then they can come out and relax in the pub again. To me, it will be the complete thing. We are not people who try and get rid of music - we like music in pubs."
GERONIMO FACTS AND FIGURES
Sales +7% for the first half of 2013 (excluding the exceptional comparison of Geronimo's Stratford sites in 2012)
Food 32% of total sales, and 60% in eating houses
Wine 25% of drinks sales
Investment 60% saw investment in 2013
Design By the internal design team
Lobster Geronimo sold £60,000 of native lobster in September 2013 across all its pubs
Training It used its training kitchens for 12 days in November to get ready for Christmas. A total of 100 chefs went through the Geronimo chef academy at the Oyster Shed in the City of London
Promotions 70%+ of appointments are internal for the front of house team
Private rooms There are private club rooms in 17 of the 35 pubs
