There is no stopping mother and daughter duo Ebe (Elizabeth) and Lucy Bonner. Having revitalized their local pub, they set about creating a grocery and takeaway offer for their community over lockdown. BII’s Eleanor Kirby finds out more about their successful new income streams. Ebe (Elizabeth) and Lucy Bonner first started working together in 2018 having bought their local pub, The Brewery Tap in the Hertfordshire village of Barleycroft End, where generations of their family had roots. Fast forward two years, and it’s clear that this unstoppable duo have not only transformed a tired old boozer, but have delivered fantastic services to both their local community and to customers from further afield.
It was October when their offer to buy the pub was accepted and their first goal was to open for Christmas. “Not with a chef, but at least for Christmas drinks,” says Lucy, who is pub Manager, while Ebe looks after everything else, in particular the garden, her labour of love.
“We ended up exchanging and completing on the same day in December and then turned everything around in 11 days to open on the 14th,” remembers Lucy.
“It was just like DIY SOS for those first 11 days. At one point there were five people working within the space of five metres! The paint was still wet when we opened – there’s a door and some skirting that paid the price. It’s a funny reminder. “It was the following March before they took on a Chef, and today they have Matt managing the kitchen.
A local in the village, Matt used to work at Jamie Oliver’s parents’ pub, The Cricketers in Clavering, Essex, and he has been instrumental in developing The Brewery Tap’s food offer, including the Mother’s Day Sunday Roast takeaways, introduced as soon as the Coronavirus restrictions hit.
Matt also introduced a two-pronged approach to the food offer last summer, by creating a tapas menu for prep in the kitchen, while a wood-fired oven cooked and served pizzas in the garden. Having the outdoor pizza offer eased the pressure on the kitchen and delivered a very healthy gross profit of 90% too.
“We called it the ‘Brewery Grazing Garden Menu’, as it was made up of lots of small dishes. Lucy continues: “People have really enjoyed the garden, and we have now installed a canopy and two dining domes, where we can install heaters to maximise their use over the winter.” A community store has extended the business offer even further and is delivering an additional income stream. With help and support from the not-for-profit advisory group Pub is the Hub, along with membership of the BII, Lucy and Ebe have managing to develop a roaring trade in the sale of essential groceries, as well as offering dishes from their deli menu that stocks soups, quiches, sausage rolls and their famous Scotch eggs.
“Before we opened the shop during lockdown, I’d say our trade was probably 50/50 wet/dry split, due to our ‘die hard’ drinking group that we call ‘the old boys’. Now the shop has opened it has changed massively, food sales represent 40-50%, the shop is 30% and drink 20%, and takings from the shop are only going up and up and up.”
While the pair had thought about extending the pub before, lockdown really accelerated their plans, with the service kicking off by supplying 200+ food boxes per week from orders generated on a Google Docs form.
“It was a four-phase process, first as a little shop in the pub, which we got ready in three days, then boxes for collection only in the pub. This migrated to the shed and later into our permanent structure in the courtyard, which we’ve called Furneux Stores. “Pub is the Hub’s Jeremy English, was amazing. He asked us what we needed and how he could help. It meant that we could open up safely and successfully.”
Helping Lucy and Ebe along their journey into a permanent structure, Pub is the Hub provided funding for fridges, freezers and shelving units that allowed the shop to stock a broader range of products, all sourced from suppliers already used by the pub.The shop has seen a huge uptake by customers, who come in for essential items, as well as popular patisserie and deli items (Scotch eggs are a particular favourite, yielding a GP of 75%), and then go on to visit the pub too. With some more funding from the local parish council, the pair were able to set up a playground in the gardens, which has been a huge benefit to the community, as well as customer base.
“The Parish Council match funded the playground. It has always wanted to have one in the village but never had the land or space,” explains Lucy. “Having worked as a nanny before, I was really conscious of creating something for everyone.” Pouring their energy into every element of their business, Ebe and Lucy admit that all the extra hours they’re working have been a form of escapism from all the bad news.
“Mum especially loves coming here, manning the bar and chatting to everyone”. With the shop- turned-deli, playground, pub, café and garden The Brewery Tap is perfectly equipped to supply the village with happiness.
