Situated in Chapel Allerton near Leeds, The Mustard Pot has morphed from country house, to pub, wedding venue and now online cocktail brand. BII’s Eleanor Kirby spoke to licensee Nicola Storey to talk setting up shop and winning crowd support.
“I’ve been here for fifteen years as a tenant with Marston’s” says Nicola Storey. No stranger to the history of the building, Nicola says she’s met some of the previous inhabitants. “A guy came round one day, he said he was nearly 100 and was born in the house. He told me so many stories!”.
With her team of 21 staff currently furloughed as The Mustard Pot weathers the third lockdown of the pandemic, Nicola has been proactive in boosting funds.
Speaking to the Yorkshire Evening Post about the Crowdfunder Storey set up in June 2020 for the pub, she said, “We are in unimaginable debt, and despite us trying everything we can think of to pivot the business, none of the numbers stack up. We are desperate.”
Having raised £15,155 in 243 days, Nicola looks back with a feeling of gladness. “We didn’t get a grant the first time around as we have a Rateable Value of about £135,000, so we were struggling and fed up. “We wanted to show people the reality, instead of saying ‘everything’s fine because we’re selling cocktails’, I wanted people to feel enthusiastic about helping us before we went bankrupt, before it was too late”.
Currently on a 90% reduction in their rent payments from Marston’s, Nicola says the money from the Crowdfunder and £11,000 in grant money has made her half as stressed as she was the first lockdown. “Applying for grants in Leeds has been so streamlined, we lined up all our information on rates, business accounts and sent it off, the money came in just a few weeks later”.
Alongside home-schooling, Nicola is delivering pre-mixed cocktails locally through the online counterpart to The Mustard Pot. The Mustard Shop’s specialties are the Pornstar Martini, which sells five times more than anything else, closely seconded by the aptly names “Quarantini”.
With a GP of 71%, these cocktails are high earners and, although Nicola says she only has plans to run them seasonally at the moment (for the big dates like Valentine’s, Mother’s Day and Easter), average spend per head has increased from £15 (in usual trading) to £19. “It involves a bit of a balance between what we think will sell, what we can make with little wastage (to our time as well as product). We did an Eggnog cocktail for Christmas which took too long to make, so I learnt this tip quickly! We sold our stock of drinks so quickly in the first lockdown, we knew we had to turn this into more of a venture and drinks would help us keep costs lower than if we did takeaways.”
Set up in less than two hours, the shop is run through Shopify (for around £25 per month with added commission per order), Nic hails it as being incredible for insights. “I was looking at it this morning and I could see there were 10 people browsing, which converted to 6 orders. I’ve also linked it to social media, so, say I put something on Instagram, I can see who followed the link in my bio, how many people went through to purchase, and who used tools like Apply Pay.”
A quick Google search meant that Nicola found packaging suitable enough to start taking orders, squeezy plastic bags with spouts on, but is now fine tuning the process to include reusable mason jars. Being more sustainable, Nic thinks she could introduce a scheme that offers discounts if customers return their jars upon reordering.
Finding The Mustard Pot online and on social media was a real treat for the eyes, with the Shopify being no exception.
“I’ve got no clue what I’m doing and don’t really know how it all works, but I’ve realised that everyone is sat at home on their phones at the moment, scrolling, and if we can post something that looks great then people might buy something off us”. Nicola has nailed her routine for taking new pictures for the shop, her motto being “to add in your personal touches”. White backgrounds are a must for taking photos of new cocktails, but on social media, you can also spot some historical photos of The Clough House that shed light on the pub’s domestic past.
“Customers loved the fact they weren’t just more business posts and it was just a bit more of an insight into the building and its past life”.
A recent webinar hosted by Avocado Social mentioned personal and unedited touches like this as a key aim for licensees on social media, listing topics such as laidback Instagram Lives, cook-a-longs or behind-the-scenes videos to keep customers engaged as you make plans to reopen.
Storey highlights the benefits of information sharing between likeminded business people too. “Someone set up a WhatsApp group for bar and restaurant owners across the North of England, it’s full of people sharing their experiences with things like grants. “Licensees in places like Manchester and Liverpool would feed back and tell us how they were doing in another tier. It was really useful to pre-empt restrictions and feel supported by other business owners”.
Support has also reared its head in the form of BII Membership where Nicola (FBII!) has made great use of our Trusted Partners directory, Staff Contract Builder and also made it to the final stages of our Licensee of the Year Award in 2017 too.
We’re certain The Mustard Pot and its sister shop will continue to be well positioned as we look towards the warmer and kinder summer months.
