Lymington, a small port town on the south coast that’s so close to the Isle of Wight it could win in a taring competition, plays host to The Bosun’s Chair (named after an old navy practice of lifting high-ranking officers onto the ship), run by business partners Peter Troup and Jim Gedge.

After meeting in 2015, the duo set up Pelican Taverns with The Bosun’s (a Wadworth’s lease) and The Grapes (Ei) in their portfolio. The Grapes, a stone’s throw from Southampton’s waterfront and famously connected to the Titanic, is heralded as one of the city’s premier sports bars, being just a 15-minute  walk from Southampton Stadium.

With this very capable duo at the helm – Peter handles the operational side of the businesses, while Jim with a background in finance focuses on the figures – they have been seeking to maximise both businesses, driving revenue, reducing costs and tapping into all local opportunities. (On leaving the army in 1999, Troup spent five years with London’s Young’s Brewery, firstly as an Area Manager for its managed pubs division and finally as a Business Development Manager on the tenanted side.)

Situated on Southampton’s busy Oxford Street, The Grapes benefits from being part of a thriving business community, with a strong and supportive network surrounding it. It also has a place in maritime history, as the pub where three brothers, fire crew for the ill-fated cruise-liner, famously stopped to have a last drink and ended up watching her sail away from Berth 44 without them!

Unlike the erstwhile brothers, whose good fortune was purely down to luck and too much liquor, Peter and Jim understand the benefits of running a tight ship and working with local businesses to  grow their customer base and drive footfall.

“We’ve got an Oxford Street Association made up of quite a proactive group of people running different venues. There’s a coffee shop, brasseries, hotels and a microbar, and we meet up periodically to discuss opportunities,” says Peter.

“We have organised a few music events and farmers’ markets too and we work on promotions that encourage customers to support all the businesses in the area.”

Reopening The Bosun’s as soon as they were able to on July 4 (the date Government allowed pubs to reopen), with The Grapes following a little later, Troup was keen to make sure all guidelines were followed to boost staff and customer confidence.

“It was like opening my first pub all over again, trying to grasp everything as I went along. Staff were a bit reserved initially, but their confidence grew the more they saw how seriously we have been  taking procedures. “I made sure the business had a risk assessment and we have policy documents that all the staff have read and signed. They’ve also completed the ‘Covid Secure’ training with CPL.”

With both Wadworth and Ei pausing rent payments throughout lockdown and with staff on furlough, plus a £25,000 grant for the The Bosun’s (The Grapes was over the £51,000 threshold, so didn’t qualify), Peter is appreciative of the help received from the Government and his pubcos. “Some of our costs were mitigated but 100% of our income was lost, so there was a drain on our funds. But we’ve put strong measures in place to allow us to put some fat back on for winter,” says Peter, adding that effectively they would be facing three winters in a row.

“At the beginning of August we took the decision to close on Mondays and Tuesdays, which I’ve never done before, but it meant we could give all the staff their days off at the same time.” This, he explains, allowed them to maximise the number of staff on duty when the pub is open. “We have extra staff to help clean the tables as soon as the customers have left and if, for any reason, we can’t do that right away, we have a sign asking customers not to sit at that particular table until it has been sanitised. In truth this is more for show as everyone is met and guided to their table by a host at the door anyway!”

The decision to close on two of the Eat Out to Help Out (EOTHO) days has been a good one, due to  the benefits of being able to align staff working hours. The Grapes is 100% wet-trade. “People only have a certain amount of money to spend and we thought it would affect our bookings on other days. I didn’t want to attract customers who had the discount in mind and might avoid spending money on alcohol on top of that,” he says. They also took the decision not to pass on the VAT reduction, which they saw as another way to preserve funds. “Reducing VAT on accommodation, soft drinks and food creates a lot of extra work for the business because you have to extract information and breakdown billing. I can imagine a lot of pubs have no simple method of doing this.

It would’ve been a lot easier if, for instance, a one percentage discount had been applied, but I understand that the Government have had to be careful about being seen to encourage people to drink alcohol,” says Peter, adding that a well-programmed EPoS system was worth its weight in gold, when it came to simplifying procedures.

“While we’re trading at a third of what we should be doing, being able to offer accommodation has helped us massively and we’re keeping pretty full at the moment. Accommodation is at a premium in Lymington.” The Bosun’s also has a fantastic garden, while the car park can be more fully utilised with a marquee on it. With coastal areas such as Lymington and Southampton having reaped the benefits of the summer’s heatwave, Pelican is on the right tack when it comes to creating a ship- shape business for the long-term.