The Beautiful Pubs Collective

Case Study

The Beautiful Pubs Collective 

Beautiful Pubs Overview

The Beautiful Pubs Collective partnered with S4labour towards the end of 2023. The Leicester-based business operates three sites: Knight & Garter, The Forge Inn and Rutland & Derby, all offering great food, drink and service.  

With over 90 team members and three very busy sites, Beautiful Pubs wanted a solution that could help them schedule their teams the most effectively to help save time and grow sales, without overspending on their labour budget.  

Company Name: The Beautiful Pubs Collective
Business Type: Multi Site
Date: April 2024

Beautiful Pubs

“With effective deployment, we are able to match sales demand hour-by-hour, which means we do not overspend.”

Rosalie Hagger

People and Experience Manager, The Beautiful Pubs Collective

Challenge

Before S4labour, the team at Beautiful Pubs were not using a workforce management system for their rotas, H.R. and payroll.  

When it came to scheduling their teams, this meant that they were not always aware of their live spend, which sometimes led to unexpected labour costs.  

Their employees were signing in and out on paper documents, meaning their recorded hours were not always accurate. In turn, this impacted labour costs and payroll at the end of every month.  

Managers were being approached by staff members about absences, time off requests and holiday accrual in person, which was time-consuming and led to more admin.  

What were they looking for in a solution?

When moving to S4labour, Beautiful Pubs were looking for a solution that could help them to streamline all their operational processes.  

They wanted to be able to manage their labour in line with sales demand, to achieve excellent service and maximise sales across the business.

Results

Now using S4labour, everything they need to manage their teams to be their best, is in one easily accessible place.  

With effective deployment, the team at Beautiful Pubs are able to match sales demand hour-by-hour so they aren’t overspending on their labour.  

With S4 Manage, their manages have real-time in-hand control over the day-to-day running of each site. They can view and analyse site performance, and amend staff rotas as operational needs evolve, as well as record any absences with ease.  

Using S4 Insights has given them collective visibility of forecasts, budgets and sales across all three sites.  

Using the employee app, S4 Connect, has given their teams complete access to their rotas, including shift briefs, slack tasks and incentives for every day. Teams are able to see booked and accrued holiday, as well request future holidays and ‘not available’ shifts. Staff members also have access to all their personal information and documents, including contracts and RTW, all in one place.  

March’s extra weekend helps boost hospitality sales

The latest sales data from S4labour has revealed that hospitality sales were up 11.6% overall in March, compared to the same month last year.   

Outside of London, sales saw an increase of 13.4% year-on-year, ahead of the capital which saw a marginal uplift of 4.1%. 

Across the country, sales in dry-led sites were up 12.4% and 10.2% in wet-led businesses. 

Chief Growth Officer at S4labour, Richard Hartley, added: “This year, March was a five-weekend month and Easter was earlier, so March saw the trading of Good Friday and the rest of Easter weekend. As a result of the bank holiday and additional weekend, an increase was to be expected, albeit it is still a pleasant surprise to see them up by over 11%. The increase here, and in February (3.5%), are indicators of a promising start to 2024.” 

February brings 3.5% uplift to sales

The latest sales data from S4labour has revealed that hospitality sales were up 3.5% overall in February, compared to the same month last year.  

This uplift was driven by sales in London, which saw an increase of 8.5% overall. Outside of the capital, overall sales were up 2.3% year-on-year.  

Wet-led sites across the country saw a decline of 0.2%, however, dry-led sites were up 5.6%.  

Chief Growth Officer at S4labour, Richard Hartley, commented: “This year being a leap year meant that there was an additional day of trading in February, which has played its part in the year-on-year increase, though it is not entirely responsible for the uplift.”  

ACS Survey reports on retailers’ holiday management confidence 

In November last year, the results of the national ACS were announced, revealing that 71.5% of retailers reported that they feel “very confident” when it comes to managing their employees’ holiday.  

The survey, comprised of feedback from over 1100 convenience retailers, found that more than two thirds of respondents ranked their confidence in managing holidays highly. 

Another 17.0% of retailers expressed being “fairly confident”, underscoring a strong overall sense of assurance. 

In contrast, only 4.2% of respondents said they were “not at all confident”, 1.5% said they were “not very confident”, and 5.9% selected “don’t know”.  

Garry Craft, Managing Director of Convenience Stores at S4labour, commented: “These survey results are good, but it’s our goal to make even more retailers feel confident in the accuracy and compliance of their holiday management. We’ve found that a big part of this assurance comes from retailers knowing that the data they are giving to accountants or payroll software is correct to begin with. Some of the challenges that we’ve seen are retailers who are still calculating holiday on historic accrual rules, as well as those who do not have enough data to manage 52-week averages. Some are paying their employees based on expected hours, rather than actual hours worked, and are not working through complexities such as maternity and paternity rules.” 

With wage increases coming into effect from April 1st, now is the time for retailers to get ahead on cost management by using the right tools to scrutinise every aspect of their spending, which includes holiday management.  

S4labour provide rota, people and payroll management tools to convenience and forecourt operators, supporting the likes of Rav Garcha, PriceWatch, Gardner Garages and Midland Motor Fuels. The team will be attending The National Convenience Show from April 29th – May 1st to speak directly to retailers about how they can help them to manage their costs and grow profits.

Like-for-Like Hospitality sales experience decline in January

Data from S4labour has revealed that year-on-year sales were down 2.6% in January across the hospitality sector, compared to the same month last year.  

Sales saw a decline of 1.3% in London and a slightly bigger drop of 2.9% outside of the capital. Wet-led sites were the driving force behind the decline, with sales falling by 8.1%, in comparison to the 0.4% uplift in dry-led sites.  

S4labour’s Chief Growth Officer, Richard Hartley, commented: “Despite high inflation levels, and therefore high prices, sales are in decline, indicating that volumes are down. Operators up and down the country are feeling the strain of rising cost pressures, as people’s disposable income is not what it once was.”