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S4labour Appoints Ron Pearson as Non-Executive Chairman

by | Jan 31, 2023 | Announcements, Blogs

S4labour has announced the appointment of Ron Pearson to the newly created position of non-executive chairman, with immediate effect. For more than 20 years, Pearson was a partner of private equity firm Bowmark Capital, helping the firm invest in the likes of Las Iguanas, Drake & Morgan and Living Ventures, while also becoming a director of each. Pearson, who has a track record of helping businesses to grow successfully, will be working alongside S4labour’s board to help continue its “strong and sustainable growth”, using his wealth of knowledge and “considerable financial, strategic and operational experience”.

Pearson said: “S4labour is a business that offers huge potential for operators and front-line workers in the industry. Since investing in the business, I’ve admired the company’s level of innovation and service delivery and I’m excited to join the team to further fuel its growth.”

Alastair Scott, chief executive at S4labour, added: “As a start-up business with more than 50 employees, we need to continue to grow, innovate and lead the industry in customer service and consultancy support. Ron’s support in delivering this will be invaluable.”

Christmas Brings 17% Bounce in Hospitality Like-for-Like Sales

by | Jan 5, 2023 | Blogs, Sales Figures

December Like-for-Likes were up 17% compared to the same period in 2021. While the figure represents a significant increase on the previous year, December 2021 was marred by a wave of Omicron, washing out trade for many operators.

Despite rail strikes causing disruption for much of the capital, London sales were up 32%, with the increase being driven equally by food and drink boosts.

Outside of London, like-for-likes were up 15%, with food up 13% and drink up 16%.

The research, that compares sales performance of sites that traded for over 20 days in December 2021 and 2022 also identified a large number of operators that were not included in the figures as they were unable to trade at all, or to a very limited extent in 2021, meaning that real like for likes would be higher when taking 2021 closures into account.

Richard Hartley, Chief Innovation Officer at S4labour, commented, “Double digit increases will be a cause for celebration for the industry, however, the figures also put last year’s Christmas into stark perspective.”

Be Your Best – A Reason to be Optimistic in 2023

by | Jan 5, 2023 | Blogs, Hospitality

As we go into 2023, it would be easy to begin the year on the back foot. There are significant head winds facing not just our industry – the whole country feels like it’s in the weeds. Next year we will go into battle with a recession, the cost of energy crisis, shortages of staff, upward pressure on the supply costs and the downward pressure on customers discretionary spend. These are just the challenges we know of, and yet, we expect more. Headline news would suggest that 2023 could be a year of inevitable, unstoppable, and relentless doom. But it won’t be. Not for everyone. There is still huge opportunity for those who rise to the top, the best in our industry will still face the challenges, but they will have the experience, tools, and tenacity to succeed.

As a business, we are conscientiously optimistic about what we will achieve in 2023 and while never complacent. We are optimistic about what our customers are going to achieve in 2023 too and there is good reason why.

For the past 12 months we have spent a great deal of time and energy better articulating and refiring up our “purpose”. It hasn’t just been a self-indulgent corporate retreat exercise, it has been pivotal to everything we do, and the framework for all of our plans. All businesses need to innovate, but it is useful to keep returning to those first principles that led us to transform the industry as we have. “Be Your Best”, has emerged as the philosophy that has fed the products we build and the internal culture of the whole organisation.

Be Your Best is a significant statement of intent for our customers. We know that there are going to be only two routes to operate next year. The first will be to burn through cash, taking on debt and relying on a swift return to better days. There are few who have the cash to weather this storm, fewer still who have investors patient enough to plug the red holes for too long. The second route for our customers is to be the best at what they do, consistently. We have had the privilege of working with a lot of the best operators over the last 10+ years, the likes of Oakman Inns, Brunning & Price, Liberation Group, Revs have all been entrepreneurial early adopters of S4labour and are all the best in their areas. Moving forward, our challenge and focus is to have a development roadmap that supports our current customers and as many new ones as possible to be at their best. We have found that the typical S4labour customer has also been an innovator in the industry that has made them stand out, these are the people who are already looking to be the best.

In January we will be rolling out the biggest update to the S4labour system. Having put the philosophy of supporting operators to be their best at the centre of every brain storming session, every stand-up meeting and every round table discussion, this inevitably bleeds into every line of code.

As a result, we feel we have built a system that ensures our customers are their best, in every shift. Better at driving sales, better at engaging and retaining staff, better at getting teams to the floor rather than behind the desk and ultimately, better at making the right decisions, faster. All these things are opportunities to beat the gloomy head wins facing the industry, and all are reasons to be optimistic for our customers in 2023.

Be Your Best is a mantra that is also at the heart of our people and culture plans. We know that to support our customers to be their best, it is essential to support our own teams to be their best. That goes for every single person we employ and bring on the journey with us. We know that to ensure we deliver a product that supports customers to be the best, we need to have our innovators, our developers, our customer success, and support teams all at their best too. It’s tempting to have all our people answer the phone with, “Hello, how can we help you be your best today.” Possibly a step too far into the world of cringey, but it’s the mindset we have got to.

There will be businesses that fail in 2023, and even the best will find trading hard, but those who manage to be their best, will thrive and we very much look forward to helping them get there.

Hospitality sales bounced this month

by | Dec 20, 2022 | Blogs, Sales Figures

Hospitality sales bounced this month with an increase of 3.2% across the sector. Both London and non-London sites saw wet-led growth, totaling a 5.5% growth which was to be expected as many poured into pubs to catch the World Cup. The capital saw the most uplift, as figures lifted by 11.8% compared to November 2021, albeit against a low base point.

What We Learnt at Propel

by | Nov 15, 2022 | Blogs, Hospitality

Last week I attended Propel’s quarterly multi club conference, ‘New Ways of Working’ to catch the latest industry insights. Unsurprisingly, the consensus swayed closer to concern than confidence for the sector’s future. From discussions around inflation and VAT, to workforces, consumer confidence and Government support, the multi club was full of talking points as pressures bottom out.

The first thing I wanted to write about was the main talking point – the big energy bills. On the opening ‘Money Talks’ group, one panellist said, ‘the best will survive and thrive”, suggesting costs and inflation are not as much of an issue for the top 25% and that businesses aiming at richer markets in the South-East of England will likely do better. But what does this mean for the smaller operators? If we look back at the last two years and the relentless toll they had on the industry, can we look forward now at the effects of VAT and see these businesses fighting another two years? The truth is, we don’t know what will happen. We know that consumer confidence is lower, there’s an issue around labour, and inflation in energy of 500 or 600% certainly won’t make it an easy fight.

Is Government intervention a viable consideration or a hopeless dream? One speaker suggested that the new Prime Minister could have a positive effect for the sector, noting how during the pandemic, Hospitality’s importance to the economy was recognised. This attention from the Government did a lot in the way of exposing how many people are directly and indirectly employed by the sector. The sense I got was an extremely cautious optimism, with the hope of help underpinned by a message to not rely on the Government and assume that the support could fall away, and costs will flow through.

Whilst these concerns are ever-present and should be talked about, the discussions around labour took centre stage for me. All of these issues in one way or another circle around the fact that we are a people-based sector. It is an indisputable truth, and one that will be the sector’s saving grace. When we talk about people, we are talking about customers, but equally, we are talking about workforce. Running a high-labour business is becoming more and more complicated, and it will begin to hit returns and margins. In a sea of cost crises and demand impact, now more than ever it is crucial to tackle struggles around labour availability, costs, and retention. Alleviating these concerns should form the foothill of every business plan.

The fundamentals haven’t changed: the team experience influences the guest experience. Consumers are less forgiving about service – they are out less and so now more than ever operators need to ensure excellent service. I found that Turtle Bay appeared to really take this message on board. Recruiting hard and building a workforce with a ‘One love Culture’ that centered on diversity, inclusivity, retention, and development was their core competence, and this freedom within a framework works wonders for business.

Many operators may ask: what steps can I take towards creating a culture of happiness for my staff and customers? My advice would be to start with the basics: understanding your trading patterns and organising your rota accordingly makes the world of difference. Staff are not overworked and feeling the stress of an understaffed team, and customers are not experiencing long queues and bad service. Opening up platforms for your staff to express their thoughts and feelings at the end of a shift creates a culture of honesty and safety in the workplace.

As Alex Reilley, Chairman of Loungers suggested, we need to make “commitments to change” – it is too easy to assume you lose people because of pay, and actually, it’s about letting people challenge you. That should be the real employee-value proposition.

Hospitality Sales Down for Second Consecutive Month

by | Nov 2, 2022 | Blogs, Sales Figures

October marks the second month in a row of a significant drop in Hospitality sales. Compared to the same period in 2021 sales were down 7.1% (September -6.9%), this is despite a better trading week over half term of -1.5%. These figures show a downtrend in consumer confidence as the cost of living crisis bites. London fared better with a decline of only 0.9%, albeit up against weak trading in 2021.

Richard Hartley, Chief Innovation Officer at S4labour, commented: “It is worrying to see two consecutive months of decline in hospitality spending which feels like a combination of cost pressures felt through the current crisis. Operators should take heart from the better performance at the end of the month suggesting consumers are saving for big events especially with the World Cup and Christmas coming up.”