Mal & Diane’s 20th Anniversary at Batemans
On 9th September 2019 Mal & Diane Gray of the Butcher & Beast in the charming village of Heighington passed a 20-year milestone with Batemans, maintaining their position as the family brewer’s longest serving Profit Partners.
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Whilst the couple wanted to keep the anniversary celebrations low key, we simply couldn’t let the occasion pass without at least recognising their service. So, last month Stuart presented Mal & Diane with an engraved crystal decanter of the brewery that he had commissioned in recognition of their long-standing relationship with the Batemans family.
In this day and age, it takes a lot for a licensee couple to remain with the same brewery as long as Mal & Diane have. The excellent website of the Butcher & Beast explains how they have always felt part of the Batemans Family, not just another number.
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Being part of a family that you can trust to look after you is something we believe many licensees aspire to. So, we thought we might take this opportunity to try and quantify Mal & Diane’s sentiments in terms of the support we’ve offered them over the years.
Below are a few examples and some observations on how how the couple have complemented our efforts, with their hard work, to create a wonderful pub.
- Product support – We work really hard to offer a fantastic range of cask beers and our sister company, J.E. Ridlington, complements our beer range with a massive selection of wines and spirits (amongst other things). Mal & Diane have taken full advantage of the range on offer. Mal in particular is a bit of a gin expert and an advocate of both Cask and Continental beers.
- Cellar support – It’s something we hear many tenants have issues with so we always try to over index on our core cellar support. If the ‘engine room’ of the pub isn’t fully operational then you don’t really have a pub. You can see how smoothly Mal & Diane’s operation runs and whilst that’s mostly down to their hard work, we like to think our cellar support is timely and efficient.
- Property support – you only have to look at a picture of the outside of the Butcher and Beast to see what a pristine pub should look like. Our property department play their part in the background making sure everything to do with the Mal & Diane’s pub is in tip top condition.
- Logistical support – When it comes to the week to week running of a pub, we understand how important quick and easy ordering is, as well as making the dray deliveries on time and accurate. It’s the quality of logistical support that Mal & Diane have benefited from over the years, and the fact they can trust us to deliver on our commitments, that makes the difference week in week out.
- Additional support – As well as the operational support we’ve been able to offer Mal & Diane there have been a host of other elements that have gone into making this partnership such a success. There are no rent reviews making life more predictable, free training and a host of social events have also played their part in this long and fruitful relationship.
Last but not least, and to be honest a feature of our relationship that underpins all of the support, is the fact that Mal & Diane, like many of our Profit Partners can pick up the phone and speak directly to someone at Batemans who can help them. Trust in the personal touch is as important to Batemans as it is necessary to a couple like this to run such a great business.
Diane echoed the points above. When we asked her about the couple’s relationship with Batemans. She said, ‘We really do feel like we’ve been working with friends rather than a landlord, for the last 20 years. Running a pub is rewarding but it’s hard work too. Being able to pick the phone up and trust the brewery to give you the help you want when you need it is imperative to making this business what it is. We’re looking forward to working with the Batemans family into the future.’
We’d like to thank Mal and Diane for their friendship, their business and their support of the Batemans Profit Partnership vision. Beyond that, i’d like to invite like minded licensees who are looking for an opportunity to run a properly supported pub to get in touch.
If you like what you see at The Butcher & Beast, we’d like to show you how you can run a pub with Batemans.
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