BEHIND THE SCENES IN THE PROPERTY INVESTMENT TEAM

We caught up with the property investment team to learn what goes on behind the curtains when they’re not winning design awards and handing over beautifully refurbished pubs. Here’s what they told us…

"We’re already working on our 2025 investment program, and have about a year’s worth of investments lined up. There are big lead times on some projects, and they can move and change about a lot too.

People might laugh and say ‘you lot doing your cushions down there’, but there is so much that goes into it; from listing building consents, planning, drawing up schemes for structural purposes, and getting things to comply with building regulations. Then, the design concepts through to drawings, discussions, visiting our Business Partners and explaining the process and investments to them, fabrics, and aesthetics. The list of things that the team do is endless, it might be noise reports, asbestos reports, all these different things which might go unknown.

The team have to be good with people too. We’re in a lot of contact with our Business Partners when we do refurbishments, and we need to be able to adapt to how different they all are. Some are clued up and ready to go it, others are nervous and unsure. We’ve got to have that empathy and that connection.

If you’ve ever had anything done with your house, it can be stressful and messy. For that period of time, be it big or small, it’s in the place you live, and it can get complicated! I always think, imagine that 10-fold if it’s both your business and your home. And we’re not talking £5-6k, we’re often talking £50- 60k. It’s a lot of money, and it’s daunting. We’re there to communicate with them and talk to them. Being visible is really important and our team is really good at that. They are friendly reassuring faces.

We also have lots of parts of the puzzles to piece together when we start the projects. Each pub’s busy periods are different, but also a lot have similar desires of their ‘ideal time’ and trying to piece everything together; from internal team availability to contractor availability and ensuring pub losses are minimal. Then you’ll occasionally get a curveball thrown in there from a local authority or application delay too."