Pictured are the winning team of tenants from the Gross Profit Challenge

Following a great day’s training with Harvey’s Brewery tenants in Sussex, licensees are focusing on making 2012 their best year yet.

Harveys are famous for their cask ales; their Sussex Best Bitter winning the ‘Champion Bets Bitter of Britain’ award for two consecutive years. They’re also the first regional brewery to supply cask ale to their local football stadium, and it’s going great guns. What’s more, now they’ve come up with a simply brilliant new dispense device, to ensure the quality of their ales is preserved and to reduce wastage. Founded in 1790, Harveys are far from old fashioned, with a modern approach and new production methods, they are very much leading the way for other regional brewers.

It was the inspirational tenants though that really made for a fantastic day’s training; it went down a storm!

The day started by addressing the 7 mistakes of pub marketing, and how to avoid them, with a real focus on understanding who the customers are and what they actually want.

Next was a fantastic brainstorming session working on how to stand out from the crowd and finding a unique marketing message to position each business in a category of one – head and shoulders above the competition.

Social Media was next on the agenda; we looked at how platforms such as Facebook and Twitter can be invaluable tools for boosting business. By using relevant case studies and realizing the potential audience that can be reached in this way, Harveys tenants are getting involved in this lively new way of contacting their customers.

The afternoon saw a Profit Challenge, where the licensees split into three groups and competed against each other. Creating a dish from scratch and then tweaking elements to increase Gross Profit was an exciting way of recognizing the importance of maximizing their margins, as well as adding value to the customer experience.

Finally, with so much to implement in their businesses, the day ended with top tips to ‘get more stuff done’ and maximize the effectiveness of the 1440 minutes in each day!

Pictured, are the winning team, who achieved a GP of 72% wearing their coveted Harvey’s beanies with pride!