Felicini owners forge new future for The Smithy

THE owners of the Felicini restaurant business are to reopen The Smithy pub in Cheadle Hulme, near Stockport, following a £1.5m refurbishment.

The pub, which sits on a 1.4-acre site, will be rebranded as a gastro-pub known as The Pointing Dog when it opens on July 22.

It will be run as a separate venture to the Felicini operation but will ultimately be owned by The Nose – the Sheffield-headquartered company run by business partners Ged Lynch and Neil Lawrence that currently runs eight other restaurants in Manchester, South Yorkshire and the East Midlands.

Lynch told TheBusinessDesk.com that he was first informed that the pub was on the market by agents Christie + Co last year.

“I was aware of the pub because I used to live nearby,” he said.

“It had various pubco owners and it went down and down until it got to a stage where there were only 20 people in it on a Saturday night.”

Lynch and Lawrence closed the pub and gained planning approval in August last year for a complete refurbishment. This has seen some outbuildings demolished and others converted.

A new glass atrium has been created at the centre of the oak-clad building and the 1.4-acre site has been landscaped with external dining areas added.

“We’re not generally into pubs but this was in a good location, had good parking amenities and an outside area which gets the sun on its back.”

“There are also a lot of chimney pots in the area and there aren’t many pubs in the area that do food, and It’s a good distance from those that do. No-one else has done opened anything in the area for some time and people get tired of existing places.”

A number of eco-friendly features have been added to the building including air source heat pups and rainwater harvesting.

“If we’ve got any money left, we will do solar panels as well,” he said. “We’re not doing this to be seen as some eco hero, but to get the money back over time. We expect to be here long term so it would be daft not to invest in things which will save money.”

Lynch added that its existing eight-strong network of businesses continued to perform reasonably well, achieving a combined turnover of around £10m last year.

These include the original Grinch restaurant in Manchester alongside seven Felicini outlets at Didsbury, Eccles, Manchester Oxford Road, Wilmslow, Bakewell in Derbyshire, Sheffield and West Bridgford in Nottinghamshire.

However, he bristles at the notion that he and Lawrence have created a “chain”.
“Once you get past a couple of restaurants people think it’s all the same and we’ve had a bit of difficulty shaking it off – we’re hardly Pizza Express,” he said.

“People start thinking you’re just microwaving everything and not investing in skills but it’s not true.”

He described recent trading conditions as “the toughest I’ve known”.

“We bought Grinch in 1993 in the middle of a recession but rents were cheaper, and wages were lower. Back then we didn’t also have to deal with the type of food inflation we have now.

He said that restaurateurs were having to juggle higher costs with discounting and other initiatives to ensure that their businesses continued to generate custom.

“It has been difficult but I’m very happy with the way things are developing,” he said.