As reported on here earlier, the Royal Oak has been taken over by new leaseholders. A warm thank you from all the regulars to Jemma, Den, Phil and all the rest of the staff. You ran a really welcoming and happy pub. You will be sadly missed.
Now I may not be the greatest businessman on the planet, but I would have thought that the new people in at the Oak would not close the place on day one for 'refurbishment'. I would have thought you would have considered staying open for a few weeks, getting to know some of your regulars, built up a residue of good will etc. Lets face it, from what I have been told, you have not even popped in to meet some of the regulars since the deal was on the table.
Now I am sure that you are experienced in the running of a pub, but I think maybe you missed a trick here. It takes a long time to build up a decent group of regulars but a very short time to lose them. It looks like the Royal Oak's loss is gonna be other pubs' gain
Well thats about it for now - more soon
4 comments:
As the new leaseholders of the Royal Oak, we thought it only prudent to respond to this post. We have had a great deal of positive support from members of the community, who have taken advantage of our invitation (which is open to all, and clearly advertised) to pop in and have a chat with us about our plans, employment opportunities etc, for which we are very grateful.
We appreciate the work that Jemma and her team did in raising the reputation of the pub and sincerely believe our pub will be used and appreciated in much the same way.
In response to the statement that we had not made any effort to meet the 'regulars', we were under a contractual obligation NOT to discuss or make public the sale of the pub - this is something that was also requested of us by Jemma, as the actual sale was a protracted affair.
As part of the lease, the outgoing lesee is expected to carry out a series of repairs which is detailed in a Dilapidations Survey. This has to be completed, audited and signed off by the Landlord in order for security deposits etc to be released. In order to complete the deal at the earliest point, we took on some of the work that was detailed in the survey - the tasks included some redecoration which would have meant disruption and some days of closure. With this in mind, we made the business decision to complete works which some may consider 'nice to have', simultaneously. As the Royal Oak is not just our business but also our new home, we want to open and not have to cause any further disruption - having made the mistake of not getting the work in our first house done before moving in, we didn't want to fall into that same trap again!
In our first week at the pub we have employed 3 local people, with others to follow; spoken with a local Allotment Association regarding developing the unused land at the back of the pub; employed the services of an accredited Licensed Retail Trainer who lives in Bovingdon; spoken with Two Bees Florist in the village about providing our flowers on a weekly basis; sourced our meat, fish, bread, vegetables and dairy produce from local businesses in the village and surrounding area. In fact, the refurbishment of the building is being carried out by a local tradesman and his employees. We believe this underlines our intent to include, not alienate the local people.
Should anybody, including the poster of the original message, want to speak to us or arrange for us to meet with them then please do not hesitate to call us on 01442 832126, or even better, call in.
Failing that, we look forward to opening our doors very soon, and welcoming you to the Royal Oak.
Rob Dawson FBII & Sel Dawson MBII
Hi
Thank you for your comprehensive and detailed reply to my recent post. It is good to know that you have such detailed plans for the poub and that you are employing local people, local businesses and local tradesmen to get the place up and running.
I was simply passing comment and please do not take it as a personal critisism, just wondering why you decied to close the pub for a period of time.
May I take this opportunity of wishing you well in you new venture and look forward to popping in for a pint upon your re-opening
You may be interested to know that David Gauke,MP, attended the pharmacy last week and officially re-opened it. It's all on YouTube!
Check it out:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=10UlvOA4Q7Y
Graham Phillips, Manor Pharmacy
ok - its hat eating time so if anyone has a trilby or bowler (top hats make me fart !) to spare, can they please let the author know.
I went into the Oak yesterday for the opening night and I have to say that I found the new guvnor, Rob, to be a really OK guy (the fact that he supports Birmingham City may be attributed to the fact that he was dropped on his head when he was a baby perhaps) and the refurb on the pub quite staggeringly interesting. (The staggerring bit may be down to an excess of of the amber nectar tho !)
Anyway, these guys have put in a superhuman effirt to get the Oak back open so quickly and they have to be commended. I have to say that we were made to feel very welcome, despite being outed as the author of this blog.
I hope all the previous regulars, plus a few new ones pay a visit an say hi to the new incumbents. We have yet to taste the food, but the menu looks very good - so turn up and enjoy.
One tip tho, dont mention the Villa or Mr O'Neill yet. Give Rob a week or two to settle in first !
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