Smart outsourcing ensures quality beer dispense and more family time
Colin Kennedy used to be the man who ran the bars at Academy Music Group, including Brixton Academy, a venue that has 90 beer lines to maintain and where cleaning them could take three people an entire day.
In the Spring of 2023, Colin and his wife Kate swapped big city life to take on a country pub in Norfolk. Colin and Kate quickly established Darbys Pub & Restaurant as a popular village pub with a great food offer, live music, and premium quality draught beers.
The Challenge
“Time is always the biggest challenge,” says Colin. A village pub might be calmer than the heaving throng of a famous music venue but there’s still plenty to do.
To begin with, Colin was getting used to how the village works and how to cater to loyal regulars, who come for the beer, as well as families and other groups increasingly attracted by good quality food and entertainment such as sporting events or live music.
The key was balancing the needs of regulars with the effort required to build a truly sustainable business by also making Darbys a regional destination for those seeking top-notch pub food, in a properly pubby environment – rather than a restaurant.
“As well as trying to always offer the best food we can in general, we’re running a world food night on the last Wednesday of every month – but we still buy all the food from local suppliers,” says Colin – highlighting the challenge of attracting and retaining a diverse customer base.
And then there is keeping on top of beer quality, which is a pub’s lifeblood.
“It might only be one bad pint, but if the line cleaning goes wrong, we are in trouble,” says Colin.
“Even if you think you can clean lines yourself every week, it’s easy to skip a clean with everything else you’ve got to do and then be trying to compensate with double-dosing detergent the following week, which only leads to other problems.”
“It might only be one bad pint, but if the line cleaning goes wrong, we are in trouble,”
The Solution
To hit the ground running Colin called Avani Solutions to sign up for Avani’s ProClean PLUS service which began with an Avani SOS – a modern version of the old blitz-style clean of lines and dispense system.
The Avani SOS sorts out any existing problems, with taints for example, and establishes a baseline of cleanliness before the ProClean 28-day cleaning cycle begins.
“I wasn’t sure what state the lines were in, so I knew it was important to make sure I had a good clean start,” says Colin.
Colin knew that for a venue like his, especially as it was a new venture, everything needed to be about working smarter rather than harder. There needs to be plenty of time and energy for practicing the art of hospitality and no time wasted running in circles over jobs that could be outsourced.As a ProClean PLUS client an Avani Beer Quality Technician visits Darbys every 4-weeks to clean the beer lines, dispense system, and taps, plus deep clean and maintain Colin’s glasswasher.
With beer lines and glasswasher in the hands of Avani and an emailed cleaning report after every visit, Colin knew the cleaning was being done to a high standard.
“With the report, I have oversight of my lines, even though I’ve outsourced it, and peace of mind that it’s being done – and done well.”
The Results
Colin says time is the biggest saving that ProClean has made for his business.
“It is a massive time saver and I know I’m not leaving it in the hands of somebody who may cut corners if they’re swamped or if I’m not here to supervise them.”
Before, he could spend up to three hours line-cleaning at the end of a busy Saturday or early on a Sunday. But now he can spend those hours on something else.
“Avani come in, everything is done, they don’t need me involved at all – and the glasswasher gets looked at too!” he says.
This means he has time to spend on other aspects of running the pub, such as the world food nights.
“We found that using regions gives us more of a focus – we started with Burgundy and Catalonia is next – although we will go on to other countries too.”
As well as time for the business, Colin also has more time for his family. Including priceless things like being able to get home in time to see his kids before they go to bed.
So far, so much time saved. But would 28-day beer line cleaning deliver on quality? He says emphatically ‘yes’, because ‘ProClean ensures a baseline of quality’.
He adds: “My regulars like to drink Guinness and I know their beer is absolutely on point, even on the day before the next clean”.
“We know our beer quality is good, we know that our food is good, and we know we have a nice venue.
“What we’ve got to do now is fill it – and thanks to Avani’s ProClean we have more time to spend on that.”
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