However, we also offer things at the other end of the spectrum, things our customers have always loved like ‘beat the clock pizza’ and other offers. It’s nice to be able to offer a variety of things for different people.


From a recruitment and retention perspective, you can put a number of things in place but, ultimately, people do sometimes prefer to be with an agency or self-employed.


We work alongside colleges, universities and schools, looking at work experience, placements, students coming in to visit for a day to see all the roles in the wider business. It’s great to have those local partnerships.


When it comes to retention the key point is focusing on the benefits we offer, the opportunities for promotion, on-the-job training and how we ‘grow our own’.


We’re fortunate to have a variety of sites, from high end cuisine to a beerhall and wedding venues. We can offer it all.


Lauren Chattein – regional marketing manager at Sodexo Live


In marketing terms things have changed a lot in the past two years. Businesses want to spend a bit more to keep their staff. So rather than giving 25 per cent off to book a Christmas party we offer a free upgrade next year. They are taking that because they want to offer employees something extra on their next booking.


When it comes to hospitality, especially at football games, food does not need to be fancy plates. We have gone towards bringing British food back across all the stadiums.


When it comes to recruitment, apprenticeships are the way forward. We’re looking at them for marketing, young people know how to attract people.


We need to be on TikTok, marketing through these platforms. Bringing in marketing apprentices will better enable us to go down that digital route.


We struggle with match day recruitment. We only have a couple of matches a month. People don’t want to work where they don’t really know when they’re going to work and they’re only going to work four hours a month.


We now have staff sharing adverts, videoing themselves, sending it to their friends and posting about what a good work environment it is, and that’s how we’re getting people in.


Purves Ali – Akbars Michael Huckerby – director at The Lawrence Hotel


We are innovating and diversifying the space. We are making sure we are not relying on one revenue stream. Weddings are massive for us, but so are baby showers and funerals, as are our events and the date night and restaurant markets.


We have actually doubled our weddings since Covid but they now


account for a lesser percentage of the business because we have invested more in our events. We do 60 events in-house, from six-course taster menus to bingo, comedy events and themed afternoon tea. They are self-feeding: they bring people in who then book a wedding or a baby shower.


Our electricity costs three times as much as restaurants in America. Our beer costs 40 per cent more than mainland Europe. Our margins aren’t there and our guests don’t want to tip. Unless we can pay more as an industry, we will not attract better people and unless our guests want to tip more, they will not get better service. That is the honest truth.


When it comes to retention, if you treat people well, they will stay and they will treat you well. Buying locally is really important to us and we try and make as much as we can in-house.


Lindsay Campbell – director at Campbell and Rowley


Most of our catering events have suffered in terms of numbers. We have had to look and see how we can


sharpen up our operation.


We’ve spent a lot of money on software that looks at our finances and our models in terms of pricing. We’ve worked really hard on that because every day our costs are going up.


At Cartmel races this year we had automated beer tents for the first time. That’s a big step forward but it’s the future. I can’t guarantee I can get staff up there for those big events, so we’ve automated and we’ll see how it goes. We’ve invested in chatbots and we are looking at how we can use ChatGPT better.


Everybody in Lancashire does good food these days, I very rarely come home and say ‘the food was awful’. The drink provision is usually good as well. The dynamic is always the people. It’s experiences, that’s the USP.


Sometimes as a sector we are good at beating ourselves up. People are our asset. You can produce a beautiful plate of food but if the service is lousy and people are rude, your plate isn’t going to make them come back.


Akbars was founded in Bradford and the group now has 11 restaurants. We work on developing partnerships and in Blackburn, which


opened in March, we have been working with the nearby King George’s Hall.


We do well when there are events there, you can see what they do for the footfall in the area and it’s great to see.


We advertise digitally, using social media and this is attracting people from outside the area, they are travelling from places like Preston and from Yorkshire.


The Blackburn restaurant recruits staff from within, from the different restaurants in the group, which range from Manchester to Bradford. We also recruit part-time staff from colleges and from the surrounding area.


When it comes to


retention, if you treat people well, they will stay and they will treat you well


When it comes to roles like waiters and dishwashers, unsocial hours don’t seem to bother people, we do quite well on recruitment. People looking for a job actually walk in and ask to speak to the manager.


Buying local has worked for us. Suppliers coming in and working together, it has been brilliant. From those supplying meat and dry food to the engineers coming in to fix fridges, they are all local.


David Lyon – chef lecturer at Blackburn College


In my role I try to link in with as many businesses as possible to get students into employment. The more they are exposed to real life work, the more chance they’ve got into going into industry. It is about working with the employers, marrying up the right person to the right place.


I’m speaking to employers about students spending two days a week


in college and two days with them in work experience. The hope is that if it works, at the end of the year they will take them on as a paid member of staff.


Coming to college is fine and so is work placement but I want to send students to the likes of James’ Places and Northcote so they can train them in how they want things to be done. That’s the next step for the college.


We’re looking to support employers by engaging with them and making sure there is a path designed for students when they go out to these businesses. It has to be a two-way conversation. The more I work with businesses the more we understand each other. When I see students doing well, I feel like I’ve done my job. When they leave here, I want them to be in employment.


LANCASHIREBUSINES SV IEW.CO.UK


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