With the news that both the bars and hospitality at Hereford are to be brought back in house BN looks back to 2017 and a Fans Forum and why they were outsourced.
Ken Kinnersley was chairman at the time.
Currently the Bars in the Stadium are outsourced – are there plans to bring them back into the Club? (from the floor)
“They are not out sourced as such – it is a partnership. In the beginning the situation was appraised by professionals and we were advised that we would be lucky to get anyone to run the bars due to the existing credit rating the club had at that time. The most we were advised we could expect in income was £10k.
Initially, there was some interest in operating the bars from a group of fans, possibly with HUST involvement, not sure on that point, so the Club requested a business plan be presented from any interested group for discussion. Business plans were never produced or delivered, to my knowledge - so in the end it wasn't an option.
We also took advice from other Clubs in a similar position. Eventually we had discussions with James Smith – who did present a business plan - and the club entered into an Event partnership with him. It was the right thing in terms of managing the risk as the liability was then handed over to James rather than the Club. Basically his means the Club has no worries over food stocks, food hygiene, licensing, H&S, stock management in all its forms, staffing, I.e. bar staff, kitchen staff, waitresses, chefs, cover for illness, or the general management of either events or staff. It is very difficult to operate a business when you only trade on average two days a month and staff labour is only required on those days. Originally Sidney Phillips estimated a £10,000 maximum income but with James Smith the Club has actually secured £30,000 income from the partnership. James Smith is now operating an “open book” policy with his accounts and one of the HFC Directors conducts regular inspections so we better understand the financial implications of the arrangement."
In January 2018, director George Webb was asked a similar question at the club's AGM.
The decision not to do the catering in-house was explained by director George Webb. He had spoken to directors at Merthyr who had brought their catering in-house recently and had started to lose money on it. Pilfering was mentioned. Webb felt that having a regular income for catering was a better bet than the club trying to run it.
Part of the problem he said was that there are only home games once a fortnight or so. Stock can go out of date and it's hard to recruit staff whereas if an outside company is running the catering they can move stock to another venue.
