As all 10 development and procurement managers attending last Wednesday’s event emphasised, in today’s competitive climate, it is crucial to make an effort to understand a client’s business. Like most clients, hotel, pub and leisure companies are unlikely to respond to the mail-shot school of marketing, and instead look for contractors and consultants that understand their priorities and can suggest how to deliver them. Reading a brochure or booking a gym session might only be the first step, but it is an important one.
The speakers at the first of what is planned as a series of procurement conferences had plenty more advice to share. Not unexpectedly, the holy grail of delivering projects to agreed costs, timescales and standards led a familiar mantra that included honesty, innovation and benchmarking. But the leisure clients also had a few favourites of their own, including IT, ensuring that the right people are deployed on projects and setting health and safety as an A-list priority.
Of course, leisure clients are keeping pace with the rest of the client community in shortening their lists of approved contractors and consultants, and thereby lengthening the odds of new arrivals winning work. But most of the speakers were still in search of the designer capable of giving them a building with a maintenance-free 25-year lifespan, (Pizza Express), the architect that can offer object-oriented CAD (Bass Leisure Retail), the medium-sized contractor with its own labour (Odeon), or the contractor that can start access roads before the contact is finalised (Rank). The opportunities are out there.
The companies that fit these criteria have plenty of work to look forward to. The Building Material Producers forecasts 10% growth in leisure-related construction spending in 1999 and 2000, up from the 1998 levels of £2.4bn.
The conference’s keynote speaker, Ernst & Young partner Renata Drinkwater, made it clear that the leisure industry is set to expand along with the UK population’s willingness to spend its earnings on entertainment. With leisure now accounting for 17% of disposable income, the UK leads Europe in spending on fun.
We invest, you invest and we grow the knowledge base together
Graham Craddock, Forte UK
Construction demand is also fuelled by the continuing wave of deals, acquisitions and consolidation in the leisure sector. Whenever a deal is trailed in the Financial Times – such as Rank selling its nightclub properties, Allied selling its pubs to Bass, or Scottish and Newcastle buying Greenalls pubs – it is almost always followed by a programme of rebranding, refurbishment or expansion. Keeping a watchful eye on the sector through the business pages is a key piece of advice.
Once a prospective client has been identified, the rules of targeted marketing apply. Rank Holidays’ property and development director Keith Hawkswell’s presentation included these tips. Check and update your database of job titles, addresses and spellings of names; devise brochures that are low on glossy pictures and high on fact; and remember – appropriately enough – that corporate hospitality does have a place in the leisure industry.
The clients had a long list of areas for industry improvement. IT headed the list for Graham Craddock, development director of Forte UK.
“We want full-scale project rehearsals on computers using object-oriented technology [where each component in a drawing has an electronic CV attached]. I’d like to know more and I’d like to see it in use.”
Bass Leisure Retail’s Keith Millbanks, responsible for the All Bar One and Browns chains, among others, believes that the technique will drastically cut the time taken to do CAD simulations.
We require a strong site manager on any of our jobs. We never stop trading
Kate Phelan, Gala Clubs
As high-profile public companies, the leisure clients are particularly sensitive about bad publicity and the lax health and safety standards that could lead to it. “I expect our contractors and consultants to think about health and safety all the time,” stressed Millbanks.
“We ask contractors to go through a series of tests, and it’s amazing how many fail,” added Pizza Express development director Matthew Sewell. “They might have a health and safety policy, but often they’re not even signed or up-to-date.” Pizza Express also conducts random health and safety audits on its sites.
Putting the right people on the job was also a prerequisite. Rank’s Hawkswell bemoaned the use of inexperienced “puppies” who were capable of accurately measuring the concrete bases on one of his caravan parks, but did not notice that the services were at the wrong end.
Kate Phelan, property and estates director of Gala Clubs, stressed that the firm “required a strong site manager on any of our jobs. We never stop trading, so there’s a lot of co-ordination”.
Gary Arnold, head of development at Rank’s Odeon cinemas, was typical in expecting “immediate access to managers or hands-on directors”.
Concentrate on pre-planning if you want to be on our list
Phil Goodman, Scottish and Newcastle
The industry evidently has ample room for improvement. Zero defects was highlighted by Bass’ Millbanks, who is “targeting 50% of our projects with no snags by Christmas and 75% by the end of September 2000”. Scottish and Newcastle’s development director Phil Goodman saw pre-contract programming as “the biggest opportunity. You need to concentrate on that if you want to be on our list”.
Openness was cited by Gala’s Phelan: “The construction industry is very sophisticated at hiding costs and covering up mistakes. But I want no surprises, no broken promises.”
But if the industry can tackle these issues, the speakers left no doubt that there are opportunities for steady, partnering-style relationships, summarised by Forte’s development director Craddock as: “We invest, you invest and we grow the knowledge base together.”
But the last word goes to Patrick Fitzgibbon, senior project development director of Livingwell, which is planning to build 10 health clubs next year and to spend £15m refurbishing the rest. “The construction industry’s specialist skills are critical to our own growth and development plans. The leisure industry is still in its infancy and needs your help and guidance to develop.”
So, how about a visit to your nearest food-led entertainment centre this weekend?
