Member spotlight: Mike Fisher, owner of 4 pubs in Hertfordshire

We do a little ‘segment’ on LinkedIn from time to time called “Spotlight on”, featuring a mix of insight from our wonderful suppliers, but also our members since there is so much we can do to learn from and support each other.

We recently caught up with Mike Fisher, a good friend to us here at LSG Purchasing, a consultant within the sector AND owner/operator of 4 pubs in Hertfordshire! He’s one busy fella! He had so much great stuff to say, we couldn’t fit it all in our LinkedIn post, so thought we’d share the full conversation here:

Mike, what are the main challenges your venues are facing at the moment?

There is no doubt that the increased cost of labour, namely the increased minimum wage, the increase in NI, and the changes to the NI threshold is our biggest challenge just now.

Without wanting to sound too negative, these increased labour costs coming off the back of Covid itself, the loans we needed at that time which still need paying back, the Cost of Living Crisis, the energy crisis…it does feel a bit like punch after punch at the moment.

So how do you go about mitigating those increased costs?

Well, whilst things are tough, there’s no point sitting around thinking “woe is me…Rachel Reeves this and that…”. You’ve got to get on with things and that means:

Making sure you’ve got the absolute basics right…pulling a good pint, pouring a great glass of wine, serving a great looking cocktail. Your food needs to be consistent in presentation and quality.

Managing costs as best you can. For example, we’re really careful with our staff profiling, having more team-members, but each working fewer shifts to keep under that NI threshold.

Getting creative around maximising every pound from customers. Watch out for those empty glasses and get them topped up, offer attentive table service or even informal service in the garden if that’s not your usual approach.

Some places have started adding a service charge to their bar service. What are your thoughts on that?

I don’t think that passing increasing costs on to customers in this way is the right way to go. Our customers certainly wouldn’t tolerate it, and there’s always a bit of suspicion around whether the tips actually make it to the staff. You’re better off getting your pricing right.

What makes your pubs stand out against the competition?

We’ve taken a ‘split environments’ approach which means we can have a group in to watch the Sky/TNT footie in one area without disturbing the family meal taking place in another area, or the chatty friends’ catch up with board games in the garden.

Then, we make sure that each environment has an offering that’s better than elsewhere. So for the sport, we’ve got our buckets of beers, our sports menu which are quick and easy for the kitchen to produce but are really tasty. We do family style dining for our roasts and pies – so bigger sharing portions of all the sides for the table rather than complete dishes which makes the meal more sociable and minimises waste.

On top of that, we just make sure that we have a lot going on. We’ve got the weekly drumbeat of offers and activities like Ale Mondays, Quiz Tuesdays, Fizz Fridays etc. but we also make sure we’ve got those more ad-hoc events that draw people in: Gin festivals, family events, darts tournaments, a burger specials night where the burgers really are special – genuinely different from our usual menu items.

And we make sure people know about these events! It takes literally minutes to post your specials on social media, and we keep the message going about our weekly events, but we also post really interesting content across platforms (including using an e-mail database) – lots of videos of both back and front of house activities. You can’t rest on your marketing and advertising.

How do you go about filling the quieter times?

We try to make sure that our food and beverage offering meets everyone’s needs, so small plates throughout the day, child friendly snacks, lighter meals for the ‘grey pound’ customers who so beautifully fill that 4-7pm slot. We’re also tapped in to our community so make ourselves available to groups – the local cycling and walking groups. We’ve got a couple of football and cricket teams who visit regularly and we’ve established the sort of ‘ground rules’ with them so they’re not disturbing other patrons.

And we know that competitive socialising is huge at the moment so we’ve started running darts and table tennis competitions for the quieter nights of the week. It takes work, but it’s worth it because it’s a whole other reason for people to visit.

Now we’re into September, a lot of pubs and restaurants will be turning their thoughts to Christmas. What’s your approach to the festive season?

Do it early!

We’ve already planned our menus, done the cook off, taken the photos of the complete dishes and we’ll be getting our ‘book now for Christmas’ messaging out there from early September.

We treat each Christmas as an investment in the next one because we want people coming back year on year. So where we know we’ll be busy, and our small pub kitchen is managing ‘normal’ tables alongside groups of say 30, we make sure that the group still have a great experience, even if they have to wait a bit for their food. And it’s not difficult to do…just keep drinks topped up, be visible and attentive, make sure the atmosphere is festive. This year we’re offering mini quiz packs for each guest to get that ‘competitive socialising’ feeling going.

What trends are you predicting for Christmas and into 2026?

You’ve gotta have your traditional turkey and trimmings of course – lots of people still want that. But we’ve been responding to increased demand for veggie, vegan and allergen aware menus, making sure we’ve got more than one option and that they’re actually nice! Home-made, filling, well-priced. Groups in particular will choose where they go based on how well individuals’ needs will be met.

For 2026, we’re investing in low/no beers and ales on draught. Gluten free beers on draught. And where it can be hard to freshly mix a cocktail or mocktail with consistency without your staff being experienced in mixology, we’re trying out a number of pre-mixes – but always making sure they’re presented beautifully like a ‘proper’ cocktail.

And not so much a trend, but we try to learn from the past. This year’s Summer wasn’t that great – partly because it was too hot and it’s hard to create an inviting outdoor offering when everything is just so brown and dusty. So what can we do to plan for another hot/dry Summer, as well as being prepared for a wash-out season?

Thanks Mike!