Fox at Loxley Action Group
Objectives and Key Success Factors
The aim of the project is to re-establish a viable community pub that gains a good reputation for the value and quality of its service, food, drink and other service offerings to support the local community.
The primary focus of The Fox will be the creation of an entity that will flourish and invest in the well-being of its community. Its success will have its foundations based on the provision of food and drink that is reasonably priced, supported by a friendly environment and welcoming staff. The food will be good quality traditional pub grub using locally sourced ingredients to attract both local residents and as a destination from the wider populace. The drinks will include real ales sourced, where possible, from local Warwickshire breweries with an ultimate aim of The Fox being listed in the Good Beer Guide.
The introduction of a cafe within the premises will extend its appeal to a wider group providing further offerings to its patrons. Other services and offerings will be continually explored driven by the consensus of the local community, this may include and a shop for essentials.
Previous experience has shown that to prosper The Fox must get a proportion of its revenue from customers living outside the village and to achieve this it must have a reputation for good quality and value for money food and drinks, delivered with excellent service. The critical roles will be that of the manager and the chef, both of which will be salaried roles. In addition to salary we are also investigating the possibility of further incentivising the key staff by way of a profit share. The bar, waiting and cleaning staff would report to the manager.
The Market for Community Pubs
In recent years there has been a growth in the numbers of community owned pubs. Therefore The Fox will not be the first, or the last, to go down this route. There are approximately 70 such pubs currently operating in the UK and each one has been set up in a manner that best suits it community and situation (to see where they are located go to CAMRA website - www.camra.org.uk).
A good local example is the New Inn in Norton Lindsey. The New Inn was the first community owned pub in Warwickshire and was also bought from the EI Group. The New Inn has been trading for 3 years
The local market for the Pub and Restaurant
The towns of Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwick, Ettington and Wellesbourne offer a mix of pubs and restaurants and fine dining eateries. The closest villages to Loxley are Wellesbourne, Ettington, Charlecote and Hampton Lucy.
Wellesbourne has two pubs covering a population of just under 7,000 people (2011 census results). Hampton Lucy has a pub that serves the community of Hampton Lucy and Charlecote. The last remaining pub in Ettington is a gastro pub serving the wider community.
We also have the Caffeine and Machine on the Banbury road just over 2 miles from the centre of Loxley. Caffeine and Machine is a unique destination pub for people interested in cars and has become very popular since opening in 2018. The Caffeine and Machine is not seen as a competitor but as an opportunity as it brings a lot of people to the area who may prefer to eat at a village pub.
The largest target area will be the people of Wellesbourne who want to experience a friendly village pub where they can get an affordable meal and drink. We would also target the people on the south east side of Stratford upon Avon where there are an increasing number of houses being built.
In summary, the local area suffers from a clear lack of rural village pubs with a warm welcome to all ages with traditional good quality, fairly priced food and ale.
52% of the people surveyed in the local area would use the pub at least once a fortnight this makes 58 visits per week from the 76 families who responded to the survey . The expectation is that 40% of the revenue would come from the people who live in the parish of Loxley while the remaining 60% would come from Wellesbourne, Stratford and local villages.
The Market for a Shop
49% of the survey respondents expressed an interesting the shop for essentials. Once we have established the Fox at Loxley as a community pub we will investigate the viability we're having a shop within the pub for essentials.
The Market for a Café
The market for a cafe comes from parents before or after school drop off to the school in Loxley. We also have a large number of cyclists who cycle through Loxley both during the week and at the weekend. There is an opportunity for the Fox at Loxley to become a stop off point for coffee, pastries and cooked breakfasts for many of these cycling groups.
Anecdotally there was a lot of interest from the people in Loxley village centre as well as people in Oldborough Drive to volunteer to work in the Fox at Loxley cafe.