OPINION IF I’D KNOWN THEN WHAT I KNOW NOW... Emma Beaumont Beaumont’s Deli Louth, Lincolnshire I GREW UP in Louth, where the deli known as McLeods was always part of the fabric of the town, known for its fine wine, tiramisu and beef biltong. When my husband Elliot and I returned from Manchester after living there for six years we noticed the deli had gone downhill. It had been on the market a couple of times with little interest. Mr McLeod was unwell and the store was on the brink of closure when we decided to make an offer for it in 2015. I had been teaching until that point and had two young children. The deal included the purchase of the business as a going concern, although it had all but ceased to trade. The price included the freehold to 11-13 Bridge Street, the fixtures and fittings and £15,000 of stock. We believed there was also a lot of latent goodwill which has since been proven correct by the town’s affinity to the store. We converted the upper two storeys of the building into two flats and refitted the shop area. Our vision was and is to provide interesting and alternative quality food and drink at a sensible price point. We are known for our specialist range of gins and the original plan included an extensive tobacco offering, although it has become clear that this will only ever be a niche part of the business due to societal and legislative changes in recent years. We also had plans to do more with confectionery. This is an area I think we will still develop as the margins are very good. I would also like to branch out into chilled ready meals and bolster our bakery offering. Most of our time is spent cleaning and making items for resale such as tray bakes, desserts, sandwiches and salads. These lines deliver the highest gross profit margin but are time consuming to prepare. Christmas is a massive seasonal challenge for us and in our first year we didn’t have our margins quite right on a number of seasonal lines. We have made changes through rationalisation, stock control and margin analysis to prevent this from happening again. Margins are a difficult area – not just at Christmas but year round. We soon realised that we needed to substantially increase the margins on fresh products, such as cheese and antipasti, to become profitable. At the same time, we have had to be mindful of applying these increases gradually. Since reopening the deli in October 2015, we’ve built turnover up to £200,000 per annum, which is supplemented with £13,000 rental income from the flats. This is what we expected from the outset but it has taken longer than expected to get here. We should have reduced staff hours sooner to cater for peaks and troughs in sales activity. Initially our opening hours were 8am to 6pm with two staff on. We have since shortened our opening hours to 9am to 5:30pm and to cope with busy periods, such as Friday lunch, we have three members of staff between the hours of midday and 2pm. Staff are our biggest overhead so even these small changes have significantly reduced outgoings without affecting turnover, which is growing at around 3% per week. For the next couple of years, our focus will be on maintaining margin, driving efficiencies and refreshing our range. We also plan to invest in the shop frontage and develop the rear to allow for the opening of a café/bistro in summer 2019. beaumonts-deli.co.uk Interview: Lynda Searby Photography: Richard Faulks
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June 2017 | Vol.18 Issue 5