North Yorkshire Moors Railway General Discussion

How profitable are the station pubs at Sheffield Park and Porthmadog, and how much investment did they need to get them going?

 

For Sheffield Park at least, I don't think it is easy to give an exact profitability of the Bessemer Arms in isolation just from published information.

However, the annual accounts do include a lengthy management information section which shows that the catering department as a whole made a profit of £209k on a turnover of £1.293m. Those figures include, in the costs, the salaries and other costs of staff in that department, "power light and heat", "property repairs and maintenance" etc, so I think represent a fair reflection of the profitability of catering - it isn't a case of "oh its profitable, but only because we've hidden lots of costs elsewhere".

The difficulty in analysing further is essentially that it is a departmental budget, not a "facility" budget. So money made on dining trains is included in that figure (and, by a quirk of how the accounts are set out, although there are separate lines for "Buffet" and "on-train catering", I believe that the Golden Arrow income is recognised under "Buffet", not "on-train", I think because much of the food is prepared on land). Again, that probably makes sense, but means the Bessemer Arms is doing more than just acting as a pub / restaurant; it is also the hub of other catering operations around the railway.

Tom

 

Also, what was spent to get those establishments running needs to be adjusted for inflation and viability measured against projected demand now rather than then.

 

That last paragraph of yours really makes me think you don’t have a clue,

 

It’s really not as simple as that though is it? As someone who works in hospitality in a city with a very transient population it’s a bloody difficult job, add in things like trust, honesty, reliability and just general getting the job done is chuffing difficult.
I’d also throw in reputation which one of my old teachers said ‘takes years to build and seconds to lose’


And in one of my previous jobs how’s about counting on someone doing a runner with the takings from the previous night?

Seriously if you think that just opening a pub or hotel in Pickering is going to sort out the problems at the NYMR then seriously bloody think again. It really does open up another can of worms.
Matt (full time bar manager across 2 sites with sodding sore feet atm, but back again in a few hours time because it’s oh so easy)

 

I’m no expert on running pubs, but having run a railway I can say that they are about the most complex organisation there is already, and adding a hotel on to that would fill me with alarm!