Luke Carroll is Operations Manager at Valiant Pub Company and has a wealth of beer industry experience behind him, including stints in sales for a number of famous brewing names.
Founded in December 2021, Valiant operates pub venues across the North of England and Wales and aims to focus on community pubs.
Camaraderie is one of their watchwords and they’ve pledged to be right behind those who want to support local causes and charities.
The group recently acquired seventeen pubs formerly in the SA Brains portfolio.
In sizing up the hospitality landscape Valiant Pub Group understands that what consumers want, and what pubs need to offer has changed. Gone are the days when pubs could open their doors to a flood of customers who couldn’t easily buy cheap beer to drink at home.
“They’ve got so many things that they need to sort; staff and marketing, booking events, and getting food prep ready,” says Luke. “If we can take one extra job off their list, those extra hours can be spent elsewhere.”
Licensees now need to be more proactive to attract new customers and give them a reason to come through the door. For pub managers, this adds pressure to a job where there’s already so much to do.
“They’ve got so many things that they need to sort; staff and marketing, booking events, and getting food prep ready,” says Luke. “If we can take one extra job off their list, those extra hours can be spent elsewhere.”
Changes to the industry and in consumer behaviour also mean that people expect more for their money.
“People used to go out and spend more money on more pints. So, your volume would be big, but they’d be spending less money on a pint,” explains Luke.
“What we’ve seen in our pubs is everyone’s trading up to quality beers. People would rather pay more money now for a better pint than they would for a standard lager.
“I’m very much about the quality side of things and there’s no point having quality beer – where you’re paying more for a pint – if the lines are dirty because it’s just going to taste tainted.”
Valiant sees the shift towards premiumisation but also understands the popularity of standard lagers with their customer base.
“Good line health is just as important with these lagers because drinkers in this category have stuck to the same beer their whole lives. Line taints never go unnoticed because they know exactly how their beer should taste”.
So, Luke understands the importance of clean beer lines and the impact of poor beer line hygiene on the customer experience.
But he also knows how challenging it can be for venue operators to consistently clean their lines to a high standard without the need for oversight from someone at head office, like him:
“With Avani, the beer line cleaning is out of their hands.”
The answer to saving pub managers time, while ensuring beer quality is perfect, is the Avani Solutions ProClean Service. An Avani technician carries out the process at ‘extended intervals’, meaning lines only need to be cleaned every four weeks.
Valiant can see the positive impact of using ProClean immediately thanks to Desana VERIFY’s colour-change technology, which changes colour to show that lines are clean, and the power of Avani’s Innsights® Dashboard, which provides data on cellar temperature, line cleanliness, beer wastage and more.
“I consider myself a bit of a beer geek,” Luke laughs, “but I can never say I have the knowledge that the Avani technicians have in terms of looking after the lines and everything which goes with it.”
…but to have another person that’s an out-and-out beer quality technician, it’s invaluable really. Like having a beer geek coming into the pub once a month.
“It’s not just that either. You can tell they are very knowledgeable guys, so it’s an education for managers as well. I’ve been in the pubs while the Beer Tech is telling them why they might be wasting some beer and what they might be doing wrong. Things like not closing off your cask ale lines at night.”
“That’s something that I would be going around and telling managers, but to have another person that’s an out-and-out beer quality technician, it’s invaluable really. Like having a beer geek coming into the pub once a month to tell you what you might be doing wrong.”
Luke stresses the savings that ProClean delivers to the business:
“If you bear in mind that a lot of the pubs might have 12 lines that hold five pints, which have to go down the drain when you clean them, that’s 12 times five, meaning we’re wasting 60 pints on the line clean every single week or 240 pints a month.
It basically pays for itself in terms of us not throwing away as much beer because we’re not cleaning our lines every single week.
“Now we use ProClean we’re only putting 60 down the drain. It basically pays for itself in terms of us not throwing away as much beer because we’re not cleaning our lines every single week,” says Luke.
As well as the savings Luke says that ProClean takes another stress off his managers’ minds, but the best thing is the confidence it gives him that all of Valiant’s pubs are serving the best quality beer to keep their customers happy and ensure they are coming back time and again.
“It’s the confidence for me.”
“Knowing that my pub’s lines are serving quality beer. Some Managers struggle to see the benefit at first because of course outsourcing costs money, but it basically pays for itself because we’re not throwing away as much beer.”
“Cleaning lines is a job that takes probably two or three hours a week. But that’s two or three extra hours that can be spent elsewhere.”
ProClean is a comprehensive beer line, cellar, and bar cleaning service that protects beer quality and improves hygiene from keg to tap. Use our handy savings calculator to find out how much ProClean could save you.
