The Mains of Scotstown Inn, Aberdeen, becomes community hub

An Aberdeen pub is bucking the downturn in the pub trade by making itself the hub off its local community.

The Mains of Scotstown Inn, a Punch Taverns pub run by licensee Martin Young, is enjoying a significant increase in business thanks to the numerous ways he and his staff engage with the residents of one of the largest housing estates in Europe.

On Shrove Tuesday (21 February), Martin and his chefs will go into the two local academies and help the students make pancakes, which will then be delivered to people living nearby in sheltered housing and homes for the elderly.

The event is a repeat of last year’s successful venture when pupils from each school baked around 8,500 pancakes and took them to the 1,000 residents in the homes. Following the initiative, takings at the pub were noticeably higher over a three-month period than those of the corresponding period the year before.

Other initiatives that have cemented bonds with the local schools include teaching the students about healthy food, demonstrating fish and butchery skills, and organising a cookery competition where the team with the best, healthy food menu was rewarded with the chance of recreating the dishes in the pub’s kitchen.

The pub, located in Jesmond Square, also sponsors a community grant scheme that locals can use to provide, repair or maintain public facilities such as playground equipment. Martin says the grants can take the form of either supplying all the necessary tools, materials and advice or giving cash up to the value of £500. “The only condition is that they must do the work themselves,” he says.
Last year, the Mains was instrumental in organising a festival to commemorate the centenary of the death of Thomas Blake Glover, who lived locally before emigrating to Japan and founding two companies that later became Mitsubishi, the Japanese manufacturing conglomerate, and Kirin, the Japanese lager brand.

The festival attracted 11,500 visitors who witnessed displays of fire-breathing, stilt walking, tea ceremonies, fish master classes as well as learning about other aspects of Japanese culture and history.

Martin has also helped the cash-strapped city council by purchasing two sit-on mowers, and employing two maintenance men to cut the grass when the public purse could not afford the work.

Prior to entering the pub trade in 2004, Martin worked in hotels and country houses. After two years gaining experience by working at other pubs, he took on the Punch leasehold of the Mains in January 2006 and injected £300,000 of his own money into revamping the front-of-house facilities and adding new kitchens. In his first year of trading, turnover rocketed to £1.4m from £300,000 under the previous owner.

The increase was down to replacing the previous limited menu with one featuring traditional pub fare together with what Martin describes as “modern pub fare – I hate the term gastropub food”.
His success at the Mains led to taking on two other Punch outlets – the White Cockade in January 2007 and the Parkway Inn in September 2008, both in the Aberdeen area.

Later this year, he is planning what promises to be the biggest fireworks display the city has ever seen. Although exact details have yet to be finalised on the location, which is dependent on the number of people anticipated, Martin has budgeted to spend around £7,000 on the pyrotechnics. The move has been prompted by the intention of charging people to see the council-run display. “Our fireworks display is going to be free. We are very committed to building the community by bringing together young and old, mums and dads, and families to join in the fun.”

Martin says all these initiatives keep the Mains in the public eye and create a community spirit. He says: “They like what we do and, in turn, they support us.”

Under Martin’s stewardship, the outlet has won numerous awards and citations including recognition from A Taste of Scotland for its culinary skills, commendation from the Scottish Tourist Board for hospitality, and it became the first venue in Scotland to win a gold medal in the British Beer & Pub Association’s Beautiful Beer awards scheme. 

He says all this wouldn’t have been possible without the support received from Punch. “We have a very good relationship with Punch and as with every business relationship; there has always got to be a bit of give and take to succeed.”

Gavin Stevenson, Punch’s Business Development Manager, adds: “Martin and his team at the Mains are a shining example of what can be achieved by embracing the community to help build the business. They show that the future of community-based pubs is bright when run by people with vision.”

Punch Taverns is a leading pub company with 5,000 leased and tenanted pubs nationwide.

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