Save The High Grove Gatley

The HighGrove is not on a main road. If you don’t live on the estate then you won’t know that it is here.

It is right in the middle of the estate. It is totally dependent on the community.

The pub is a hidden gem. It was originally built for the benefit of the local community.

It is the only pub on the estate with a catchment of 7745 residents (SMBC website) within one mile radius.

It is a community pub for the whole estate. It is regularly involved in raising funds for St. Anns Hospice through many community-led event such as Charity Auctions, Gatley Festival, Music Festivals and sponsored walks. It acts as a meeting place for bike clubs, and for members of the local sports centre to enjoy a drink after training and playing.

The HighGrove keeps the estate alive for all the residents and is a focal point for social contacts and a meeting place for all in the community.

Many local residents bought their houses due to the proximity of the HighGrove pub. It is a warm and friendly pub that makes newcomers to the area feel welcome.

It is within walking distance for most people, especially for many of the older residents. They rely on its proximity. Derek McGuire has been frequenting the pub since it was built in 1962.

Several of the other elderly residents meet in the pub every evening. They need the social contact and banter, as many of them are widowers and would otherwise spend time at home on their own.

The nearest pubs from here (also owned by Hydes) would be a 20-30 minute walk for them.

Youngsters on the estate do visit the HighGrove, however there are lots more of them that live locally and would do so (with their friends) if Hydes paid attention to the age demographics and spruced up the pub.

They are the future to which Hydes should be paying attention to.

It is a child-friendly pub. The current landlady has instigated initiatives to involve the local primary school children and parents in local activities and events at the pub.

Many of the local residents are angry that Hydes are contemplating the closure of the HighGrove and that by stealth (systematically engineering its demise) and being very underhand about its plans and quietly implementing them.

Take away the pub and the community will lose its heart.

The loss of this pub would conflict with local & national policies on the retention of community facilities.

There has been no direction or support given by Hydes. There has been a lack of marketing and ideas by Hydes who have not actively promoted the pub to the local community.

Less than five years ago, this pub was a busy, well-frequented and thriving establishment.
On a sunny day the beer garden at the front is attractive and busy. But now NO FOOD.

Over the last two years Hydes Brewery has systematically engineered the demise of this pub through the withdrawal of providing food and by not honouring agreements they made with locals regarding the modernising of the pub with promised cosmetic improvements.

It has not been run well by the brewery and
has suffered from a lack of investment and therefore not been achieving its previous takings and popularity.

The major cause for the reduction of trade was due to a lack of a reasonable and reasonably-priced food offering. Hydes decided not to directly provide a food service and replaced what was a good product with a series of failed food franchised chefs, whereby the chef was expected to fund the food service himself on behalf of the brewery!! Understandably that didn’t last very long.

If Hydes had any real vision then they would look at The Ship public house in Styal, which is 2 miles away. This was a pub that had been run down similarly to the HighGrove. It has had some updating and is now a thriving pub. Also there are very few houses nearby, so it relies on passing traffic. And it is working.

In a recent meeting with the Hydes Operations Manager, figures were provided by Hydes to show that the pub WAS NOT losing money, but in fact was making a small profit. However they felt that this was an insufficient return for them.
Hydes had taken no measures in response to ‘falling profits’ and had not submitted any figures to the local community to substantiate any of their claims of a non-viable pub.

Hydes have not bothered to put any effort in to clearly demonstrate that the HighGrove could once again become a viable business in the future.

The Hydes Operations Manager also stated that it was the Asian demographics of the surrounding area that would affect the revenues of the pub over the next 10 years, and that the two most local schools to the HighGrove (Kingsway High School and Lum Head Junior School) were 50% Asian.

It is not true and HighGrove patrons children attend these schools and categorically refute the Hydes figures .

Hydes statement regarding the Asian population could be construed as Hydes being racist or totally incompetent for not accurately researching these figures.

On the SMBC website , the locale of the HighGrove has a Muslim population of 11%.
Devout Muslims will not visit ANY pub, so these figures provided by Hydes are totally irrelevant.
These so-called Asian demographics would also affect the two other Hydes Gatley pubs, the Horse & Farrier and Prince of Wales. Hydes don’t see it as a problem there. Why?

The potential closure of the HighGrove has less to do with trading problems and more-so the fact that Hydes are strapped for funds and wish to sell our pub to fund grandiose eating schemes at other Hydes establishments.

Recently Hydes have spent over £1M on a new pub in the Northern Quarter.

Hydes have always done things ‘on the cheap’ from the decoration and fixtures of premises, quality of some of the products they sell, skimping on staffing levels etc.

Now they want to get into gastro-pubs. They want to forget those pubs that each year have been profitable and therefore have placed Hydes where they are today. Hydes want to forget the HighGrove that has contributed to Hydes profits for the last 50 years and to forget their origins in ‘wet’ pubs and to become a gastro-pub brewery, trying to emulate the direction taken by Holts Brewery.

The HighGrove must be considered a valuable community asset – it is the only pub on the estate.

The owners had not taken on-board or completely disregarded what improvements should have been made, especially the provision of a decent food offering.

Pubs NEED TO SELL FOOD as well as drink.

The question that needs to be addressed is:
“What could this business achieve given a management dedicated to it, and with full discretion over its direction, stocking policy, type of operation and facilities provided”