Trentham Padel: Café, Bar, Club Shop and Supplier Operations Blueprint
Project: Six-court indoor padel venue, Trentham/Stoke-on-Trent area
Purpose: Costed operating design for lean, hybrid and traditionally staffed models
Evidence date: 7 August 2026
Currency: GBP, excluding VAT unless stated
Decision: Launch a staged hybrid offer: commercial bean-to-cup coffee, pastries and controlled cold/light food; a packaged licensed bar only during staffed peak periods; a narrow expert-led club shop; and vending/lockers for out-of-hours convenience. Do not launch a full kitchen, broad shoe/apparel stockholding, extensive draught cellar or unattended alcohol service.
The financial module shows why restraint matters. The hybrid case is the only one of the three planning scenarios that produces a positive annual operating contribution, but its £11,856 contribution and 8.8-year simple payback are modest before shared property overhead, tax, financing and depreciation. Hospitality should therefore support retention, dwell time and venue differentiation while being measured as a commercial unit; it should not be allowed to become an uncosted lifestyle feature.
1. Scenario decision table
| Planning case | Installed hospitality/shop capex | Annual net sales | Annual operating contribution | Contribution margin | Break-even net sales | Interpretation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lean | £45,540 | £27,821 | (£1,868) | (6.7%) | £31,233 | Too little trade to cover even limited allocated labour and fixed service costs |
| Hybrid | £104,720 | £123,264 | £11,856 | 9.6% | £102,039 | Preferred launch case; positive but sensitive to attachment, labour hours and stock margin |
| Traditional | £254,150 | £307,008 | (£7,970) | (2.6%) | £321,893 | Higher sales do not compensate for the full-service labour and capital structure in this base case |
These figures are auditable management scenarios, not forecasts. Revenue is derived from six courts, operating capacity, court utilisation, player visits, purchase attachment and average net basket. Vending and racket-locker sales are excluded because they sit in the separate vending workbook. Shared reception/venue labour not allocated to hospitality remains in the master staffing model; it has not disappeared.
2. Recommended day-one proposition
The day-one offer should be easy to execute consistently, attractive enough to extend dwell time and deliberately hard to overcomplicate. The café should run during staffed core periods, with vending remaining available outside those times. The bar must be physically closed and stock secured whenever authorised staff are not serving.
| Revenue area | Launch offer | Defer until evidence supports it | Commercial test |
|---|---|---|---|
| Coffee | Fresh-milk bean-to-cup espresso drinks plus a simple backup method | Barista-led traditional espresso theatre | Cups per staffed hour, drink cost, service time, cleaning minutes and downtime |
| Food | Bought-in pastries; cold pre-packed sandwiches/wraps; limited packaged snacks | Full cooked menu, deep frying, extraction-led kitchen | Gross margin after waste, items sold per delivery batch and write-off percentage |
| Hot food | One tightly controlled fast-oven line only if the food-safety plan and demand justify it | Broad menu and made-to-order kitchen | Orders per peak hour, queue time and labour minutes per item |
| Soft drinks | Water, isotonic, low/no-sugar and low/no-alcohol | Large slow-moving range | Stock turn, expiry loss and chilled-space yield |
| Alcohol | Packaged beer/cider, wine and low/no-alcohol during staffed licensed periods | Multiple draught lines and cocktails | Serves per licensed hour, gross profit after waste and incidents/refusals |
| Shop | Three racket price bands, demos, balls, grips, protectors, socks and small branded capsule | Full shoe size curve and broad seasonal apparel | Margin after markdown, stock-turn days, sell-through and demo-to-sale conversion |
The venue should trade primarily as a sport facility. A modest ancillary café/bar strengthens the planning and licensing position compared with an independent destination drinking establishment, and it prevents hospitality floor area and hours from driving the property decision.
3. Café operating design
3.1 Menu boundary
The launch menu should minimise handling stages, allergens, temperature risk and specialist labour. Bought-in wrapped or supplier-labelled products reduce on-site preparation, but the venue remains responsible for traceability, storage, date control, accurate customer information and safe service. Any product packed on the premises before the customer selects it must meet prepacked-for-direct-sale allergen-labelling requirements.
Register the food business with the relevant council at least 28 days before trading and operate a documented food-safety management system based on HACCP principles, such as the FSA's Safer Food, Better Business approach.[^1] Chilled food must be kept within the legal temperature framework; the venue's operating target should normally be 5°C or below, with documented escalation before the statutory 8°C ceiling is breached.[^2]
3.2 Equipment package
Current public UK supplier prices support a practical mid-range system rather than the generic £30,000 coffee-machine assumption sometimes used in café plans. Commercial bean-to-cup machines are publicly listed from approximately £1,800, with installed/trained mid-range equipment around £2,950–£4,700, fresh-milk systems around £4,000–£8,800 and higher-throughput machines up to approximately £13,000 before complete enabling works and service cover.[^3]
| Equipment | Hybrid planning requirement | Price evidence / treatment |
|---|---|---|
| Coffee machine | Commercial fresh-milk, sized for 100–150 cups/day, with cleaning programme and local service | Include filtration, installation, training, service and continuity—not just web purchase price |
| Coffee continuity | Batch/filter backup or documented replacement-machine SLA | Prevent one failure closing the coffee offer |
| Display refrigeration | One customer-facing unit with logged temperature monitoring | Public equipment-only anchors approximately £450–£1,006 |
| Bottle refrigeration | Two secure undercounter units separating alcoholic and non-alcoholic stock where practical | Public equipment-only anchors approximately £322–£483 each |
| Glasswasher | Commercial unit with suitable water treatment and drainage | Public equipment-only anchors approximately £839–£1,339 |
| Dishwasher | Include only if reusable service ware and food operation justify it | Public equipment-only anchors approximately £1,328–£2,378 |
| Fast oven | Optional following menu test | Public Lincat CiBO anchor approximately £2,485; installation and ventilation review are additional |
The model allows £10,000 for the hybrid coffee system and £14,000 for refrigeration, washing equipment and smallwares. These are planning allowances pending a coordinated supplier and MEP quotation.
4. Licensed bar operating design
4.1 Staffed service only
The bar should sell only during staffed, licensed periods. No alcohol should be dispensed through vending, unattended taps, customer self-service or a remote-only approval process. Permanent alcohol sales require a premises licence, a named Designated Premises Supervisor holding a personal licence, and authorisation for every other person making sales.[^4]
The official 30 June 2026 digital-identity update says regulations had been laid to permit registered Digital Verification Services as an additional way to prove age, but the legislation still had to complete its passage and an implementation timetable and updated guidance were still to follow.[^5] The project must therefore not assume that digital age verification is currently available. Even after commencement, a digital check will not remove intoxication, safeguarding, supervision, refusals and licence-condition duties.
Mandatory controls include an age-verification policy, free potable water, smaller measures, the irresponsible-promotion prohibition and the minimum-price rule. Use Challenge 25, staff authorisation records, refusals and incident logs, controlled glass/bottle management, intoxication escalation, an agreed dispersal procedure and secure stock when the bar closes. Buy alcohol only from an HMRC-approved Alcohol Wholesaler Registration Scheme supplier and retain verification of its URN.[^4]
4.2 Packaged-first commercial model
A packaged range minimises cellar capital, line cleaning, gas risk, ullage and low-volume quality loss. Start with approximately 10–16 alcoholic SKUs plus a strong low/no-alcohol range. Add no more than one or two draught lines after measured demand demonstrates a defensible throughput per line and the final design has covered cellar temperature, gas detection, line cleaning, drainage and out-of-hours isolation.
The bar uses the already validated Stoke premises-licence fee schedule: £100–£635 for a new/full-variation application and £70–£350 annually according to rateable-value band; the personal-licence fee is £37 before qualification and disclosure costs. These statutory fees sit in the premises/licensing register and are not double-counted in this module.
5. Club-shop design and equipment buying
5.1 Evidence-led margin policy
A broad shop is not automatically high margin. Express Padel offers a UK B2B portal with trade pricing, a large in-stock range and next-working-day delivery, but its trade discount is not public.[^6] Swoop publishes ex-VAT wholesale prices and VAT-inclusive RRPs for selected products. Normalising those figures suggests approximate gross margins before card fees, shrinkage and labour of 51–55% on balls and grips, about 40% on packaged sports drinks, but only about 17–22% on the listed rackets.[^7]
The opening buy should therefore favour availability and customer advice rather than deep stock. Rackets are strategically useful for acquisition, demos and customer confidence but can absorb working capital quickly and are exposed to annual product cycles and online discounting.
| Category | Day-one stock rule | Channel | Control |
|---|---|---|---|
| Demo rackets | 8–12 individually tagged assets across beginner, control and power profiles | Staffed demo or audited rental locker | Issue/return condition record and asset ledger |
| Retail rackets | 12–24 units across three price bands | Staffed shop plus assisted order | Reorder by sell-through; no duplicated cosmetic depth |
| Balls | Value and premium line | Shop and vending | Case reorder point, batch/age and pressure control |
| Grips/protectors | Narrow colour range | Shop and vending | High-frequency cycle count |
| Shoes | Samples and assisted ordering | Click-and-collect | Do not hold a full size curve at launch |
| Apparel | Small own-label tee/hoodie/socks capsule | Shop and preorder | Small batches, controlled markdown and seasonal exit |
The hybrid model allows £12,000 for opening shop/demo stock and £6,000 for fixtures and secure display. No second deep buy should be approved until the first order meets board-set sell-through, realised margin after markdown and stock-turn thresholds.
6. Customer flow, layout and security
The café/bar/shop should form one supervised service zone near reception without obstructing the entrance, accessible route, court circulation or fire escape. The design must provide an accessible-height counter section, manoeuvring space, a non-digital assistance route and clearly separated customer and delivery flows.
| Zone | Design outcome | Low-staff closure state |
|---|---|---|
| Coffee/food counter | Short queue, visible collection, handwash and cleaning access | Machine/food area secured or restricted to approved self-service products |
| Bar | Staff control of alcohol, glass and POS; line of sight to customers | Physical shutter/lock, alcohol refrigeration secured and tills closed |
| Shop | High-value rackets behind or within controlled display; demos separable from sale stock | Secure enclosure; only vending/authorised collection remains live |
| Stockroom | Separate food, alcohol, retail, chemicals and high-value storage | Access logged and key/credential restricted |
| Delivery route | No pallet/case movement through peak customer circulation | Deliveries scheduled outside player changeover peaks |
| Refuse | Segregated, washable route from service zone to secure external storage | No waste left in customer or escape routes |
CCTV can deter theft and assist incident investigation but does not replace stock counts, permissions and physical security. Cashless operation is preferred. If cash is accepted, introduce a formal float, safe, blind-drop, variance and banking procedure rather than casual drawer handling.
7. Staffing and service hours
The April 2026 National Living Wage is £12.71 for workers aged 21 and over, while standard employer National Insurance is 15% above the relevant secondary threshold.[^8] The model uses loaded front-line rates of £17.50–£18.25 per paid hour to allow for pay above the statutory floor, employer costs, pension, holiday, training, absence and role mix. This remains a management assumption until contracts are designed.
The hybrid base allocates 70 hospitality/shop labour hours per week, of which 65% is charged to this profit centre because cross-trained venue staff also perform reception and operating duties. The unallocated payroll must remain in the venue staffing model.
| Period | Recommended coverage | Permitted offer |
|---|---|---|
| Early/off-peak low-staff | Venue duty coverage only | Vending/lockers and water; staffed bar closed; café restricted to the expressly authorised self-service boundary |
| Weekday peak | Cross-trained venue host plus food/bar competent colleague when demand requires overlap | Full café, staffed packaged bar and shop |
| Weekend peak/events | Rota driven by bookings, coaching, spectators and event plan | Full offer with event-specific stock, queue and licensing controls |
| Close | Two-person overlap where cash/alcohol/security risk requires it | Stock count, waste, refrigeration, till, refusal/incident and secure-close tasks |
Lone working is not prohibited, but the risk assessment must cover violence, medical incidents, hot equipment, manual handling, cash/alcohol, closing and inability to summon help. High-risk cellar delivery, confrontation, heavy stock movement and unsafe equipment intervention should not be undertaken alone.
8. EPOS, tax and reconciliation
Square for Restaurants Plus is the recommended attended café/bar/shop ledger, with Playtomic remaining the court/booking system and vending/locker platforms retaining their own payment and vend records. Current public Square pricing is £69 per location per month, with 1.75% UK card-present processing; the validated launch hardware envelope is £1,400–£2,500.[^9]
Every SKU must carry its correct VAT treatment and sales channel. HMRC confirms that food and drink consumed on the premises, supplies made in the course of catering and hot takeaway food/drinks are standard-rated. Cold takeaway food can be zero-rated only where the product qualifies and evidence supports off-premises consumption. Alcohol, most soft drinks, bottled water, confectionery and many sports drinks are standard-rated. Vending follows the same product and premises principles.[^10]
The daily close must reconcile gross sales, VAT, discounts, refunds, card fees, tips if any, settlement batches and stock movements. Do not compare only the net bank receipt with the till total. Playtomic, Square, vending and locker settlement sources must remain separately traceable in the accounting ledger.
9. Procurement and supplier controls
Issue one structured tender per package rather than asking suppliers for an undefined ‘best price’. Every offer should state equipment title, installation, utilities, consumable ties, minimum orders, delivery cadence, rebates, training, service levels, call-out charges, replacement method, data export, price indexation, termination and removal costs.
| Package | Required comparison | Non-negotiable proof |
|---|---|---|
| Coffee | Purchase, lease and loan tied to bean volume | Capacity test, cost per drink, cleaning time, local service and replacement-machine SLA |
| Food | Unit price, order minimum, delivery and returns | Ingredients/allergens, traceability, shelf life, cold chain and recall process |
| Alcohol | Delivered price, minimum order, equipment ties and rebates | AWRS status, provenance, licence-supporting service and emergency supply |
| Padel goods | Trade discount, carriage, warranty, seasonal returns and stock feed | Authentic UK stock, demo terms, reorder time and warranty handling |
| EPOS | Hardware, subscription, acquiring and support | Scripted live demonstration, permissions, refund audit and full data export |
| Cleaning/pest/laundry | Fixed visits, consumables and call-outs | RAMS, chemical data, insurance, food incident response and service records |
Supplier consolidation can reduce deliveries and administration, but a rebate or loaned machine must not obscure the effective unit cost or create an uncompetitive exclusive tie. Award on total cost, uptime, compliance evidence, replenishment certainty and exit—not headline machine price.
10. Management dashboard and expansion gates
The hospitality manager and venue general manager should review the following each week: net sales by half-hour, transactions per player visit, average net basket, gross margin by product, staffed labour hours, sales and contribution per staffed hour, food waste, stock variance, stock-turn days, expiry, refunds, refusals, equipment downtime and unresolved supplier tickets.
| Expansion decision | Minimum evidence before approval |
|---|---|
| Add draught | Twelve weeks of packaged alcohol sales, forecast throughput by line, cellar/MEP quote and positive incremental contribution after waste/cleaning/labour |
| Add hot-food range | Peak orders, queue/service test, food-safety update, extraction/ventilation position and positive contribution per labour minute |
| Hold shoe size curve | Assisted-order history by brand/size, return rate and stock-turn case |
| Expand apparel | Proven sell-through and markdown margin from the launch capsule |
| Extend staffed hours | Incremental contribution per added labour hour exceeds the board threshold for a sustained period |
| Install self-order kiosk | Queue data and labour displacement justify hardware/software; menu and accessibility remain compliant |
11. Opening-readiness checklist
No hospitality revenue stream opens until the operating owner has documented the authorised menu and hours, food registration, food-safety system, allergen and PPDS controls, temperature and cleaning logs, supplier/traceability records, equipment commissioning, water treatment, waste/pest arrangements, Square configuration, VAT mapping, stock counts, refund/void permissions, fire/access approval and staff competence. Alcohol additionally requires the granted premises licence, displayed summary, named DPS, personal-licence and sale authorisations, Challenge 25, refusal/incident logs, approved wholesaler check and secure close procedure.
The first 12 weeks should be treated as a controlled pilot. Retain the hybrid envelope but schedule labour to bookings, open with narrow stock and use observed data to decide whether hospitality deserves more space, capital and staffed hours.
12. Planning-level capital boundary
The model's installed figures include counter/joinery, coffee, refrigeration/washing, light food equipment, packaged bar or traditional cellar allowance, EPOS, shop fixtures, furniture/signage, opening stock, professional commissioning and contingency. They exclude the already separate vending/locker pilot; full venue network/CCTV; base-building toilets, drainage and HVAC; statutory planning/building-control fees; main venue rent/rates/utilities; and payroll outside the stated hospitality allocation.
The workbook should be used as the hospitality module within the master cost model, not added blindly to every other allowance. Each master-model line will carry an owner and double-counting boundary.
References
[^1]: Stoke-on-Trent City Council, starting a food business; GOV.UK, food-safety management systems.
[^2]: Food Standards Agency, chilling food correctly.
[^3]: CaterKwik, commercial bean-to-cup range; Clumsy Goat, commercial catering-equipment range.
[^4]: Home Office, alcohol licensing; Stoke-on-Trent Licensing Policy 2025–2030.
[^5]: Office for Digital Identities and Attributes, digital alcohol age checks, 30 June 2026.
[^6]: Express Padel, B2B club and coach account; current public racket range.
[^7]: Swoop Vending, published wholesale padel and drinks shop. Margin percentages are analyst calculations that remove VAT from stated consumer RRPs and compare the resulting net selling price with published ex-VAT trade price.
[^8]: GOV.UK, National Minimum Wage rates; HMRC, National Insurance contribution rates.
[^9]: Square UK, Restaurants pricing; see also the project Booking, Payments and Software Stack.
[^10]: HMRC VAT Notice 709/1, Catering and takeaway food; HMRC VAT Notice 701/14, Food products.