Best of British as Coulls Family Backs Port to Boom

BY DION HAYMAN

Ashley Coulls is part of a new breed that is taking take a punt at the Port.

The new operator of The British Hotel at Port Adelaide is ‘all in’ after taking over the licence from previous owner Bruce McFarlane in September, 2022.

But he admits, it’s one of the biggest gambles of his life as his young family embarks on a handson venture in a gaming-free, family friendly pub that also continues to promote live music.

“A couple of mates who were accountants tried to talk me out of doing it because it’s not doing great but there is potential if you can stick it out,” Ashley said.

“Another mate of mine has just opened a pub in the city, the Prince Albert, and he said it’s the best thing he’s ever done.

“It’s tough but you’ve got to put the hours in to get the reward.”

NOW OR NEVER

Ashley knows The British and the Port intimately, having run the pub as venue manager for almost a decade.

“When Bruce put the pub on the market, I thought, ‘oh, okay, I should probably start thinking about things because obviously when new owners come through, it means new management or they run it themselves’.”

It’s tough but you’ve got to put the hours in to get the reward.

By the time property developer Hans Ehmann took over The British, Coulls - a passionate Crows fan - had moved to the Port Adelaide Football Club as venue manager.

“It was a tough gig going to the Port Club and putting on that shirt every day!”, he joked.

But it was one he would only have to ‘endure’ for seven months.

“They wanted someone to come back in and run The British and I said, ‘Well I won’t come back and just be the venue manager again, I’m on a pretty good gig where I am’.

“The way it is, I don’t think it would have been easy to find someone to buy the lease of a pub that wasn’t doing so well.

“But they put together an offer too good to refuse in taking over the lease and I thought, ‘Well you only get an opportunity like this once in a lifetime, especially with my financial status’.

"I don’t know if the timing would ever be perfect.

“I was like, ‘I’ll kick myself if I don’t give it a go, what’s the worst that could happen?’”

BULLISH

Ashley knows that doesn’t bear thinking about but is bullish about the future of the Port.

“It’s about to go boom I think,” he said.

“Everyone used to talk about ‘the Port’s about to take off in 10 years, it’s five years away from really going crazy’.

“But I think it’s less than a year away from going boom.

“There’s something like 1500 homes going up between Dock One and Fletcher's Slip - 1500 homes, 1500 families. It’s a big thing.

“Once there are people in those houses, it’s going to be crazy down here.

“Having Pirate Life brewery coming to the Port has been a massive drawcard to the area.

“People would have never come down here for a pub crawl, now they do.

“The Admiral reopening is a big one too. There’s the Clipper Ship, that’s always a big drawcard to the area. We get a lot of people coming for lunch after they do a tour of that.

“There are the museums – there’s so much down here to see and do but people just don’t realise it.

“The Quest being built four years ago was a huge drawcard to the area because there was never any accommodation down here.

“Two years later the new government building went up, both across the road from the pub.

“There’s huge growth in the area, the council’s definitely behind a lot of things going ahead, lots of events, big things happening.”

NEW QUEST HOTEL

The building of a second Quest Hotel by Ehmann, adjacent to the pub he now owns, looms as a potential goldmine for Ashley.

“The plan is to have a door going through from one of our restaurant areas into the lobby part of the Quest,” he said.

Work is expected to commence in September, with the doors opening some time in 2025.

“It’s just sticking it out until that’s finished, making the most of all the tradies that are coming through and it should work really well for me.”

While The British retains its pokies licence, after a multimillion dollar renovation the decision was made to focus on good food, good functions and good staff.

Searching for that point of difference, Ashley is trying to appeal to young families, whose numbers are expected to grow in the area.

“Having a little play area inside has made a huge difference - just getting the odd booking here and there saying ‘can we be near the little kids area?’.

“And we’re hopefully putting in a playground soon.

“We want to keep the rest of the pub as it is, with a nice dining area down the other end, live music Friday nights and keep that clientele away from the families.”

A new-look menu is a welcome nod to the pub’s proximity to the water.

“A lot more seafood orientated, bit more of a winter-style, obviously going into the colder months.”

LOCAL LIVE MUSIC

Ashley remains fiercely parochial and loyal in terms of everything on offer at The British, which holds the oldest continuous pub licence in Port Adelaide.

“We’re a South Australian-only wine list, use local businesses for our food, our fruit and veg and our meat produce.

“All our live music is local and we have local artists displaying their artworks quite regularly, which we change over every three months so they can display and hopefully sell their work.

“Live music is the big one for me on a Friday night. We kept live music going all the way through COVID-19.

“I’d love to have Sunday afternoon sessions down here because until the Port really does go boom, Sunday night is a bit of a ghost town here. With the markets closing down, there are not as many people floating around.”

Until that boom, Ashley plans to use everything he’s learned in the industry to keep his head above water in the calling he says was never part of his grand plan.

“It was never on my agenda to own my own pub. I’ve always wanted to be a firey – that was my mission but that’s proven pretty difficult to get into.

“Owning my own pub was never something I’d ever thought of.”

Of course, although he knows the job backwards, there is one significant difference that separates licensee from venue manager.

“I suppose it’s the bills, the bills are the big one.

“Running it for Bruce, I was doing everything back then anyway. He gave me free rein of the pub, he was just the one paying the bills.”

A FAMILY AFFAIR

Like the customer he is hoping to attract, Ashley is a young family man himself - husband to Abby and father to two boys under 10, William and Jackson.

“I don’t think she’d ever thought that I’d have my own business,” he said.

“We’ve never thought about financials on this big a picture. We liked the easy life of getting a pay cheque and living life and not having the stress of 15 staff to worry about and bills to pay.

“So it was a big, scary shock but one that we’ve come to terms with and we’re managing somehow.”