Founder’s Hall

JW Lees has nearly 150 pubs, inns and hotels scattered across the North West. One of their most prominent sites is on Albert Square, opposite Manchester’s magnificent neo-gothic Town Hall. For many years, it had been trading as a wine bar concept called Duttons. Come 2024 the site wasn’t performing commercially, and neither was the concept in keeping with the JW Lees brand, which was centred on beer and brewing.

Founder’s Hall

What we did
Innovation
Brand strategy
Naming
Brand identity
Environment design
POS and merchandise

During our earlier rebrand of JW Lees, we’d developed a design scheme for the interiors and exteriors of their pubs. Many of these are in characterful buildings with all the charm and personality you’d expect. But when it came to a city centre site on the ground floor of a modern office building, the standard scheme wasn’t right.

JW Lees needed a new concept—a way to create a temple to JW Lees brewing history celebrating the best of their range, but in a modern site. Every aspect of the new site would need devising from scratch—from name and branding, to interior design and food.

Beer and Food Hall

Our inspiration came from studying continental beer halls. These are temples to beer, complemented by perfectly paired food. They retain the informal, unpretentious atmosphere of a pub—first and foremost, they are places to chat. Yet crucially, their interior design style is more suited to modern buildings. The concept of a food and beer hall provided the perfect focus for how we could recreate the atmosphere of a traditional pub but in a modern setting.

Our first task was to devise a name. We knew the word Hall would feature because of our concept. But what to pair it with? The ambition for the site was to be a temple to JW Lees brewing history, so who better to honour in their name than their founder, John Lees. Founder’s Hall became the name.

 

The interior design scheme heavily featured reclaimed materials, art and ephemera from the 200-year-old Greengate Brewery. Flexible seating plans and table arrangements allowed for drinking, dining, larger parties and a beer hall style layout.

 

All JW Lees beers were perfectly poured in branded glassware. 

The overall look and feel of the bar achieved the aim of creating a shrine for JW Lees beers. New 3D illuminated keg badges,
bespoke keg and cask handles and eye-line height display showcased the full JW Lees beer range. Handwritten beer chalkboards
provided tasting information.

 

The team were dressed in burnt orange t-shirts with white branding, olive knee-length unbranded aprons, and black trousers.

We worked with JW Lees to develop the food, with a focus on being simple and unpretentious but catering for a wide audience. Food to talk over, not about.

 

Impact

After nearly a full year of trading:

  • Sales were 66% higher than the previous year
  • Sales beat the budget by 21%
  • The site went from loss-making to profitable
  • Finalist in the 2025 Publican Awards for Best New Site

“Squad provide us with consumer insight and expertise that goes well beyond JW Lees’ marketing requirements and helps to form and direct our strategy for the future of the business.”

William Lees-Jones – Managing Director, JW Lees

Back to work
JW Lees

JW Lees

What we did Brand strategy Naming Brand identity Guidelines and toolkits Innovation Packaging Advertising Film and imagery POS and merchandise Digital design Environment design Events and exhibitions Internal communications The last ten years or so have been tough for the pub industry. First the smoking ban, then the recession; the sector had been hit hard. […]

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Get in touch

0161 228 2283

0161 228 2283

[email protected]

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