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Mitchells & Butlers: Energy Savings at Toby Carvery Banbury
- 15,805 kWh saved annually
- 8.3 tonnes carbon saved per year
- 71% energy consumption reduction
- £2,306 annual savings
- 2.30-year payback period
Mitchells & Butlers is the leading operator of managed pubs and pub restaurants in the UK with around 1,600 locations offering food, drink, entertainment and accommodation. Their portfolio includes high-street, suburban, and rural brands such as All Bar One, Vintage Inns, Toby Carvery, Harvester Restaurants and Browns. They take environmental responsibilities seriously and believe responsible environmental activity is in the interest of both their business and the communities they operate in.
The Challenge
Mitchells & Butlers operates a company-wide project to improve energy efficiency and monitor energy usage across their estate. The Toby Carvery in Banbury provided an opportunity to understand how energy-saving technologies perform in a busy pub environment. Kitchen ventilation systems ran at full speed all day regardless of cooking activity, consuming significant energy while the kitchen experienced varying levels of demand throughout service.
The Solution
Cheetah was installed at Toby Carvery Banbury as a trial site. The system controls extract and supply fans within the commercial kitchen, keeping fans at the desired speed depending on cooking activity rather than full speed all day. Using temperature and optical sensors, Cheetah intelligently detects cooking activity under the hood and ramps fan speeds up or down accordingly. The system saves energy on fan consumption while also reducing heating and cooling losses - all while improving kitchen conditions for staff.
The Results
Annual savings: 15,805 kWh on fan energy alone, 8.3 tonnes of carbon, and £2,306 in costs. The 71% energy reduction achieved a 2.30-year payback period - a significant step toward Mitchells & Butlers' overall energy reduction goals.
Simon Cocks, Cost Manager: "Mitchells & Butlers has the opportunity through the Banbury site to better understand how energy-saving technologies such as Cheetah work in a busy pub environment. We are keen to continue to roll out the system across our other businesses."
Ongoing Partnership
Following the success at Toby Carvery Banbury, we continue to install Cheetah across the entire Mitchells & Butlers estate. The trial-first approach allowed the company to prove the technology in their specific operating environment before committing to wider rollout - demonstrating how demand-controlled ventilation delivers measurable savings in busy pub and restaurant operations.