The BII has a new chairman, Anthony Pender MBII, founder and director of the award-winning Yummy Pub Co and vice-chairman of the Perceptions Group – the organisation that offers unemployed young people placements and training in pubs, with the long-term aim of securing jobs and careers in the sector.
To use the analogy of a volcano, a lot has been happening inside the BII for the past two years, but now with Anthony’s energy, passion and reputation as someone who gets things done, the volcano is about to erupt – and it’s going to be spectacular!
Kate Oppenheim finds out what’s on his agenda for this month’s Big Interview
What made you apply for the position of BII chair?
It wasn’t something I had considered. I have a job with Yummy and am busy doing the Perceptions work, but when a number of influential people from within the trade, and respected publicans, kept encouraging me to apply, I eventually decided to take a look. Reading the strategy documents and seeing all the work that’s being done behind the scenes to drive the change currently taking place made me decide to go for it – after all, I knew it would be up to the interview panel to decide if I was good enough. It was definitely the encouragement of so many great people that gave me the confidence to apply.
How is the BII perceived by our industry?
The BII is still respected, but I don’t think people feel it’s relevant to them at the moment – what is its purpose and why it is there? They want a BII and there’s a lot of goodwill, they just don’t know what role it’s fulfilling any more. It’s our job to change that and make it relevant and respected.
As chairman, what are your priorities?
My first priority is to learn everything about the organisation. It’s a lot more complicated than people realise; there’s the Pub Governing Body (PICAS & PIRRS), the Awarding Body, Best Bar None, PASS and The Academy of Food and Wine Service, so I’m finding out about the different facets and how the team runs them effectively. However, I am focused on how to help members more. I really want to turn the BII into an organisation that truly supports its members.
I very much feel I am the current custodian of the BII and, as such, I am determined to leave it in a far better state than when I started. Much of the strategy and hard work has already been put in place by Tim Hulme and his team, and now I see it as my role to make sure this is all implemented and we do not lose our focus. The BII is about helping people, raising standards and progressing careers. After all, what starts as a job in a pub can be a fulfilling lifetime career with unlimited success.
You are vice-chairman of Perceptions, do you see any synergy between the organisations?
BII sits on the Perceptions’ panel, so they are already working together. The great thing about Perceptions is that it works with many different organisations – the British Beer & Pub Association, the Association of Licensed Multiple Retailers, the Hospitality Guild, the All-Party Parliamentary Beer Group, CPL Training, People First, Job Centre Plus and, of course, the BII. Together, we present a united front that is all about creating a better industry so that individually we can all achieve our goals. It’s not about politics, the beer tie or anything else, it’s just about the individual and what we can do to help.
When someone becomes involved with Perceptions and starts working within our industry, it’s a natural next step that they should join the BII. The BII is here to help them realise their career options and to understand how to progress within the trade. I firmly believe we are nurturing the business leaders of the future. Put simply, Perceptions finds great people for the industry and the BII keeps them in the industry.
Many young people still don’t see the pub trade as a serious career option. How can BII change that?
When I first looked at BII, I felt it was there for the individual licensee. But the BII should be about the evolution of that individual from when they first join the pub trade all the way through their career. It’s really important that we bring young members on board and give them the tools to progress their careers. A lot of young people work in bars, they just don’t stay in our industry. If BII raised the professional standards so that a student with a business or finance degree would see a career progression, I believe they would be encouraged to remain in the industry.
Tell us about your own trade experience
While I was at the University of the West of England (Bristol) studying for a degree in business and tourism, I worked for M&S and it became clear that I wanted to end up on the operational side of business. For my work placement, I joined the Tussauds Group and worked at Alton Towers as the commercial manager. I was just 21 and was running a team of 65 people and loving it. But when I finished my degree I was in debt and was forced to do what I always said I wouldn’t do, which was getting a job in sales. So for the next four years, I worked at Carlsberg. That’s when I first saw how much negativity there was in the sector; the smoking ban had just happened and licensees were feeling very negative about the whole trade.
I felt I could make a difference, and in 2006, I got together with Tim Foster, who’d been working in marketing at Carlsberg, and Jason Rowland an exec chef, and in September 2007, we took over our first pub, the Wiremill in Newchapel, Surrey. Now we have five sites and are about to open our sixth. We’ve also got a share in a coffee company, the Gentlemen Baristas. We have an ethos, which is to give people a chance. When we started out, we struggled to find money because people said we were too young to run a ‘venue like this’. The Wiremill was turning over £350,000 and within 18 months we had it at £1.2m. In 2009, we won three awards at the Publican Awards, including overall Best Pub Operator. It was a bit of a defining moment for us, and it’s when people suddenly started to take us seriously.
So when these two guys who had been working for a national coffee wholesaler wanted to start something on their own, we helped them. I spend two hours a week advising them and they work their socks off. They remind me of us when we first started!
We focus a lot on learning at Yummy. It’s doesn’t matter how nice a venue is or how hard you work, you have got to build a good team; allow them to make mistakes, show them progression, and reward them. Our Yummy Academy is a seven-level training programme developed with CPL Training, and if they have that spark and a good business plan at the end of it, we’ll go into partnership with them.
What do you believe are the key challenges BII members are facing?
Competition is tougher today, the big companies are doing very well and individual operators need help to compete, which is all about raising professional standards. Also, during the next two years, our industry will need 270,000 new workers. If we are to have good managers and chefs in the future, we need to ‘home grow’ them now; we need to create the stars of the future. If we don’t, we won’t have the people to run the venues.
I recently went out with a good friend of mine from the pub trade and something he said really struck a chord: “Don’t waste energy and worry about what you can’t control, work on what you can change.”
To this end, there will always be the challenge of rising taxes and costs, that’s the nature of our economy and it is an uncontrollable variable. The people element is a challenge, but it is a controllable variable and it’s something the BII is good at.
Why did you join the BII?
I joined because I felt I should! It’s why a lot of people are members, but when they do some soul searching they can’t find the answer to the question, “why do I pay the membership fee?”. The tangible benefits haven’t been clear, but just look at the support, the helplines, the advice on offer and along with the development of better events and qualifications, it all makes a lot more sense.
What will you be looking to change?
It’s the outward message. To show we have the capability to appeal to pub operators and the younger people and businesses. To show the BII is vibrant and growing and, most of all, relevant.
If you had just one message for non-members of the BII, what would it be?
Join! The message would be “don’t just join BII, but take a look at what we are doing, then consider what membership can bring to you”. We want to bring more dynamic people on board, people who will share ideas and work together to improve our industry. It’s about working together to achieve our goals.
You’re a big supporter of pubs, what’s your favourite pub (excluding your own, of course) and what would you eat and drink there?
In London I’ve really admired the progress of Real Pubs and Geronimo to the point where they have been acquired by larger businesses yet maintain their individuality, but if I were to travel to visit a pub, it would have to be to James Nye’s (Anglian Country Inns) White Horse in Brancaster for its consistent and impeccable standards and delivery. When I’m there, I always eat fish, especially the homegrown mussels. They are simply the best I’ve ever tasted. And to drink, it would be an IPA – either Meantime IPA or Charles Wells/Dogfish Head DNA New World IPA.
This interview first appeared in the latest BII Business magazine - January 2015.
