La Tasca chief executive Simon Wilkinson says we have a a collective responsibility to look after the industry’s number one asset, not property but people. He says we need to work together to attract school and college leavers into this great industry of ours, but that all those efforts will be wasted if we don’t retain our very best people.
After 31years of loyal service my brother resigned last week from his job as a GM at a major restaurant company. It was very unexpected and for that to happen to someone so passionate about the industry , his company , his site and his team , I knew that there must be a major problem.
Why would someone who has achieved bonus approximately 27 out of his 31 years of service resign some five years before retirement from a secure and reasonably well paid role? The answer was due to the unbearable pressures his employers are putting upon him as a General Manager in terms of over zealous brand compliance and audit , where a tiny failure can result in a non payment of bonus. ” I can’t go on having a stress knot in my stomach everyday I walk from my car to the site,” my brother told me.
Due to commercial pressures we all as leaders of businesses look for extra ways to drive sales and profits, one such growth area is breakfast, but do we consider the impact on our General Managers?
My brother says: “Due to excessive voucher promotions we have been doing up to a 100 non resident breakfast covers at the weekend, but with breakfast running until 1130am that puts undue pressure and strain on the employees as we have 30 minutes to turn around the restaurant for a busy Sunday lunch, including kitchen prep time. Couple that with the extremely rigorous brand standards we have to achieve regarding our breakfast buffet means the whole team is stressed to the max.
Last Christmas Day was the 31st consecutive year that his family had eaten their Christmas lunch at 8pm, the time he returns from work, not only does the company demand two lunch sittings now but GMs are frowned upon if they don’t push for a third sitting.
People are not machines and as leaders of businesses we all need to walk the talk of putting people first. We certainly have been trying to do that at La Tasca with the limited resources we have had at our disposal, where we work tirelessly on the wheel of continuous improvement, namely; Recruit, Train, Reward, Develop, Retain.
As an industry I believe we all need to work together to attract school and college leavers into this great industry of ours, but all those efforts will be wasted if we don’t retain our very best people. I have the upmost respect for my brother’s company but I am sure he is not the first or last top performing manager to quit because short-term profit is being prioritized over long-term success.
We all have a collective responsibility to look after our number one asset, not property but people.
Budweiser brewer AB InBev’s £42.15-a-share offer rejected
AB InBev’s drea m of creating “the first truly global beer company” suffered a setback yesterday when SABMiller’s second-biggest shareholder rejected a £65 billion takeover bid by the Budweiser brewer.
While Altria, SABMiller’s biggest shareholder with 27 per cent, backed the offer, the two board nominees of the Santo Domingo family, whose BevCo investment vehicle speaks for 14 per cent, voted with the rest of the board to reject the £42.15-a-share proposal.
The world’s biggest brewer, which confirmed its interest in SabMiller three weeks ago, went public with the level of its offer after claiming that two previous written bids of £38 and £40 a share had been rejected by directors “without any meaningful engagement”.
In an attempt to win over Altria and BevCo, who would incur huge tax losses by selling for cash, AB InBev included a partial share alternative, pitched at a lower price of £37.49. Analysts at RBC Capital Markets said that this reduced the average offer price per share to £40.21, valuing SABMiller at £65 billion, or about £72 billion including debt, which it said was “some way below what we would regard as a knockout bid”.
Altria, which rejected the earlier £40 offer, urged SABMiller’s board to “engage promptly and constructively with AB InBev to agree on the terms of a recommended offer”, but the board said that £42.15 “substantially undervalues SABMiller, its unique and unmatched footprint and its standalone prospects”. The board is thought to be demanding more than £45 a share.
The split between the two biggest shareholders was surprising, given the claim by Carlos Brito, the AB InBev chief executive, that the partial share alternative had been “designed with and for” Altria and BevCo.
Mr Brito was forced by the Takeover Panel to clarify his earlier assertion that he “expected” the Santo Domingo family to accept the offer. “At this point we don’t have their support,” he said.
He refused to be drawn on whether he would go hostile, but called on shareholders to “put pressure on the board” to give the “amazing price” proper consideration. “We’ve offered a 44 per cent premium and they say it very substantially undervalues the company. How credible is that?”
Asked why shareholders should accept the offer, he said: “The question is when are [they] going to see a price of £42.15 as a standalone company, given trading in emerging markets.” With the “put up or shut up” deadline looming next Wednesday, Mr Brito said: “The biggest threat to this transaction is the way the board is behaving. That’s why it is important for shareholders to make up their minds, because time is running out.”
He played down suggestions that AB InBev would embark on a huge cost-cutting exercise and cull large numbers of employees if the offer was accepted. “This deal is about growth because of the complementary nature of the two businesses.”
A combined group would generate annual revenues of £64 billon and underlying earnings of £24 billion, although regulatory issues probably would force it to sell SABMiller’s interests in America and China. The deal would provide exposure to the fast-growing African markets, where SABMiller has long been the key player.
Shares of SABMiller closed 11p higher yesterday at £36.33.
