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John Hoskins, Huntsbridge
Is it difficult to run a pub from behind the scenes in the kitchen? John Hoskins, managing director and owner of Huntsbridge, which owns and runs four pubs, thinks not. All his pubs are managed by chefs who he has trained up to run his businesses with outstanding success.
Hoskins's innovative approach to business is what impressed the judging panel most when they chose him for the Pub and Bar Industry Award. His food-led pubs - the Falcon at Fotheringhay, the Old Bridge at Huntingdon, the Pheasant at Keyston and the Three Horseshoes at Madingley - are run independently by chefs in a profit-sharing arrangement.
The system clearly works. All four operations now boast numerous accolades in the Michelin guides, the Good Food Guide, the Good Pub Guide, Harden's UK Restaurants and the AA's restaurant and pub guides. Hoskins joined Huntsbridge, a family-based firm in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, in 1985. He got into catering through his passion for wine and, now a Master of Wine, continues to select all the wines for the group.
But it was also his passion for good food that really drove the business. When he took sole control of Huntsbridge in 1994 he was determined to set up a profitable, food-led pub group and started to introduce chef-patrons to run his establishments. He has been slowly building the company ever since, spending time sourcing fine chefs with management potential. He goes into financial partnership with them, helping to develop the businesses and giving them major stakes in the returns. He now appoints and encourages young, enterprising chefs to run his individual pubs. Each chef runs the business, creates the menus and is responsible for all food buying, staff hiring, cash control and profitability.
"I wanted to be in direct communication with the person producing the key product," he says. "I decided I couldn't teach a manager to be a good chef, but, with the right support, I could teach a good chef how to be a manager." Judge Justin Huber said Hoskins set an example to the industry.
"This whole operation reeks of doing it properly. It comes across so well and really sets an example." Another judge, Steven Wilkins, managing director of Lewis & Clarke and last year's Catey winner, also admired his approach in putting chefs in charge. "He has made a statement by putting his chefs in charge. It shows his heart and soul is in food. It's a clever way of structuring a business and it has worked," he said.