My route to the top – Nick Howe
Every newborn baby is unique and wondrous, but some are more unique than others. Nick Howe, joint managing director of Holroyd Howe, and his twin brother hold the distinction of being the first European twins to survive birth in Gambia. That's what hospital staff said in the 1950s, during the twilight years of the British Empire.
Howe's father worked as an overseas civil servant preparing the African state for self-government, and his parents wrote the Gambian national anthem, which is still used today. After his risky but successful entrance into the world, Howe inherited this musical talent, playing the clarinet since childhood, though some colleagues express disbelief at his "dodgy, middle-of-the-road" taste in music.
After school in Hereford, where he was a keen rugby player, Howe caught the hospitality buzz while working as a waiter at a five-star Cambridge hotel.
In his first hotel job after college, Howe missed friends and family up in South Yorkshire and the long hours of hotel work kept him from his beloved rugby at weekends.
An escape route presented itself when a detergent delivery man collapsed in the hotel lobby. As duty manager, Howe took the man to hospital and got chatting. Learning about a vacancy, Howe became a salesman of detergents, dishwashers and on-premises laundries to the catering industry: "It was a bizarre, interesting six months. First company car, normal working hours, out and about - it seemed brilliant, but the trouble was I could hardly wire a plug let alone install dishwashers and on-premises laundries. Not me."
A brief spell at the Lygon Arms in Broadway, Worcestershire, rekindled Howe's interest in catering and from there he joined Sutcliffe. "It was the late eighties… there was massive growth in banks, insurance houses, business and industry, and huge opportunities for contract catering."
One unforgettable contract during this boom time was at Canary Wharf. Sutcliffe failed to get the catering contract at the giant office block, but picked up the cleaning deal. The site was still under construction and Howe was responsible for hosing down trucks and cleaning Portakabins: "It was a massive operation worth £10,000 a month, but a challenge too far," he recalls. His boss, Don Davenport, christened him "Harpic Howe".
Opportunity
The emergence of Baxter & Platts provided the opportunity to be part of a new independent organisation. "I joined with little more than a dozen contracts up and running," he says. "Eight years later there were 125. It provided a huge learning experience and gave me the appetite to start Holroyd Howe."
The extra push to go it alone came when Granada Food Services bought Baxter & Platts for £15m in 1997. Howe remembers it well. "I resigned on Monday and on Thursday found out that my wife Sue was expecting twins. It certainly focused the mind," he says.
Since then Holroyd Howe, which he founded with partner Rick Holroyd, has grown to a business with 58 contracts and an annual turnover of £12.6m. The company plans to have 60 contracts by September and continue its rate of growth of 10 to 12 contracts a year.
Does Howe plan to expand out of the South-east? "We have no plans to accelerate our rate of growth. But perhaps we'll open a regional office in the West Country or the Midlands, but only if it doesn't lead to the dilution of our values," he says.
Those values are fine food, fine service, and considered management. Howe is not interested in branded food service outlets needing staff of limited skill. "You can create an identity as opposed to a brand. A brand is pre-determined and doesn't fit every client. We have to be more chameleon-like," he says.
Sushi training modules, which Holroyd Howe has given kitchen staff over the last year, helped to win a new deal with Honda UK, where at least one Japanese main course or snack must be served each day.
If consolidation among independents in the South-east occurs in the near future, Howe wants no part of it. "There will always be companies that want to take over smaller companies. We enjoy our independence," he says.
How I got there
1979-82 Gloucester College of Arts & Technology, HND in hotel management.
1982-85 Started career as a junior manager with Anchor Hotels in South Yorkshire, followed by a six-month "adventure" supplying detergent to the catering industry. Lygon Arms hotel in Broadway, Worcestershire - waiter.
1985-89 Sutcliffe (now Compass). Went through company's management development programme to become area manager for the West Country and then Docklands, London.
1989-97 Baxter & Platts, operations director.
1997 to present Holroyd Howe, joint managing director.
Up close and personal
Married, with twin daughters aged five and a son aged six.
Home: Buckinghamshire.
Interests: rugby, football - including training my son Alexander - eating out and hill-walking.
Favourite music: Elvis, Coldplay, James, REM.
Favourite film: The Heroes of Telemark, starring Kirk Douglas and Richard Harris.
Favourite TV programme: The Vicar of Dibley.
Favourite restaurant: the River Café.
People who have inspired me: my parents.
