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In an industry experiencing rapid consolidation, it takes plenty of gumption to launch a pub company from scratch - especially a managed pub company, which brings the headaches of rising staff and energy costs and the ever-increasing burden of Government red tape (at a time when the financiers in the City seem smitten with the industry giants' tenanted and leased business models).

But it was this bravado and a willingness to break the established rule book, opening new sites in towns across the UK that other operators shunned that singled our winner, Mark McQuater, out as a strong contender for this year's Pub and Bar Industry award from the off.

Judge Jon Lake from Deloitte & Touche commented: "He has been brave enough to tap into the urban market when others won't."

Last year's category winner and judge Tim Bacon from Living Ventures was equally impressed. "He's constantly acquiring new sites, I just don't know how he holds it together so well," he said.

From creation in July 2000 with the purchase of 35 pubs from Enterprise Inns, qualified chartered accountant and experienced pub boss Mark McQuater has grown Barracuda Group into a national player with more than 180 sites, 3,500 employees and four distinct brands; Smith & Jones, Barracuda Bars, Juniper Inns and Varsity.

McQuater, previously managing director at JD Wetherspoon, Greenalls Pubs and Restaurants and Tom Cobleigh, wasted no time in completing a succession of package deals, including the Ambishus Pub Company and sites from the collapsed Old Monk pub business, to establish scale for Barracuda.

The Ambishus deal was particularly influential as it bought with it the Smith & Jones name, which, with more than 80 sites, is now Barracuda's major national pub brand.

In July 2004, much to Edinburgh-born McQuater's delight, the company opened its first pub in Scotland in Perth.

Six years on and McQuater and his team have secured the company's future with a blockbusting £262m deal in June 2005, which saw Charterhouse Capital Partners take over from previous funder PPM Ventures as backers.

Barracuda also found time to launch a namesake dish, the Barracuda Bake, and in concert with Swindon brewers Archers, Barracuda Bitter, between acquisitions and new openings.

In January of this year Barracuda broke through the £110m turnover mark for the first time, with revenue in the year ended 1 October up 15% to £108.8m (from £94.4m in 2004).

The judges also praised McQuater's latest concept that launched last summer, Juniper Inns, as an interesting move into the "country local" market, which Bacon suggested would change the way people think and feel about country pubs in the future.

In summary, Steve Howe from
the British Institute of Innkeeping summed up Caterer's Pub and Bar Industry winner and the award
itself when he said: "What Mark is doing, and the great brands he has created, just strikes me as really exciting."



BOXTEXT: The shortlist

* Ralph Findlay, chief executive, Wolverhampton & Dudley Breweries

* Mark McQuater, chief executive, Barracuda Group

* Paul Salisbury, director, Classic Country Pubs



Judges

Tim Bacon, managing director, Living Ventures

Craig Bancroft, joint managing director, Northcote Manor/Ribble Valley Inns

Nick Bish, chief executive, Association of Licensed Multiple Retailers

Steve Howe, director of membership, British Institute of Innkeeping

Jon Lake, director, corporate finance, Deloitte & Touche

Nick Moore, director, Moore Results