Hospitality Champion

TOM Davies is surprised to be asked for an interview considering, he says, he’s the most hated man in Henley.

Hard to believe, I know, of this tall, good looking 43-year-old former rugby player who walks into the room with a smile and offers me a coffee.

I meet him on a Friday afternoon in a large and smart meeting room in the Brakspear HQ where I had strategically placed myself opposite the door so I could quietly assess him before we met — only for him to surprise me by coming in through the door behind me.

So this is the pub company head honcho who thinks everyone hates him? How can this be when he employs more than 220 people, not to mention all Brakspear’s leased pubs, making him one of Henley’s biggest employers?

Turns out that being chief executive of a pub company means that he gets the blame every time a pub closes.

Yet since he took up the reins in 2010, Brakspear has won several industry awards and when you ask him what his passion is, he says — without hesitation — that it’s his business.

“We’re just a small family company trying to run a good, honest business and not the big bad wolf that everybody seems to think we are,” he says.

Tom is keen on family. Now dad to two-year-old Bella and baby Daisy, his own father Mickey is the Brakspear chairman and he grew up the middle child in a tennis-obsessed household. He preferred rugby, trialling for the South of England at 18.

His only real injury, he says, came during his gap year while bungee jumping but it was his wife Alexa, whom he married four years ago, who came off worse when she tried it later.

“She was tied to a friend and literally thrown off a bridge into the river below,” says Tom. “They landed head down and submerged in the water and the boat was late to pick them up. “They must have thought they were going to drown as they couldn’t raise their heads.”

So are pubs finding it easy to keep their heads above water, I wonder? 

Tom acknowledges that times have been hard for everyone since he took up his current role.

“A financial crisis, a tough 10 years, the Brexit debacle, the run-up to the Brexit vote, then the vote, then covid, then a war in Ukraine,” he says. 

“Now we’re told we are almost in a recession yet, as we sit here, our neighbours in Ukraine have it far harder and others have suffered devastating earthquakes.”

Despite the decidedly uncertain economic climate, Tom remains a true champion of all things hospitality, saying that it can be a lucrative career.

“It’s a shame that often hospitality is not seen as a serious profession,” he says. “There are simply not enough people going into hospitality and the industry struggles to be seen as a decent career.”

There are currently several landlord vacancies on the Brakspear website and Tom concedes that running a pub can be a complicated business.

“You have got to need, love and understand hospitality and a good business acumen is essential,” he says. 

“It’s a business that you can work very hard at and everyone needs to see something at the end of that.”

So what does Brakspear look for when recruiting a new tenant?

“It’s a combination of skills and it’s a long process,” he says. “Initially, potential tenants reach out to us, then they receive a package from us, then there’s an interview process and, lastly, an interview with me. 

“The business plans have to be studied and then a decision made.

“In all seriousness, like everything, it can go wrong and sometimes we’re made out to be the bad guys when we honestly don’t want it to fail. 

“We want, and aim for, a long-term and happy business relationship. We certainly don’t want a revolving door.

“In fact, think of Tony and Pat at the Flower Pot in Aston. They built up a whole community spirit during their 30 years there and have a drink on us for life there.

“Everyone goes into these things with the best of intentions but the reality is that sometimes it does go wrong. 

“Generally in the UK it is something like two thirds of new businesses fail and in fact it is a lot lower than that for us.

“There are, though, a considerable number of elements — people might not work out, they may find it’s more challenging than they thought, or they might not get on with the locals — yes, that does happen. And then there are relationship break-ups.

“But whatever the reasons are, and there can be a lot, we try to help the situation and save the pub before it ultimately closes, which no one wants. “In fact our contracts are perhaps not as water-tight as people might think or have been led to believe. “We offer a flexible agreement that is designed to protect all. We actually try to help all parties, including the locals.”

As we speak, Brakspear has 121 trading pubs — the number reached a peak of 155 in 2007 — and the company has bought and sold several during that time. 

Tom says he’d rather have pubs with a firm future than expand and is proud of the way the company is making use of letting rooms, which seem to be making good use of local buildings, including two properties that abut the Brakspear offices, namely the Old Coach House at the Bull on Bell Street and the Dolls House, which offers four bedrooms in a quaint street in the heart of Henley.

Tom knows what he’s talking about when it comes to the hospitality business, having worked his way up from the bottom, working in the kitchens, bars and restaurants of Geronimo Pubs for two years before moving into management. He knows first hand how hard it can be. 

So is Henley’s most hated man optimistic about the way ahead for hospitality?

“Yes we’ve had difficult times but perhaps not as hard as some,” he says. “We do have a future; yes of course, there is a future. “Quality pubs need to be well run and we must never forget that each year the bar gets higher and people’s expectations get higher too.”