It's taken just eight years to build up the 18-strong Wishin

Terry O'Sullivan's office lies in the shadow of Wembley Stadium. Quite appropriate, really, when you consider he's hit the woodwork twice in just missing out on lucrative deals over the past few months. "I've been coming second too many times," he says, "and it's a frustrating experience, I can tell you." On balance, though, he's not complaining. Wishing Well, the company he founded with his wife, Linda, back in 1994, is expected to get close to breaking the £1m pre-tax profits barrier next year. By that time, he reckons he'll have bumped up his pub numbers from the current 18 to 25. They're all on long leases, mostly from Unique. "We'll want to have a more balanced estate by then," states O'Sullivan. He explains: "At the moment, we only have two free-of-tie and I have to say I would only look now at tied leases if they were exceptional or part of a package. For me, the idea of splitting machine income was going too far. They [the pubco landlords] are making that kind of business arrangement unattractive." Wishing Well has been nibbling away at the community locals market for eight years, O'Sullivan originally developing five sites beginning at Kingsbury, a suburb just to the north of Wembley. Then Ushers took a shine to them and bought the lot for £3.2m, giving O'Sullivan a net profit of £2m. "I thought this is it, I've made it'. I immediately went on holiday to celebrate," O'Sullivan recalls. "Three weeks later I was bored stiff and decided I had to get back in there!" What goes around comes around, as they say, and in the autumn of 1999 he regained control of Wishing Well. The Trowbridge-based brewer/retailer was torn asunder by the Alchemy venture-capital group when it bought the business, and the pubs division re-emerged under the InnSpired banner. Chief executive Peter Brook didn't want the Wishing Well brand and sold it to Unique. Now, under an innovative deal that suits both sides, Unique has effectively "leased back" the name as well as the properties to O'Sullivan, and he has exclusive rights to its use. But the really clever part is that he doesn't have to attach it solely to Unique-owned properties any more. "Basically, I can buy what I like," he says. And he does. The most recent acquisition was the Elbow Row in north London's posh Crouch End district. Bought from Barracuda, he'll reopen it early next month. "It was pretty much unloved and making no more than about £3,500 a week," says O'Sullivan. "We can double that ­ there's great footfall around there. To be honest, we haven't done that much to it except make it a bit lighter and airier and we've put in one of our colourful light fittings that we've started to become known for." It's all good grassroots stuff ­ and a lot more fun than being a plumber, the trade for which he was originally trained. "After finishing my apprenticeship I realised I didn't want to do it at all," he recalls. Luckily, O'Sullivan had always been blessed with a cute commercial brain and became involved with his wife and another business partner in a project in Shepherds Bush, west London. He sold it to Gerry Martin's Old Monk and it thrived as a Springbok. Now, ironically, Martin's company is in administration while Wishing Well goes from strength to strength. "I feel sorry for Gerry," says O'Sullivan. To add to the ironies, it was O'Sullivan who was under-bidder to the Puzzle Pub Co for a clutch of Old Monk sites before the financial meltdown overwhelmed Martin and his company. It was the second "near-miss" in a few months ­ the Contemporary Pub Co's handful of outlets going to Laurel. O'Sullivan bid £3.5m for the Old Monks and in the end was £200,000 shy of the winning price. He was a bit bloodied, but generally unbowed ­ and certainly unrepentant. "We never bid above what we think a business is worth," he says. "But we always give it our best shot from the outset. I can't be doing with getting into long drawn-out bidding wars. With us, what you see is what you get." There are downsides, of course, as the company has long outgrown its "over the shop" persona above the Kingsbury outlet and now occupies serviced offices at the entrance to Olympic Way. "When we had our first five pubs, I could visit all of them every day," he says. "Now I get to all of them perhaps five or six times a year." The brief relationship with InnSpired, however, brought another benefit. He rescued one of its area managers, Phil Osborn, from the spectre of redundancy and Osborn is now running the show on a day-to-day basis as ops manager. "I'm about strategy and building the business," says O'Sullivan. "I suppose it means I'm not quite as close to the ground floor as I used to be, but Phil has been a great asset." The strategy isn't likely to move Wishing Well too far outside the M25 ­ but there could well be other brands or even an unbranded estate on the way. "I think that's what we might have done with the Old Monks had we got them," O'Sullivan explains. "I don't think they'd all have worked as Wishing Wells." For the moment, though, the mother brand rules ­ and the pubs bearing its name appear in good shape, even though 50% of them are operating cheek-by-jowl with a Wetherspoon. O'Sullivan, indeed, seems to be one of the few operators who isn't frightened off by JDW's. "We're not going to discount the way they do. We offer something different ­ big-screen TVs and all the big sporting events, live entertainment and franchised catering of Thai and English food," O'Sullivan goes on. "But what I will say is that we have unashamedly copied their approach in things like retail standards and cleanliness. Tim Martin has given the pub industry a kick up the bum, and I admire him enormously for that." But then O'Sullivan himself hasn't done so badly, either. He's crammed a lot into his 35 years ­ including four children. "My 16-year-old daughter keeps getting on to me to buy some trendy bars," he says. "I have to tell her that isn't quite for us." Terry O'Sullivan is busy enough doing what he's good at. He's not likely to be diverted from the task of building Wishing Well into a formidable community brand­ even by his relations! Company stats at a glance

There are 18 Wishing Well pubs ­ 14 in London, three in Hertfordshire and one in Berkshire

They serve their customers 2.5 million pints of beer a year

They average between £8,000 and £9,000 turnover per week

Company profits have grown from £200,000 last year to £600,000 in 2002