Ford's Focus

It's now more than a year since Alchemy Partners' purchase of 178 managed pubs from Spirit Group formed the Tattershall Castle Group (TCG), but it's fair to say that the company has yet to carve out a clear identity for itself within the industry.

A glance down the TCG house list gives a clue about the challenge it faces in this respect. The acquisition was a hotchpotch of odds and ends. Two-thirds are unbranded locals, sports bars and food-led pubs.

One-third are high-street brands ­ mostly former Scottish & Newcastle retail brands that Spirit didn't want, Bar 38, Rat & Parrot, Henry's and Squares being among them.

Pulling that lot into focus and conveying a clear sense of what TCG is about is the task that new chief executive David Ford has set himself.

Ford joined the company in July following the somewhat mysterious departure of his predecessor, Peter Brook. Brook certainly seemed keen to get to grips with the operation before he left the company in May, but Ford's explanation of the ex-InnSpired chief's "very mutual" parting with Alchemy was confirmed recently when Brook resurfaced as the head of the Dawnay Day Principal Investments-backed InnDeed Group, a new tenanted and leased pub venture.

"Peter's leanings were towards the tenanted sector; that's where his comfort level was," says Ford.

The new boss of TCG, on the other hand, may not have a pubs background, but he seems comfortable with his role all the same.

Ford spent 17 years with food group Gardner Merchant, now part of Sodexho, and then worked for office services firm Regus. Alchemy owned 58 per cent of Regus before it sold back its stake at a healthy profit in April this year, as part of a management buyout.

Management is management

"Management's management," he says. "Service businesses all face remarkably similar issues. They are customer-led and they are people-led, and my experience is in how those people are managed. Still, it's very much a new venture for me."

Ford was speaking on board the Tattershall Castle, the floating pub and club that is permanently moored at London's Victoria Embankment, opposite the famous Ferris wheel known as the London Eye.

It gives the company its name and was an appropriate venue for the TCG open day to attract new recruits. The fact that Ford was there himself reflects his people-led approach. But pubs are also about buildings ­ and occasionally boats.

The group has a hefty capex programme in place to smarten up an estate that Ford describes as "under-invested". So far the cash has been spent on "relatively straightforward" projects at unbranded pubs, such as the £100,000 scheme at the Steam Passage in Islington, but it's the development of the branded estate that Ford is taking a close personal interest in.

"I'm taking a close look at that side of the business," he says. "As far as I can see we have a lot of brand names but not a lot of brands. A large part of our estate comprises town-centre young person's circuit bars, all of which have different offers. So we are reviewing them so we can get the offers right before committing any capex.

"That may mean consolidation into fewer brands, and it may mean introducing new names onto the high street. There's a good chance we'll consolidate in town centres with a couple of existing brands and something new.

"We have to be sure we're positioned where we want to be. We need to understand what's working and apply that back to the estate."

That doesn't mean TCG will go completely down the branded route, though. "The diversity of the estate gives us terrific opportunities," says Ford. "We want a broad church. We're not a one-trick pony."

Diversity leads to talent

That diversity will also help the company recruit the talent that can run successful pubs, he believes. And, in an industry with a high labour turnover, he also aims to make sure people stay by developing a company culture they can identify with.

"Our USP is we're big enough but we're not a bureaucracy," he explains. "That's one advantage of being such a new company. We need some central disciplines but we're not a nanny state and we can take decisions quickly using the local judgement of our managers rather than passing them down in some Big Brother system.

"Our culture is still evolving. The first thing I did was to ask 'what's the company about?' It's about speed and agility and the values that guide us. TCG has to stand for something and for those who join us it's career opportunities and a people-led management style.

We have to recruit good people, and if they like our management style they'll stay.

"People want to play for winning teams and we have got to perform. But that doesn't come out of nothing, it comes because there is something there that people believe in."

Being owned by venture capitalists might be seen as a downside here.

But while he admits that "at some point Alchemy will want to realise its investment", Ford brushes off the idea that this might undermine TCG's quest for a consistent culture.

"I believe it's irrelevant," he says. "What sustains a business are its values, not who owns it. My job is to make this business so attractive that people will be queueing to invest in it by the time Alchemy pulls out.

"It's exciting," he concludes. "We've got a new and enthusiastic team and we've got cash ­ and that's something you don't hear very often.

But cash is not really the issue. It's about prioritising expenditure.

"Yes, we want to expand, but not until the existing estate is performing optimally. On the other hand, if something comes up."