2 Tim Clarke

chief executive, Mitchells & Butlers (M&B) (3)

Why he's on the list:

Giles Thorley thinks the managed sector of the industry will eventually settle down in size terms at far below 10,000 pubs in total.

Those sites that remain managed, he argues, will be larger, branded and have a large proportion of food sales.

Mitchells & Butlers recognised this future a decade ago and began an evolutionary process centred around value dining. With just over 2,000 venues, M&B is already the dominant force in branded pub restaurants with a powerful array of brands.

M&B is well placed to strengthen its position in the coming years. If either Punch or Whitbread were to sell their managed sites, M&B would be by far the most likely buyer.

What the past year has held:

Clarke rises one place in our list this year after M&B acquired 239 Whitbread sites last August.

The move spoke volumes about Clarke's confidence in his company's ability to revive sales performance at slumbering super-tanker sites. In fact, no other company in the sector has the brand portfolio needed to re-segment so many sites with the subtlety required.

In the event, M&B is on track to convert the vast majority of the 239 sites, planning officials allowing, by Christmas this year - six months ahead of schedule. The Whitbread deal allows M&B to accelerate to a position where 40% of all sales are derived from food - a decade ago it accounted for 10% of sales.

This process has meant discarding sites that are too reliant on beer sales. Accordingly, 102 venues were sold last September to Trust Inns.

Interestingly, M&B has quietly been moving sites to non-smoking and is now the country's largest operator of such sites with an estimated 300 or so.

Challenges ahead:

The smoke ban should hold little fear at M&B's pub-restaurant sites. But the company still has a sizeable high-street presence with Irish bar chain O'Neill's, Goose, It's a Scream and Flares. These are the venues most at risk of wet sales losses in the wake of the ban.

The successful completion of the Whitbread conversion programme will pre-occupy the company for the rest of this calendar year.