Giles Thorley
Giles Thorley chief executive, Punch Taverns (1)
Why he is on the list:
The head of Britain's biggest pub company, which like other big tenanted operators, has experienced a testing year. His pub empire still spans the UK's second largest tenanted operation and an 860-strong managed division. Thorley runs a very big company, but has also shown a willingness to listen to his company's detractors, which means he is likely to be a significant figure in industry terms as the tie flexes to take account of recent Bec recommendations.
What the past year has held:
It's been the company's toughest year since Thorley joined in 2003. Few could have envisaged the spectacular decline of its share price over the year.
The need to address the threat of cash traps — the finance world's equivalent of deep, deep bunkers in the golf world — has seen the company put up the "for sale" signs on virtually every pub in its estate to raise precious cash. It has been forced to sacrifice revenues by the need to prop up struggling lessees engulfed in the credit crunch and recession.
Beer volumes are down in double digits, rental returns are wilting and re-lets have been, increasingly, on shorter terms — a sure sign of new licensee wariness. Thorley has replaced the heads of both his managed and tenanted divisions in an attempt to create momentum. The damning Bec report merely added to Punch's woes.
Challenges ahead:
Immense. The next 12 months will truly test Punch. Spirit will need to carry on improving its performance to move away from its also-ran position of the past few years. The tenanted division needs to run hard to shore up its underperformers, whilst redoubling efforts to correct what the company has called a "lack of trust and transparency" with tenants.
But who knows what Punch will actually look like in a year's time? It's likely that the tenanted division may be 1,000 boozers lighter. The size of Spirit is anyone's guess, especially if nasty boomerang leases keep slapping it in the face like stale kippers.
Can it survive? There is a clear way through but shareholders will be disappointed that there's still so much to do in Spirit three and a half years after acquisition.
