Stonegate reveals training and assessment programme

The Aspirations scheme will take 16 of the company’s general managers each year through residential and classroom training and give them experience of looking after a small territory of pubs.

Stonegate typically has half a dozen area manager vacancies per year across its 550-strong managed pub and bar estate, and chairman Ian Payne hopes each of those vacancies will be filled with someone graduating from the Aspirations programme.

“I don’t like bringing in area managers from outside the business,” he said, “as it stops internal progression.”
Payne cited area manager Lorna Crawford as an excellent example of an employee who has worked her way up from entry-level at Stonegate.

Not all general managers undertaking the Aspirations course will be suitable for promotion to area manager, but Payne said they are nevertheless highly valued within the business and have great earnings potential in their existing role.

“The difference between a ‘plodder’ and a great general manager is at least a doubling in turnover, and can be as much as fourfold,” he said. “They ensure customers walk out feeling better than when they walked in. They train the team, they incentivise the team and they set the standards.”

Payne complained that the pub industry is not getting the credit it deserves from the government as an excellent employer of young people. “We’re in the middle of a youth unemployment crisis, and we’re not being recognised for what we do – giving young people jobs and offering them career progression through the organisation.”

Marketing-degree undergraduates at Bournemouth University have been advising Stonegate on the development of one of its brands as part of a project for their course. As a result of the students’ recommendations, seven of the company’s 51 Scream Bars are receiving capital investment.

The students will be invited back to see the impact of their proposed changes.

Stonegate targets a 40% return on capital investments across its estate, which consistently represent 5% of the company’s turnover.