The Big Interview: Mike Tye

Perhaps he can’t fashion a canoe out of a log with a grapefruit knife, or rustle up a tasty stew from grubs and tree bark. But he does have that rare air about him of a man who, at any moment, will know exactly what it is that has to be done.

He certainly seems to be doing a good job leading Spirit Pub Company through the undergrowth, dancing across the quicksands of debt and extricating the managed-house group from the clinging vines of Punch Taverns, following last summer’s demerger.

It might not yet have reached the sunlit uplands, but debt is down and like-for-likes are up and the chief executive calculates that he’s 70% of the way through the middle stage of a three-phase recovery process that will bring Spirit to the point where it can start expanding from 800 to a potential 1,200 pubs.

Which is a more reassuring answer to the question “are we nearly there yet?” than “shut up and keep swinging the machete”.

Tye learned the craft of management during 24 years, less a three-year half-time break, at Whitbread. “Even when it wasn’t the best-run business it had a fantastic culture of recruiting good people and giving them the space to deliver,” he says.

He left in 2007 to satisfy “a hankering to work in private equity”, during which time he met then Punch Taverns chief Giles Thorley. “A few months later I got a call. He was looking for someone to turn around and run the managed business.”

It seemed a perfect fit, but Tye is not one to rush headlong into the unknown.

“I had a good look around the business, going to pubs as a guest. I thought it was in pretty poor shape — but I also saw huge potential.

“It was obvious the estate was very good. Spirit had taken the pick of the Allied, Scottish & Newcastle and Greenalls estates. But they weren’t properly integrated or united. The brands were lacklustre. The people had potential, but there was a lack of pride and a lack of focus on guests.

“Nobody had spent money making sure the basics were right. You can’t have a pub with wallpaper hanging off the wall, the toilets not fixed. Why would anyone want to go back into that environment? I could see everything going south.

“I explained what I’d seen to Giles and his face dropped.”

Despite that, he was offered the job. More surprisingly, he took it.

“Yes, it was a massive thing to turn around, but I like it when I see things that are not right and I can do something about it. It’s the way I’m made, I suppose.

“Philosophically, the senior team understood what I believed we had to do — but it needed to be shown success, and success doesn’t come straight away. But then it starts to happen and it’s a fantastic feeling.”

There were casualties as Tye brought in colleagues who saw things the way he did. “I had to change mindsets, or I had to change people. You can’t push water uphill with a rake. And that’s not being harsh. That’s a fact of life. Now, today, we’ve got a fantastic team.

“I’m always walking around the office, talking to people, and there’s a brilliant buzz of energy about the place. It’s infectious. And if people enjoy what they’re doing they get better at it.

“There’s only so much the head of a business can do,” he goes on. “Without a like-minded team my job would be impossible. If what you are trying to do gets taken up to the next level, it grows, if it doesn’t, it dissipates. That’s why the calibre of people at every level is critical. Without that you lose energy and direction.”

In every business he has run, good communication has been fundamental.

“If you come across in a simple, engaging way that has meaning for the people it’s aimed at, there’s a large chance they will know the part they can play in where you are going. Otherwise, why would someone follow you?”

The simple idea that Tye hopes will engage and motivate his teams on the pub front line is known in Spirit as the Circle of Success.

If pub staff are happy they’ll make their guests happy. Guests will spend more, which will make the company’s investors happy. They’ll invest more and Spirit employees will be happy. And so on.

“The powerful things are often the obvious things,” Tye says. “But it really does come down to the experience people have in our pubs.

“In that sense, execution is more important than strategy. You can win on your food offer, but in pubs it’s more about winning on service. What matters is that the people in the pub make you feel great. It’s blindingly obvious, really.”

What may be less obvious is whether managed pubs can deliver that kind of warm experience. The managed sector may be having a relatively good downturn, but retail brands have a reputation for being mechanical and formulaic in comparison to independent pubs. And with six brand formats to play with, it’s a matter that clearly exercises Tye.

“You can’t generalise about managed pubs,” he says. “There are bad examples, and a lot of the best pubs are entrepreneurial leased pubs, where you’ll find new ideas come from. What the managed companies do is spot those new trends and develop them.

“I’m always looking for ideas. Part of my job is poking my nose in and asking what will work for us. Then you jump on those ideas and leverage them hard.

“The offer, I think, is a strength — as long as we choose the right offer. The whole point of a brand is to give people confidence in the execution. If you promise something you’ve got to deliver it. People will come back for consistency and they’ll recommend you, they’ll say ‘you’ve got to go to that Flaming Grill place’.

“In a recession those service expectations go up. Even if the price is right the delivery has to be right too. I definitely expect more when I’m out now. The bar is being raised the whole time.”

Tye’s faith in the managed-house model is matched by his feelings about the pub industry as a whole.

“I feel very positive about the industry,” he says. “Pubs have been around a long time, but they have to evolve into what the community wants them to be. And over the past 10 or 15 years the pace of evolution has been unbelievable.

“In an increasingly fragmented world, pubs have a unique role in where people socialise. People still say ‘let’s meet for a beer’. The first choice is the pub. There’s something about the informality of a pub atmosphere that’s special. I love pubs!”

My kind of pub​
“Well, it has to be one of ours. Then it can be anything from a great local community pub to a great gastropub, but what makes it great is the atmosphere, and that’s made by people.

“I’m surrounded by loads of good pubs where I live in Hertfordshire. There are several Chef & Brewers and a Peach Pub Company place. The Two Brewers at Chipperfield, a community pub-restaurant on a village green, is two miles away and is a fabulous Chef & Brewer. It’s got great real ales, cosy bars, a log fire and super food.

“But it’s made by a fantastic team that wants people to have a good time there.”

Key dates​

1976​
Graduates from Loughborough University with a degree in management science. Gains experience at United Biscuits & his father’s drinks wholesaling business, TD Vintners

1983​
Joins Whitbread, working for Stowells of Chelsea

1990​
Becomes marketing and commercial director at Beefeater

1995​
Leaves Whitbread for Forte as sales and marketing director for Welcome Break

1996​
Joins contract caterer Aramark as managing director of its food services division

1998​
Returns to Whitbread as sales and marketing director for Whitbread Inns

2000​
Becomes marketing and strategic planning director at Whitbread Restaurants

2001​
Managing director at Costa Coffee

2003​
Managing Director at Premier Travel Inn

2005​
Managing director at David Lloyd Leisure

2007​
Spends a year as a consultant

2008​
Recruited by Punch Taverns as managing director of managed-house division

2011​
Becomes chief executive of demerged Spirit Pub Company