The Big Interview: Peter Thomas

“He was an ex-miner,” he recalls. “He was paying £7 a week rent, and I wanted to put it up to £121 a week. I thought he’d kill me. I’d grown up in this tough, hard world and now I was ‘the man from the brewery’ putting the rent up.

“But I argued that I could help him grow his business and eventually he agreed. It was pre-lager and the pub became one of the first in the area to sell it. We brought in pies and a fruit machine too.

“I grew up that day. It really taught me a lot. How to control the process, take time to listen to people and understand their issues, then take your turn.”

Negotiating a 1,600% rent rise was a promising start for Thomas, and in the four decades since then, without making a lot of fuss about it, he’s been one of the industry’s most influential figures.

In the wake of the Beer Orders he headed the newly-formed Bass Lease Company and was brought in by Guy Hands to help set up Punch Taverns. Then he developed a new generation of franchise agreements for Mitchells & Butlers (M&B), going on to work as a consultant for both Marston’s and Greene King as they put together their own franchise schemes.

Since leaving M&B, Thomas has also put time into his passion for education, using his experience to lead a course at Birmingham City University in multi-unit management, something he feels the industry has undervalued.

All of which probably made him the obvious choice to be the BII’s (British Institute of Innkeeping’s) interim CEO, or “caretaker manager” as he calls it, when Neil Robertson stepped down at the end of last year.

Thomas himself only “half volunteered” for the role, perhaps thinking he would be drawn on to do rather more than keep the seat warm. It’s a critical time for the BII. In May the annual general meeting will be asked to approve a radical restructuring of the organisation, and Thomas is convinced that the change is essential to make the BII fit for purpose.

Indeed, as a council member since 1995, and treasurer since 2007, he was on the working party that came up with the idea.

Instead of a council of 40 or 45 people that tries to represent everyone, the proposed new structure will be made up of 10 regional chairmen plus six people with expertise in specific areas, such as pubcos, regional brewers, finance and strategy, HR and education, hospitality and hotels.

It will “no longer be bothered with representation since the BII is open to anyone involved in the trade”. Thomas is more concerned about stimulating grassroots activity through 48 county-based organisations geared towards helping members on the ground.

“The east Midlands had already developed a county structure that we liked. It was friendly, less formal,” he says.

“To me it makes perfect sense. There are some people in the BII who see themselves as being part of a club and they may not want to change. But we’ve got to persuade them. The question we should be asking ourselves is what will the BII be in 2020?”

Hard acts to follow​

Thomas is conscious that he stands in a line of chief executives who have each taken the organisation forward. First Mary Curnock Cook “broke the mould” and started offering qualifications. Then the BII Awarding Body was able to take advantage of the opportunities provided by licensing reform to offer further qualifications under her successor, John McNamara.

“John made it more of an educational body and Neil accelerated that. There was tendency to grow as a professional body, but retention of members was not brilliant.

“It’s a hard thing now to describe what the next round will look like, and for me here holding the fort that’s quite a challenge.”

In the past couple of years the BII has used the respect it has gained in the pub industry, plus its relative independence, to broaden its activity, launching a whole fleet of new acronyms.

PIRRS, the Pubs Independent Rent Review Scheme, aims to step in at an early stage to resolve disputes between landlord and tenant; PEAT, Pre-Entry Awareness Training, prepares inexperienced licensees to take on a pub; and PICAS, the Pub Independent Conciliation Advisory Service, will play a key role in the settlement between Government and industry following the BISC pubco inquiry.

“It’s a lot of work,” says Thomas. “How can we do this and continue to promote quality and standards?

“PEAT has been a big win. People are more aware when they come into the industry. But we need something for existing people. That’s what we’ve got to develop and promote.

“If someone has a property problem, say, we can help and support them, point them in the direction of experts, but we can’t negotiate on their behalf. Or if it’s a code of practice problem BIIBAS will pick it up. We have the procedures to decide when there’s been a breach, but we’re not judge and jury. You’ve got to hand it over to the pub company to sort out.

“Are we trusted in this? I think the reorganisation will give people the confidence that we can help and advise. That’s what a professional body can do.”

Guiding light​

Another thing, and this is clearly close to Thomas’s heart and has been a long-term goal at the BII for many years, is to get a proper careers structure for the pub and hospitality industries.

Already a lot of work has been done towards that. Last summer the BII launched an apprenticeship framework, and this June it will host the first National Licensed Hospitality Industry Apprenticeships Summit, perhaps making up for the fact it “missed” Apprenticeship Week this year, an omission that Thomas feels quite sharply.

“We want someone to come into the industry, get to Level 2 in their training and be able to proudly say ‘I’m a barista’ or ‘I’m a barperson’. And we can do this. But can we get 10,000 people on to a hospitality apprenticeship scheme? Who would do the training? Who would fund it? That’s what we’ve got to discuss.

“I’m confident that hospitality can be a bigger career than it is. We can set out a complete career, a pyramid of learning right up to a post-graduate diploma.

“Then there are the SMEs, the individual pub operators, how do we give them the disciplines of the big managed chains so they can compete effectively?

“That’s why the conference in May is so important. All this can be done if we have the will and determination to do it. It ain’t going to be easy, but at least I’ve got a vision.”

Which leaves the knottiest problem. Who is the chief executive to lead the BII into this challenging era? Does Thomas have any idea who’ll take his seat when he gives it up?

“I’m not sure that the perfect person exists,” he says. “Ideally it will be someone with the right experience in education and the right experience in the pub trade, plus the right personality.”

Looking around, you can’t help but wonder whether the best man is sitting right there.

My kind of pub​

“It has to be a pub with good service and a clear message. I was on holiday in Cornwall when I found the Falmouth Arms, Ladock, a St Austell lease. I live near there now. It’s nothing fancy or grand, but they do the basics well and it has fantastic service.”

Key dates​

1973​
Peter Thomas joins the Bass graduate training scheme and becomes an area manager for Welsh Brewers

1977​
Works on company planning and strategy for Bass Wales & West

1981​
Sales and marketing team manager at Bass South

1987​
Promoted to commercial director for Charrington & Co

1989​
Regional managing director at Bass Mitchells & Butlers

1993​
Appointed managing director of the new 1,500-pub Bass Lease Company

1995​
Joins BII council

1997​
Helps set up Punch Taverns, becoming the company’s first managing director

2001​
Director of franchise development for Mitchells & Butlers

2007​
Appointed treasurer of the BII

2010​
Consultant and business advisor. Course director in multi-unit leadership, Birmingham City University Business School

2011​
Named interim CEO of BII