The Big Interview: Charles Bartholomew, Wadworth

Horses. They’re only human, and they need holidays too. So every August the Wadworth brewery shires are unhitched and taken to a field behind the Raven at Poulshot, Wiltshire, where they can gambol about and get a tan and do whatever it is shire horses do when they slip the traces.

Last summer the grand arrival of the shires into the tiny Wiltshire village attracted an excited audience of 1,500 people along with TV cameras and the local papers — and brought a handy business boost for the pub.

Yet only a few years ago it was hardly an event at all. It was only when the new tenants at the Raven had the bright idea of promoting it that the crowds came.
“It’s a different mindset, a way of looking at things to bring in more trade,” says Charles Bartholomew, chairman and managing director of Wadworth.

A couple of years ago Bartholomew got into a spot of controversy by suggesting that some of his tenants might lack that kind of entrepreneurial vision and might not be good enough to run a successful pub. “I felt I had to say that average is not good enough, and I stick by that,” he says. “I see it all the time. And if anyone has a problem with what I say they should come and talk to me.

“One failing licensee, before he left his pub, did come to see me, but even after talking for an hour he couldn’t see that the problem with his pub was himself. He’d been with us for many years and couldn’t adjust to the credit crunch. He didn’t realise you have to go out and get the customers in now.

“And on our part, we’ve had to be better, too. We’ve all had to adjust. Service and standards have had to improve, food has to be good value for money. Customers have to come away from the pub feeling they’ve had a really good time and thinking that they’ll go back.

“It doesn’t have to be cheap, but they should feel that their money has been well spent. That’s what we all strive for.”

Tough cookies​
Bartholomew is the great-grandson of John Smith Bartholomew, who founded the brewery in Devizes, Wiltshire, with Charles Wadworth. When Charles’s father, also John, handed the chairmanship of the company on to him in 1996, it was no great surprise.

“I’d been wound up like a clockwork toy. Everything I’d done pointed in that direction,” he says. “And luckily I’ve enjoyed it all. It’s a really nice business. I like the pubs and the licensees fascinate me. They are all different. Some are outgoing, some are quiet and some drive you mad. But I find that all really interesting. We’ve got some tough cookies out there.”

Over the past few years Wadworth has faced, and come through, the kind of challenges that require the straight talking that Bartholomew has delivered.

“The recession was a big wake-up call,” he says. “It was easy when you could expect people to come into the pub, but then you suddenly had to be so much better. People need an excuse to go out now.

“Some 75% of the company’s profits come from the tenancies, and that side of the business just went downhill. Licensees were leaving, which costs us money every time, and four or five years ago banks weren’t lending to people to enable them to take a pub — not that it’s much better now.

“But it’s changed in that we’re getting really good licensees coming forward, standards are up and they understand how to market the business. Quite a few have come from other retail businesses, and they know how important service is.

“We’ve also sold 18 or 20 pubs in the past two-and-a-half years where we couldn’t get them to stack up as a tenancy, and some have done well as freeholds. We’ve transferred some managed pubs to tenancies and some tenanted pubs to managed, and we’re investing in our existing estate, in pubs we think could do better. We’ve spent £3m to £4m a year over the past three or four years on investments, plus another £1.5m on repairs.

“And we bought three pubs last year — two leaseholds and one managed — so we’re moving forward again.”

Bartholomew also believes “our beers are better”, basing that claim on “a more complete year-round range” that includes 6X, Henry’s Original IPA, the Bishop’s Tipple, the golden ale Horizon and the latest addition Swordfish, which is 6X laced with rum, though not enough rum to concern HM Revenue & Customs.

Then there’s Corvus, Wadworth’s nitro-keg stout, which has knocked Guinness off the bar in most of the tenancies and is performing well in the freetrade. Bartholomew is a big fan. “Don’t tell anyone, but I drink it myself now, instead of Henry’s,” he says.

Something to prove​
The brewery is also busy with seasonals that act as guest beers on its tied estate, including the monthly one-off Brewers’ Creations. A tasty 6% ABV version of 6X, based on the original recipe, has been brewed to mark the brand’s 90th birthday. Faced with a plethora of upstart microbrewers nibbling away at the local freetrade, it seems Bartholomew has something to prove.

“I don’t want to knock craft brewers, but I believe our beers are as good as theirs, and we’ve got experience on our side,” he says. “We’re a hands-on brewery, our brewing teams have free rein to try new things out — so why aren’t we a craft brewer, too?

“When keg threatened to take over in the 1970s my father stuck with cask beer, and it wouldn’t have come back like it has if it wasn’t for people like us. And the quality is better now. Our beers are slightly more on form since the new brewhouse came on stream four years ago.”

Latest figures show Wadworth beer volumes are up almost 6% year-on-year, which suggests it’s doing something right. But Bartholomew is conscious more work is needed.

“It’s really important we turn this industry around,” he says. “We’re not likely to sell much more beer, but we need to continue to tell the Government that the pub is the best place to sell alcohol. It’s a controlled environment, and the standard of pubs is getting better and better.

“I don’t mean just gastropubs. We have a couple of drinking pubs in Devizes that show that if you know what you’re there to do and do it jolly well then it’ll be fine.”

High beer duty remains a threat for Bartholomew, but he was encouraged by the penny-a-pint reduction at the last Budget.

“It was a fantastic result,” he says. “It’s been difficult to persuade people of that, but when you see what’s been done to us over the past five years — it’s been really harmful to the industry as a whole.

“Now we must make sure the break we’ve been given helps jobs, that we invest in youth. This industry employs a lot of 18 to 25-year-olds.”

It’s nice to see that, as he faces all the difficulties of a modern world, Bartholomew has a long tradition standing behind him — sometimes quite literally in the case of his father. “He’s 93 and still pops into the brewery and asks some tricky questions.”

And, of course, when they’re not on their hols the Wadworth shires still make daily deliveries. “They’re efficient if you take into account the marketing value — and we sell sacks of manure for £1 each.”

Now that’s what you call entrepreneurial vision.