How the record-breaking New World Trading Company was built

Winning six accolades at the Publican Awards, which took place earlier this week (14 March), is no easy feat but chief executive Chris Hill has set the bar high.

He said: “The only way to describe it is incredible and surreal. We didn’t think in a million years we would win all of the categories we entered.”

Hill also praised the judging process finalists have to go through prior to the awards night.

He added: “There are no other awards out there that involve the rigorous testing of your business and this brings huge authenticity to the process.

“It is the biggest night in our calendar​. We took 16 of the team this year and it is certainly a night no one will ever forget.”

Accelerating growth

The group is split into five brands – the Club House, the Trading House, the Botanist, the Oast House and Smugglers Cove.

It was formed in 2011 by Living Ventures co-founders, Jeremy Roberts and the late Tim Bacon, who tragically passed away last April after battling cancer.

In 2014, the company planned to accelerate its roll-out plans and more than double its estate from four sites after securing a cash injection of £2.2m from Lloyds Banking Group.

Following phenomenal success, NWTC was sold to private equity firm Graphite Capital for £50m in June 2016 and has gone from strength to strength since and, more recently (February), secured £23m from NatWest.

Hill put the majority of the business's success down to his 'Tribes'​ initiative – a concept he described as an “in the bath moment”.

He said: “It was a completely novel idea about creating interaction among the teams and individual members of the teams across the country."

Future looks bright

The employee initiative splits staff into six houses, all named after ships and vessels that have led extraordinary adventures.

The ‘Tribes’ compete for points and the team that is crowned victorious at the end of each year wins everyone in the group an extra two days' paid holiday.

“We have got people who want to do their jobs, want to come to work, talk to customers, do well and move up through the company.”

The future looks rosy for the group as Hill told The Morning Advertiser ​last month (February) that he wants to open six sites a year but, this would depend on the locations available for the venues.