BIG INTERVIEW: How a hands-on approach has yielded rewards for Baker

Having blazed a trail through the hospitality industry as a female leader – Baker was one of the driving forces behind the creation of the UK’s now biggest pubco Stonegate – these days she’s trying to find a bit more time to relax, while still helping other smaller pubcos with her wealth of experience.

Having stepped down from Stonegate earlier in the year, Baker recently joined the board of Market Taverns as a non-exec director to help the business grow, alongside her non-exec role with Cask Marque and feels she has capacity for a further NED role in the sector.

All of this is a long way from her early days in the sector, pulling pints and rolling her sleeves up to get stuck into a kitchen shift.

There was certainly never any doubt of her choice of career although her initial choices quickly changed: “I studied a catering course in Hull and really enjoyed it, my aim was to run a five-star hotel, and I ended up in pubs.”

But the hotel sector’s loss was the pub industry’s gain and she quickly rose through the ranks.

Having moved from Hull to study hotel management in Stafford, she said her aim was to move to London: “I got a trainee assistant manager role with Grand Met at the Ethorpe Hotel in Gerrards Cross. What I didn’t realise at the time was that Gerrards Cross was not in London.”

That move proved to be a great foundation. “I had lots of fun and it set me up for a career in hospitality.”

She quickly developed an ethos for knowing the role inside out. “You can’t ask people to do a job if you don’t know how to do it yourself. I always remember the example of Saturday night running a 150-seater restaurant, I was in a Bernie at the time and the chef went on a go slow. And I went in and said, ‘if you don't pick up this pace, you can leave the shift’ and he just threw his apron down and left. As I was in charge that shift, everybody looked to me, so I donned a white coat, and got on with the job.”

And that attitude to roll up her sleeves and get on with things has been the signature of Baker’s career and her advice to others looking to follow her path and become a leader is to get stuck in: “Understand your business, know how to do the job and walk the walk, ensure your team know what is required of them. 

“Have a clear vision in order to lead your team, the empathy to connect and the confidence to take risks and drive innovation. Build your confidence and knowledge by gaining experience in multiple areas of the business.  

“I started in operations but wanted to try other areas and found allies that would assist me. It makes for a more rounded businessperson whichever discipline that you then decide to concentrate on.” 

JDW move

Starting out with Grand Met gave Baker the chance to gain those early experiences and she worked her way up to head office in the seven years she spent there, before destiny – in the form of Tim Martin – came knocking.

“I was approached about a role in Wetherspoons and I was like, ok, who?” she laughs. “I joined JDW when they opened their 30th pub. There were only three area managers at the time.

“I joined as catering development manager, and they hadn't actually got a food offer so I created their food menu. And it was good, I would say so myself, but the food sales increased to being 20% of sales.”

And that set the tone for success of a business that saw Baker dedicate 13 years to, and at a time of rapid expansion. “One of the highlights was putting together the infrastructure to match Tim’s vision to open one hundred pubs in a year. And we did it - we never did it again - but it was done. Learning to build that infrastructure was a great challenge.”

If you've got to go and work on a Friday night, be more flexible with time off in the week. 

Her hard work was recognised and Baker says one of her biggest career achievements was when Martin promoted her to the Wetherspoon’s PLC board at the tender age of 33.

“I’d just had my first child, my first son, and was on maternity leave when I got the offer. There were not many women on boards at the time, and I knew I had worked hard to earn that position it was a real achievement and a career highlight.”

As commercial director at Wetherspoon’s Suzanne helped to shape the business, and the business helped to shape her. “It really helped me to develop my leadership skills, and the qualities to be a leader, and I have grown from there.”

She says the opportunity to innovate was key to that role: “Alongside the food offer we worked with suppliers to create a wine brand for the business, which remains the house wine today. We worked with Lavazza Coffee who then later came to us to say it’s doing too well, it’s ruining the brand, and we said tough it’s doing well for us!”

She credits the company with offering great career options and encouraging equality. “Tim was always at the forefront of wanting women to succeed and a lot of managers have become area managers, area managers have become ops directors. That’s what he always wanted. And I carried on the style of management I had developed into my roles at Laurel and Stonegate.”

Does she think the industry is doing enough now to encourage greater diversity and equality for women? “I think things are getting a lot better,” she ponders. “It’s not quite as dire as the picture that is sometimes painted.”

She says confidence and flexibility are key: “We need to work on instilling confidence and creating a better work-life balance. If you've got to go and work on a Friday night, be more flexible with time off in the week. Things are starting to change and now it’s less common to be expected to be working night and day and more consideration is given to family time.

“Personally I have always encouraged my teams to make sure they were present at their children’s nativity play and sports days. We can further help females gain confidence with a buddy up system so people don’t feel so vulnerable when going out into new areas or cities. There are more flexible ways to do your job now than when I started.” 

You've got to be tough

Baker projects a no-nonsense approach and partly that’s a response to the sector she’s chosen to work in.

“I think you have got to be tough because you are walking into pubs - my friends all said I don’t know how you do it. You've got to be confident to walk into a busy pub on your own as a female - and I have done that all my life!  

“I’ve been in some tricky situations in my time as well, but yes you have got to be tough because anything could happen when you walk in and it's not for everyone.

“And in the boardroom you’ve got to be heard - and I'm quite okay in that area! As a non-exec you also need to demonstrate that personal confidence and the ability to be heard.

“But as a woman you can bring a more empathetic balance to the board as you develop and grow a business.”  

And how was her first boardroom experience at the age of 33? “Scary! I was nervous as it was a whole new experience. I was meeting non-execs and didn’t really understand what their role was at the time. 

“I did build my confidence over time, but the first AGM was scary. I was sitting there thinking, please don’t ask me a question. Somebody then asked a question about our fish and chips and Tim said, ‘I’ll hand it over to Suzanne’, and I wanted the ground to open up and swallow me! But you stand up, and you handle it. I was a bit shaky, but I did it!”

And that experience and confidence stood her in good stead when Ian Payne arrived on the scene.

“I met him in California, I was out there to develop the next blend of wine, a mutual friend said ‘do you mind if a friend comes to dinner with us’, and I said the more the merrier and Ian Payne tips up.

“I knew of him - we had a great evening and then he followed up with a call and asked if I would join him in rebuilding what remained of Laurel, the company he had sold the majority of just months earlier.” 

She said it was an opportunity not to be missed, offering brands including Yates and Slug and Lettuce.

“So I joined as Commercial Director looking after all areas of business with the exception of finance, IT and HR! Happy days.

“At that time Laurel only had 150 pubs, and the aim was to grow it. After a couple of years, we went into acquisition mode and bought a lot of companies that were struggling, merged them into the business as we started to grow.

“Then our biggest acquisition, with the support of TDR, of 333 from Mitchells & Butlers transformed the business and Stonegate Pub Company was formed.” 

Impressive acquisitions

Baker, alongside Payne and with CEO Simon Longbottom, went on to be the architects of what is now the biggest pub company in the UK.

“We were very good at buying business and integrating employees and systems quickly.” she says. “Each time we had visited all the pubs within each estate so we knew what we were buying and how they would fit into the brands and formats we were developing.” 

And while the acquisitions over the years were impressive, no-one was expecting the deal of the century when Stonegate, a managed estate of around 800 pubs,  announced the bid for tenanted giant EI Group, with an estate of over 4,000, all of which was completed just weeks before the country was plunged into lockdown.

“That was my lowest career point,” she says. “I was part of the team that worked on the EI project, which was over a year in the making. One of the team who undertook the due diligence, as well as being the only female, and I must have visited over 500 pubs.” 

But the pandemic threw a large spanner in the works: “I never thought something could be so devastating. One minute we were visiting all these great pubs, it was so exciting, becoming the biggest pubco in the UK, if not the world, then three weeks later we had to close them all.

“It didn’t derail our plans, but it was certainly a setback. We couldn't merge the head office when everyone was working from home, it was hard to engage people when the only communication was through a screen with people you had never met. It was quite difficult, so it was quite demoralising at times. But I never stopped working throughout the Covid times, I had an enormous synergy target going into lockdown and the work could not stop.”

Find the right sites – location, location, location. I learnt that a lot. Don’t rush at it.

That dedication to the job was acknowledged when Baker was awarded the MCA Hero of the Year award in recognition of her lockdown efforts.

Of the original trio behind that success, Baker was the last to step away from the Stonegate operation, but she’s confident that the business, despite the challenges it faces, will succeed.

“Stonegate is in a strong position to continue their strategy, and they are still trading strongly. As I and a number of others have moved on and with a new leader in place the business will change and adapt to market needs as necessary.” 

For now though, Baker is happy to continue to work on her NED roles, helping smaller operators like Market Taverns grow, although perhaps not to the scale of her previous companies.

And what advice will she be offering to companies looking to grow? “Don't rush. Find the right sites – location, location, location. I learnt that a lot. Don’t rush at it, is it the right site? Is it the right location? Will it help the business develop?

“As you're growing, start looking at the synergies you have, that’s my area of expertise. Don’t put a big target on it, because people did that to me! Look at the opportunities where you could support the business and grow profitability and grow sales.”

Review your range

Covid has wrought great change, she says, and it’s important to acknowledge that: “I think that's why you should review the range that you’re offering.  

“We all thought cask would be a big thing when trade came back, but it hasn’t been and craft has fallen off a bit. Review your range to make sure you’re in line with what the consumer is wanting to drink, such as premium products, and make sure you’ve got a premium range to satisfy demand. And don’t forget the guests who don’t want to drink alcohol. The low and no category is growing, so be aware of the products you can offer.”  

Standards and experience remain key: “Make sure your retail standards are strong, guests are not forgiving of poor standards now. They are also looking for an experience - you will still get those guests who want to go down the pub and chat with their mates, but I know from research with younger guests, they want something to happen. 

“You've got to put something on for them, even if that is a good old pub quiz and if you put on a quiz make sure it’s the best pub quiz around. Any experience planned needs to be professional. Planning a rhythm of the week enables you to focus on what entertainment and experiences you can offer on a regular basis.” 

So despite stepping away from the UK’s biggest pubco, there’s plenty to keep Baker busy, and maybe a little more time to spend on the things she enjoys, food, drink and cooking. “I’ve also just started to play golf, and paddle tennis. I’m trying to relax more - I’m not very good at relaxing, even on holiday! But I’m going to try and do a little bit more of everything I love.”

But having been one of the driving forces behind the creation of not one, but two iconic pub industry giants, it will be interesting to see whether she can focus on that relaxation and take more of a back seat, or whether there’s still a third act for the powerhouse that is Suzanne Baker.