Best Places to Work: Peach Pub Company

Peach Pub Company's unwavering commitment to its staff has paid off, as it picked up a Best Places to Work award for the second year running. And despite the recession, it has continued to build and improve its training schemes. Daniel Thomas reports.

After a highly successful 2008, which saw the group open three new sites and pick up a series of accolades, including a Best Places to Work in Hospitality award, Peach Pub Company could have been forgiven for battening down the hatches and holding steady while the recession gripped the UK.

With that now familiar statistic of five pubs closing per day rarely out of the headlines, many pub operators did just that, but this was never on the agenda for Peach.

The company, formed by Hamish Stoddart and Lee Cash in 2002 with the aim of putting "a great gastropub in every market town in England", continued to expand last year, opening three new sites, taking its estate to 13, while growing like-for-like sales by 10%. It now has 310 employees, with senior chefs staying on average for two years and four months.

This growth was once again driven by Peach's unwavering commitment to staff, with shared ownership, recognition, common purpose, career development, interesting work and fun all keywords in its employment strategy.

It was this focus on employees that saw Peach joining the very select group of companies that have won the Best Places to Work in Hospitality for a second time, picking up the award for pub or restaurant group with 1-10 sites (the new sites opened after the judging period).

Winning the award for the second year running is "a true testament to everything the company stands for," Stoddart says.

"Peach was founded with the vision of being a shared ownership experience, with every member of the team sharing in the company's success," he adds.

"We work very hard at looking after our teams and living up to the values we've set ourselves; we're all about sharing, supporting and working together, respecting and trusting each other, and striving to be the best we possibly can.

"It's great to have this recognised, particularly as we grow and take on new people, and shows that the emphasis we put on our teams is paying off.

"We aspire to make everyone who works with us, and also who comes into our pubs, really feel our place is theirs, and we're delighted that this award acknowledges that, too."

For many hospitality operators, investing heavily in training staff only to see them leave is a nightmare scenario, but this is in fact one of Peach's goals, according to Stoddart.

"When we started Peach, we always hoped we might inspire more people to create more great market town pubs. We will never be the biggest company but if we can inspire others to do it right, we would be achieving some of our dreams," he says.

"We love working with our team and if some of them take what they have learnt and go and do another gastropub, we will have done our job."

But of course, Peach does its utmost to improve retention, and runs innovative schemes for staff. These include Peach Adventures, which enable employees to experience things like barista training, cheese tasting, brewery outings and supplier visits; Heroes of Hospitality, which gives staff the autonomy to use company money to provide excellent customer service; Peach Pounds - vouchers that can be spent in Peach pubs; and an incentivised profit-sharing scheme that works on a loyalty basis.

A central area of the business is the opportunity for experienced operators to join Peach as a joint venture partner, with a share in the profits. Three of its pubs are currently run on this basis and Lee and Stoddart are looking for a fourth partner.

All these initiatives combine to help make Peach an enjoyable place to work, according to Stoddart.

"The team genuinely enjoy it here (90% of the time - every job has its issues)," he says.

"We are always striving to get it better. Our culture, our focus on training, our shared ownership structure all make it unique in our industry. What we do is genuine - I guess this comes across."

This is borne out by the employee comments received as part of the judging process (see box), with staff referring to the shared goals and friendly atmosphere - something Peach strives to achieve, says Stoddart.

"Our vision is ‘Our House is Your Place' - we aim to make everyone feel it is their place, that they can treat it as their own and they get welcomed as though they are entering a friend's house, not a place of employment," he says.

When asked if Peach's investment in HR and training initiatives has been impacted by the recession, Stoddart's response was unequivocal.

"Absolutely not - in fact, we keep on building our training to be wider and deeper in our team," he says.

"There is no doubt that the companies who will beat the competition will carry on making their team the biggest focus of every day."

A sound lesson for every hospitality operator.

WHY IS PEACH PUB COMPANY A BEST PLACE TO WORK IN HOSPITALITY?

This year, for the first time, Caterer invited employees of the nominated companies to comment on why their employer was a Best Place to Work in Hospitality. We round up some of the views of the Peach staff:

â- "Peach is a good place to work because it values the individual and encourages people to strive to achieve their dreams. Everybody lives the company values of working together, sharing and supporting each other, respecting and trusting each other and working with enthusiasm. You can actually feel these values ‘living' in the pubs."

â- "The commitment to aiming high and doing a great job, which pervades the company, really spurs you on to try your hardest and be the best you can. There is a great sense of enthusiasm and also of fun, which helps make this a great place to work. It's kind of catching!"

â- "The training is brilliant, and the support from senior members of the team is always there if you need it. The ethics and ideas behind the company are inspiring; the staff recruited are passionate about what they do; and everybody is always ready to share their experiences to help each other."

INVEST IN YOUR STAFF AND THEY'LL PAY YOU BACK

Peach Pubs' commitment to its staff development has paid dividends, delivering real business benefits. As every member of the team shares in the company's success, the firm has created a culture in which its team has a real and tangible motivation to go the extra mile.

While some may be concerned by training staff, only for them to leave, Peach embraces the can-do attitude that leads to further success. And the initiatives it has in place to retain and engage will ensure that while employees make the most of their training, the business makes the most of its staff.

The result is a business with motivated individuals striving to succeed for the benefit of the business and themselves.