Just AAsk…

It's the kind of anonymous steel-and-glass building that you might expect to see anywhere along the M4 corridor (although this is on the outskirts of Farnborough, Surrey). It could be a microchip factory or a scientific research laboratory, but it's neither. This is the UK headquarters of utilities company Centrica.

Centrica is best known as the owner of British Gas, but power supply is only one part of the business. Telecoms, personal financial services, insurance and, since 1999, everything under the AA brand, also form part of the Centrica portfolio. The Farnborough office is the central control point and is home to AA managing director Roger Wood. We know the name - we don't know the man.

Corporate survivor
He's running late, but he enters our meeting room with the calm assurance of a long-term corporate survivor, comfortable in his own space and this environment. He is slimmer than his photograph suggests and his opening remarks refer to how his weight can go up or down by as much as "two stone", depending on the time of year or how active he has been. He takes the head of the table, smiles and begins:

"Obviously, this is your interview. I'm happy to cover any ground you want, no holds barred, everything is on record." This is a journalist's dream. Everyone wants to know about the incident earlier this year when Wood's apparent interference in the rosette-awarding process of the AA Restaurant Guide forced the guide's editor, Simon Wright, to resign. But perhaps we had better leave that aside for the moment and start by finding out exactly who Roger Wood thinks he is.

"I'm an engineer," he says, with unmistakable pride. "I was a graduate apprentice with English Electric. I went into the telecoms business. I have worked for Matre Marconi Space, Northern Telecom and ICL. I joined British Gas in 1996, but my origins, notwithstanding recent press reports, are not in gas at all."

In 1999, Centrica decided to buy the AA. The idea was to extend its customer base, "wave another flag" (as Wood says) and turn the utility provider into a customer services company. "I took over the largest part of the AA, which was the road services division," Wood says. "Since January 2001, my role has been to run all aspects of the AA. It's a dual role - my directorship of Centrica and my managing directorship of the AA."

So the AA guides are a small part of his remit as a manager and of the Centrica operation, then?

"The AA guides are an important part of the overall picture", Wood says, "because of their visibility to customers. But let me put them into context. Centrica turnover is running at about £14b a year. Within that, the AA is worth about £800m. The publishing business turns over £30m. It doesn't generate a lot of profit, but it does make a contribution. It's an important business for us, backing up the value of the AA brand."

According to Wood, the AA publishes something like 680 titles a year. The top-selling guides cover bed and breakfast accommodation, hotels, golf courses, caravanning and camping. The Restaurant Guide sells about 25,000 copies a year and is "doing very well" says Wood. "Sales are increasing every year, and it has now overtaken the Michelin Guide in the UK. We also publish individual city street guides. They are the biggest publishing venture that the AA has ever undertaken."

It sounds like there have been quite a few changes at the AA since Centrica took over?

"When we acquired the AA, it was a mutual organisation. It didn't have to make a profit. What we have set out to do - and I think we have achieved this - is maintain the same level of service and maintain the culture of the AA, the customer-care side of the organisation, but also generate a profit for our shareholders."

But it doesn't stop there. Wood says that the AA is planning to produce three additional guides during 2003, including a more general "eating out" guide, where readers "will be able to look at where they are, work out how much they want to spend and decide where they want to go". There will be a general accommodation guide, providing information on customer needs, and "a guide about days out".

There are likely to be some changes to the Restaurant Guide as well, including more details about the restaurants. "We want to widen the information to include the "total experience" of eating out. Value for money is very important," Wood says.

He's talking about eating out. Maybe now is the right time to ask the "Big Question". Remember, according to Simon Wright, editor of the Restaurant Guide - and this is supported by evidence received by Caterer - Wood issued a ruling back in May that P‚trus, the restaurant owned by Marcus Wareing and Gordon Ramsay in St James's, London, should not receive five rosettes in the 2003 guide.

So, what actually happened, Mr Wood?

He turns a bit red in the face, or maybe that's my imagination. True to his word, however, he doesn't dodge the issue. "I did, as you well know, form an opinion that P‚trus was not the sort of place that I would choose to eat at and some of my private and personal memos to other members of the management here were leaked and got into the public domain. There's no doubt that the little bit of information that I passed over - and when we eat out we do pass on what we think - clearly had a rather exaggerated impact on the final decision of the [awarding] committee."

OK. Go on.

"I tried to put that right. I asked the committee to resit, take out any inference they may have drawn from my indirect input, and they came out with the, er, right and proper award of five rosettes".

Respect for the guide
Was he surprised by the reaction to Wright's public indignation and subsequent resignation? Did he underestimate the respect that others might have for the guide?

"No. I have always had a healthy respect for the guide. I've used it myself. What caused me concern was that members of my staff took some comments I made in a way that I would never have expected them to."

So what actually happened when he visited Pétrus?

"I went to verify a table booking. I didn't go in beyond the desk and I asked whether they had got my reservation. I asked which table I had been allocated for what was quite an important dinner party (there were going to be eight of us). I asked where we would be sitting and the restaurant manager pointed to a table and said ‘we'll put you there'. I said ‘well, I don't think that's big enough' and he said ‘well, we've never had any complaints before' and I said ‘I really don't think it's big enough' and I cancelled my table. And that was it. There was no shouting, no discussion, there was no animosity on either side that I can recall and that was the end of it."

So he hasn't actually eaten at Pétrus?

"Yes. I went there two or three weeks later. Three of us had dinner there and my experience was disappointing. It didn't come up to my expectations as a Gordon Ramsay restaurant, but I think my comments about the restaurant were taken out of context. I don't think I've ever met Simon Wright. And I really don't understand why he decided that he would resign rather than raise the issue [using the proper internal channels] and make the point that he didn't believe that what was happening was right and proper. But that's all history now."

So, end of story. The AA expects to appoint a successor to Simon Wright shortly.

As far as Wood is concerned, it's time to move on. There are far more important issues to deal with, such as the expansion of Centrica in Europe and North America. In fact, he talks with obvious enthusiasm about the activities of the parent company and the importance of serving the customer.

But there has been some fallout from the experiences of his first year at the helm of the AA. It has been agreed that the format of the rosette-awarding committee will change. At the moment it consists of eight people, mostly internal, mostly from the AA's publishing division. Wood says that they will be adding "external people [to the committee], to underwrite the integrity of the process, and to make sure that there isn't any unreasonable internal bias." There are also development plans for the AA Web site.

Wood rises to have his photograph taken. He hands over a copy of the latest Centrica annual report and accounts. The cover carries the question: "Who do you trust?"

Who is Roger Wood?

• Board director of Centrica and managing director of the AA.
• Aged 60.
• Born and brought up in Dorset, now lives in Sunbury, Surrey. Has a second home in Provençe, France. Can speak French if required.
• Drives a Mercedes.
• Has had a pilot's licence since 1965 and once part-owned a two-seater Chipmunk aerobatic aircraft.
• School: Sherborne College, Dorset.
• First job: apprentice engineer, English Electric. Subsequently progressed to become director general of Matra Marconi Space, group vice-president of Northern Telecom and UK director at ICL.
• Joined British Gas in 1996; was managing director of British Gas Services 1997-99 and managing director of the AA's home and road services until the end of 2001.
• Became managing director of the AA in January 2002.
• Lists music, skiing and aviation as his main interests.

On the spot

Do you have a message for the industry?
While cooking is high on the agenda, there is a need to give diners a total experience when they go out. People must come away from a meal thinking that they have had a good time, and this must include the feeling that they have received value for money.

Favourite food?
I enjoy most food. Not Japanese but certainly Thai. Basic traditional French dishes are the best, though.

What would you order for your last supper?
Home-made soup; home-made boeuf bourguignonne, fresh runner beans and mashed potatoes with onions, followed by something like chocolate souffl‚.

Who would you share it with? My wife, Julia, and my two daughters, Joanna and Gemma.

Centrica group results 2001

Turnover £12.6b
Operating profit by sector: UK energy supply £652m
British Gas home services £36m
Telecommunications £97m
Road services £37m
Personal finance £37m
Goldfish (banking) £32m loss