Pub Operator of the Year

Charles Brierley

The estate agent's constant refrain of "location, location, location" is not one of the strong points of this year's winner of the Catey for Pub Operator of the year, although according to the judges this serves only to highlight what a fine pub it is. One admirer went so far as to suggest that its position would have proved and insurmountable problem for lesser business.

"It should be a disaster. You can't see it from the road, you can't find it without a struggle unless you know where it is already./ You can wander around for ages looking for it. The location is a awful, but people seek this place out and once they have been there they go again and again."

The pub he was talking abut is the White Hart Inn in Lydgate, Greater Manchester, and it has been run by Charles Brierley and head of chef John Rudden since 1994. The business was bought as a run-down pub and the pair have transformed it with an investment of more than £400,000. It is still very much a pub, but the possibility of drinking a hand-pulled pint at the bar happily coexists with fine dining and the accommodation side, recently extended with six new bedrooms.

Among the reasons for the White Hart's success is Brierley's solid background in the hospitality business, which included a spell working as assistant manager at Inverlochy Castle in Scotland. But also important is that in opening the White Hart he returned to the area in which he grew up.

Last year's winner of the award, who was one of this year's judges, was among his biggest fans: "Charles Brierley went to Sunday school next door, which has certainly helped him succeed against the rules. He knows the area and he hasn't stopped improving the pub since he arrived there. He has even set up his own sausage factory. The sausage and mash is the best I have ever tasted - I even nicked his recipe for mashed potato," said Paul Whittome. Borrowing the potato recipe is no small tribute when you realise that Whittome was a potato merchant before the bought the Hoste Arms - there is not much he doesn't know about spuds.

Financial success has accompanied the White Hart's transformation. It now has an annual turnover around the £1m mark, of which the traditional pub business of drink sales has played a full part - wet turnover has increased by 20% since 1994.

Other developments have included the successful application for a civil wedding licence, unusual for a pub, and the White Hart now regularly hosts wedding parties. An early booking was for actor Sean Wilson, who plays Coronation Street's Martin Platt. An outside catering operation has also been set up, partly at the urging of one regular customer who wanted the pub to cater for his company's stand at the National Exhibition centre in Birmingham.

Judges

Robert Breare, executive chairman, Noble House Leisure

Steven Doherty, chef-proprietor, the Punch Bowl Inn, Crosthwaite, Cumbria

David Hancock, editor, AA Best Pubs & Inns

Ian Harkness, managing director, Shire Inns

Tony Hughes, operations director, Bass Leisure Retail

Andrew Palmer, editor, New Innkeeper

Paul Whittome, owner, the Hoste Arms, Burnham Market, Norfolk

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