This year's Adopted Business
Harbour & Jones, London
Harbour & Jones is a central London business and industry caterer with 11 contracts including BSkyB, law firm Lewis Silkin, the British Bankers Association and online travel brand Opodo.
Having both held management positions and directorships with firms such as Leith's, Eurest, Wilson Storey Halliday and Sodexho, Patrick Harbour and Nathan Jones sacrificed comfortable salaries to set up their own company in 2004.
H&J is currently at the "growing pains" stage of its development, with 2006 turnover projected at £5.5m, up from £3.6m in 2005. Harbour says: "We see ourselves as a boutique caterer in the mould of Hotel du Vin inasmuch as every contract is different, but they share the same values."
Preston Park Tavern, Brighton This month Andrew Coggings, 42, is taking over the lease of the Preston Park Tavern, a spit-and-sawdust, male-dominated boozer. His plan is to transform the Punch Taverns property into a food-led, family-friendly suburban local. The cost of refurbishment is estimated at £100,000 and the pub will close for five weeks.
Cogging's wife Helen will do all the interior design and the Coggings and their two children will live above the pub.
Coggings's previous career has been in hotels. From 2004 he was general manager of the De Vere Grand hotel in Brighton. Before that he spent six years as GM at De Vere Slaley Hall in Northumberland and held GM positions in London, Malaysia and South Africa.
Langham hotel, Eastbourne New owner Neil Kirby hopes to maximise the Langham hotel's food and beverage and wedding venue potential.
Kirby has employed a skilled kitchen team headed by his son David, and the hotel has a target to host 30 weddings and raise turnover to £1.4m by January next year.
Before reopening the 85-bedroom hotel, situated on the East Sussex town's seafront, last October, Kirby refurbished the main conference suite.
He also developed a second meeting room, raised ceilings in reception and put in new crystal chandeliers.
He aims to make the Langham the preferred hotel destination for the business traveller in Eastbourne.
The Peat Inn, Fife Husband-and-wife team Geoffrey and Katherine Smeddle were handed the keys to the Peat Inn in mid-June. They're taking over an iconic Scottish restaurant with rooms, closely identified with former owners David and Patricia Wilson. "It was really one of the things that attracted us to it in the first place," says 27-year-old Katherine.
The couple paid more than the asking price of £750,000 for the property, and both have hospitality industry backgrounds. Geoffrey, 35, was most recently head chef at the Conran Etain restaurant in Glasgow, while Katherine's past includes management posts at Scotland's Cameron House and Crutherland House hotels. The Peat Inn has a 48-cover restaurant and eight rooms, and is near the home of golf, St Andrews.
Tomahawk Group, Yorkshire Since 2004, the Tomahawk Group has bought and developed three hotels in Yorkshire: Woodlands in Leeds, Aston Hall in Sheffield and the Great Victoria in Bradford. Rob Foulston, originally from Barnsley, and Tom Horsfall, from Morley, met while they were pupils at Silcoates School, near Wakefield.
Horsfall is a quantity surveyor, while Foulston is a lawyer and former investment banker. They had early ambitions, as Tom remembers: "We intended to go into business together since we were in short trousers." The pair say their hotels are tied together by their stylish interiors, contemporary cuisine, business-friendly locations, ample parking and quality of architecture.
Hampden Park Stadium, Glasgow Hampden Park has an exciting year ahead. The Rolling Stones and Robbie Williams are playing this summer, Scotland play France in a Euro 2008 qualifier in October, and the UEFA Cup final takes place there next May.
Prestige Scotland, a division of Sodexho, has held the catering contract since 1999, when the stadium reopened after a £52m refurbishment. Prestige employs a full-time conference team of 20 who sell, co-ordinate and operate the conference and banqueting business on non-match days. Conference and banqueting volume has doubled in the last three years.
For football matches, concerts and other major events, Prestige caters for all hospitality within the stadium, as well as the food and drink kiosks in the public areas.
