Award winner to double pub estate

A winner of the Morning Advertiser's Great British Pub of the Year is planning to double the size of his company.

The Essex based Great Pub Company, whose freehold site the Compasses at Pattiswick won the MA award in 2008, is in talks to add a further two Essex pubs to its existing two, with plans to open two sites a year for "the foreseeable future."

The Great Pub Company is looking for 20 extra staff for the new sites. The company is headed up by Jono and Jane Clark. The Compasses also won the award for Family Pub of the Year 2009 in the Great British Pub Awards.

The Compasses and Greene King lease the Swan at Felstead are both trading 35% ahead of last year. As a result company turnover has risen from £1.25m to £1.65m in the past 12 months.

The company's catering arm Passionate, launched earlier this year, is also doing well. Passionate caters for private parties, dinner parties at home, weddings and corporate events. Jono Clark said: "Passionate launched this year with more bookings than we could cope with, The diary is even beginning to fill up for 2011."

The sites are both trading at around 70:30 in favour of food. "It's down to the fantastic crew we have. At the beginning of the recession we sat down and made it clear that the next year or so would not be easy and the pubs that would come out of it shining are those who were flexible and dedicated to winning every customer out there. They've done 10 times that."

The company has added a marketing and training department this year and plans to extend its interest in associated catering businesses such as ready-made food lines and off-site catering.