Tim Martin tops list of pub industry’s most influential

Every year, the PMA team compiles the definitive list of the sector’s power players – those who have helped to shape the trade in the past 12 months. And this year – as in 2010 and 2011 – it is headed by Tim Martin

Editor Rob Willock says: “It was hard to look far beyond Tim Martin in our search for the most influential person in the pub industry. He may even be our only true ‘personality’ in terms of public recognition – the Sir Richard Branson or Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou of the on-trade. Surely it can only be a matter of time before a knighthood comes Martin’s way.

“Martin is a big character, both literally (at 6ft 6ins tall) and instantly recognisable by his trademark mullet haircut. This qualified barrister is a man of conviction, if not high fashion, and has combined a canny flair for business (he built JD Wetherspoon from a single site in 1979 to a managed estate of 870+ pubs today) with an instinct for a popular campaign.”

Martin is a passionate campaigner for a reduction in VAT for hospitality businesses – to level the playing field with supermarkets – and an outspoken critic of minimum unit pricing for alcohol.

His late support for the campaign against the Beer Duty Escalator campaign guaranteed it column inches in the tabloid press, and arguably helped secure the historic tax reversal.

The Top 50 Power Players list in full​

1. Tim Martin, chairman, JD Wetherspoon
2. Ted Tuppen, chief executive, Enterprise Inns
3. Stephen Billingham, chairman, Punch Taverns
4. Alistair Darby, chief executive, Mitchells & Butlers
5. Rooney Anand, chief executive, Greene King
6. Ralph Findlay, chief executive, Marston’s
7. Andrew Griffiths MP, chairman, All Party Parliamentary Beer Group
8. Jonathan Paveley, chairman, Admiral Taverns
9. Mike Benner chief executive, CAMRA
10. Steve Richards, chief executive, Novus
11. Mike Tye, chief executive, Spirit Pub Company
12. Jonathan Neame, chief executive, Shepherd Neame
13. David Forde, managing director, Heineken UK
14. Brigid Simmonds, chief executive, BBPA
15. Simon Emeny, chief executive, Fuller Smith & Turner
16. Greg Mulholland MP, chairman, All Party Parliamentary Save the Pub Group
17. David McHattie, chief executive, ALMR
18. Stephen Gould, chief executive, Everards
19. Ian Payne, chairman, Stonegate Pub Company
20. Keith Knowles, chief executive, Beds & Bars
21. David Rey, managing director, Sky Business
22. Paul Walsh, chief executive, Diageo
23. Marc Watson, chief executive, BT Vision
24. Tim Hulme, chief executive, BII
25. James Baer, managing director, Amber Taverns
26. James Staughton, managing director, St Austell Brewery
27. Scott Waddington, chief executive, SA Brain
28. Peter Marks, chief executive, Luminar
29. Stephen Goodyear, chief executive, Young’s & Co
30. Stewart Glendinning managing director UK & Ireland, Molson Coors
31. John Longden, chief executive, Pub is the Hub
32. Simon Clarke, founder, Fair Pint
33. Benet Slay, chief executive, Carlsberg UK
34. Richard Bailey, chief executive, Thwaites
35. Inge Plochaet, president, AB Inbev
36. Andrew Boyd, business unit director, Britvic GB
37. Billy Buchanan, chief executive, LT Pub Management
38. Rufus Hall, chief executive, Orchid
39. Gary Haigh, managing director, Miller Brands UK
40. Jacques Borel, founder, VAT Club
41. Paul Flaum, managing director, Whitbread Restaurants
42. Roger Moxham, chief executive, Bramwell Pub Company
43. Peter Hansen, founder, Sapient Corporate Finance
44. Paul Wells, chairman, Charles Wells
45. Julian Grocock, chief executive, SIBA
46. John Leslie, chief executive, Intertain
47. Lynn D'Arcy, managing director, Trust Inns
48. Jon Collins, chief executive, CGA Strategy
49. Mark McQuater, chief executive, Inventive Leisure
50. Jillian McLean, founder, Drake & Morgan