Best Pub Employer (up to 500 employees) winner: Barons Pub Company

From boardroom to back of house, Barons ​showed a strong ethos for both the personal and professional development of its people through its training academy.

Demonstrating its key value of putting people first, Barons aims to help employees progress in any way possible and offers the opportunity to foster transferable skills, not just those that are hospitality focused.

Its value-led and non-hierarchical attitude as an employer has stood the company in good stead with strong retention.

Integrity throughout 

Speaking at the event​, Barons managing director Clive Price: “It’s absolutely fantastic. To be in a room with so many people in the industry that are at the top of their game, it really is special to pick up an award.

“We try very hard at everything we do. There is integrity throughout the business.

“We just try and do what we say we are going to do and see it through to make sure our customers have a good time, our staff enjoy what they are doing and bring professionalism to what is often a chaotic industry.”

Barons was also crowned the Best Pub Operations team at the 2023 Publican Awards​, which were held on Wednesday 29 March at London Evolution in Battersea, and was one of four companies to score a double win.

Team of people 

Additionally, Barons, which operates 10 sites across Surrey and Berkshire, also saw success in this category at last year’s Publican Awards.

Barons showed it had taken last year’s win as a chance to look at their business and used it as a benchmark to improve its offer as an employer.

Overall, the pubco showed great diligence and impressive commitment to its responsibility as an employer. Judges felt good progress had been made since last year’s win and that Barons would use this year’s award to drive further innovation for its staff.

Barons’ operations manager Neil Perks added: “There is a whole team of people that make Barons work.”