Brakspear has appointed Marc Rawling as operations manager within its 10-strong managed pubs division, Honeycomb Houses.
Rawling will be overseeing four Honeycomb Houses pubs: The Nag’s Head in Abingdon, The Lion in Bicester, The Chequers in Marlow and The Bull on Bell Street in Henley-on-Thames – Brakspear’s first managed pub, located next to their head office.
Rawling joins from Fuller Smith & Turner, where he worked for 19 years, progressing from GM of The Vintry in the city of London to operations manager. He worked across their entire estate from wet-led pubs, premium food-led pubs, to hotels, giving him valuable experience for the Honeycomb Houses role: food is a major part of the pubs’ offer and both The Lion and The Chequers offer accommodation. Prior to Fuller’s, Rawling worked at Ask and Pitcher & Piano.
He says: “I’ve been impressed by the way Brakspear has developed the Honeycomb Houses group: each pub has its individual character, but there’s a clear, overarching ethos of ‘our house, your home’ across the estate. I see the biggest opportunity as being to embed that ethos and values with all our team members, as the best way to give the best experience to every guest, on every visit to our pubs.
“We have some of the best pubs in the region, run by some of the most talented GMs and teams. We’re about to go into a busy time, launching new menus later this month and gearing up for Christmas, so my immediate priority will be to support our pubs to deliver an exceptional festive season.”
Brakspear chief executive Tom Davies said: “We’re delighted Marc is joining Honeycomb Houses; his experience and skills will be an enormous asset for our pub and head office teams.
“Fuller’s is a company we’ve always admired; in fact, I started my own pub career with them. So, we know that Marc joins us with an approach and values that are similar to ours, particularly around developing a people culture. We’re confident that Marc will quickly make a positive difference to Honeycomb Houses.”
Earlier this summer, Brakspear appointed its first head of people, Simone Brown, who is working on all aspects of team member attraction, engagement, retention, and development including a new career pathway launching soon. Honeycomb Houses held its first ever Team Day this September, attended by team members from across the division, recognising achievements by five individuals and the Nag’s Head in Abingdon as ‘Pub of the Year’, and giving £21,000 in reward points shared between every team member with more than one year’s service.
