‘I started this as a hobby’: Cricket star Stuart Broad reflects on his naive start to the world of hospitality
England cricketer turned pub landlord Stuart Broad has admitted he had a “naive” understanding about what it took to run a hospitality business, as he reopens his pub amid a period of soaring bills and red hot inflation.
The 37-year old sports star has recently relaunched his pub and restaurant The Tap and Run in Leicestershire, which he owns along with former teammate Henry Gurney, after it was destroyed in a blaze last year.
“The whole thing was ablaze through the roof and took eight fire engines to put it out,” Broad told City PM
“One thing that struck me straight away was how positive Harry was and how driven he was to build it back bigger and better.”
Broad and Gurney have together operated the Cat and Wickets Pub company since 2016, while also running The Griffin Inn in Charnwood. However, the left-handed batsman confessed that he first entered the world of hospitality as a “hobby”.
Broad said he always had an interest in business, jumping at the opportunity to join Gurney when his local pub came up for sale.
“We talked in the changing room a bit about different businesses… so to be honest, it probably felt a bit more like a hobby at the time,” he said.
Now nearly six years down the line, the test cricketer admits that he and his business partner were “naive” when initially entering the hospitality industry.
“I’ve learned so much since 2016 and developed my mindset a huge amount… we have amazing clarity of what we’re looking to do now. We’ve got brilliant people around us,” Broad said.
Publicans across the UK know all too well that the current flow of the hospitality sector is tricky, with many businesses crumbling under the pressure of increased energy bills and soaring inflation.
While prices are set to cool this year, the damage has been irreparable for many, with over 150 pubs closing in the first three months of this year, according to a study by commercial real estate intelligence firm Altus Group.
“We’re constantly in the hands of interest rates… the bills can kill you in this game,” Broad said.
In efforts to cut costs, Broad and Gurney made the decision to switch to gas from electric at The Tap and Run after they noticed it was less expensive.
“We’ve only been open 10 days and that’s something that we’re really keeping a close eye on for when our first electric bill arrives… because it’d be really interesting to see the difference in costs,” he said.
“If the bills start running away from you, your cash balance soon disappears.”
The business owner also credited asking questions and talking to “a lot of different brains” for building success in the sector.
“If you come into a small business world and think you can do everything yourself and what you do is right all the time… then it’s pretty slow progress and your mistakes generally tend to be quite large,” he said.
However, Broad also said he had been able to bring some transferable skills from the cricket pitch to behind the bar, especially when it comes to how he handles his emotions.
“Cricket is a game where you fail quite a lot, so if you get overly emotional when you succeed or fail, then it’s a pretty difficult game to play.
“I think that’s the same in the pub industry. Yes, we have weeks we operate great and then we have pretty average weeks,” he said.
Broad continues: “I think finding reasons why that’s the case rather than looking for excuses and being able to keep emotionally the same throughout and not letting our moods change with how the flow of the pub industry is going has been pretty crucial.”
Despite the challenging environment for hospitality, Broad remains hopeful, with plans to expand the Cat and Wickets Pub company to five more sites over the next five years.
Ultimately, Broad said he is keen to grow at the right time, and said over the summer the pair’s focus will be on running the two pubs they currently operate.
He says: “Ultimately, our aim is to grow at the right time and we are not in a huge rush to do that, because the danger with growing is you lose quality… that’s a non negotiable for us, quality is one of our main points.”
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