England cricketer Stuart Broad says the ‘positive approach’ encouraged by head coach Brendon McCullum has helped his business survive and thrive after a ‘devastating’ fire last year.
Broad has run the Cat & Wickets Pub Company alongside former Nottinghamshire teammate Harry Gurney since 2016, with the ambition of scaling the group up from its current stable of two pubs to a total of ten in the next ten years.
But the group’s growth plans took a hit in June 2022 when the Tap and Run, in Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire, was almost completely destroyed by a fire, forcing it to close until finally reopening last week.
Broad told This is Money the fire was ‘devastating’ but he expects the pub to make a strong recovery.
Stuart Broad launched Cat & Wickets with Harry Gurney as the pair prepared for life after cricket
He said: ‘Harry called me at 5.15am on the morning of a test match at Trent Bridge, it was appalling.
“The main positive is that no one was hurt. But I was really surprised by Harry and [his wife Avril’s] positivity.
‘I went to the site after the test match had finished and they were both already planning how to make the pub better.
“It was never a matter of stopping or worrying that this industry isn’t for us.
“That motivated me as a shareholder, because I realized there was no doubt that we would continue at what was a devastating moment for us.”
The Tap and Run caught fire last June, but finally reopened last week
Broad has been kept busy by the ongoing Ashes series, returning to Headingley on Thursday, but has yet to drop by the reborn Tap and Run, but has dinner plans booked at the end of the third test.
He had planned to come earlier, Broad said, but the pub was fully booked on Monday evening – with no exception for shareholders.
Tackling Obstacles: Stuart Broad explains the challenges of running a small business
Cat & Wickets was launched just as Gurney was about to retire and Broad turned 30 – “the magic number as an athlete when you have half an idea of what you’re going to do next,” he says.
The pair were inspired by a shared love of food and wine, bearing in mind Broad’s “pet hatred” of “paying 300 percent markup on a bottle” in restaurants.
He said: ‘It actually started out as a bit of fun – I thought I’d be grateful if I had a nice Sunday roast or a nice glass of red somewhere.
“I just said my main goal would be a business in the gastropub industry in villages where we’ll have a great wine list that people will drink two bottles of because they want to and they can afford it.”
‘Of course the business plan has now been radically changed.’
Following what started with the Griffin Inn in Swithland, also in Leicestershire, and expanded with the launch of the Tap and Run, Cat & Wickets is planning further growth in the East Midlands.
It also now has the backing of Lee Cash, who recently invested following the sale of the Peach Pubs company to Revolution Bars Group last year.
Broad said: ‘We’ve learned a huge amount since 2016. We love the industry, we love the people involved in the industry. But in the end, if you only have one village pub, it’s quite difficult to make real money or grow.
‘There are considerable connections between business and sport. You build a culture within the sport of building a winning team and adhering to certain principles, and we’ve carried that into the pub industry as well.
“Any company will probably agree that the hardest part is keeping your standards as high as possible as you grow.
“Something I learned from Brendon McCullum, who is always very positive – he tells us, ‘Run to danger.’ And we have certainly included that in the culture of the pubs.’
Former cricketer Harry Gurney from Nottinghamshire and England
But Broad and Gurney face tough times for pubs and the hospitality industry at large, which is dealing with skyrocketing costs, limited staff availability and an increasingly tight UK consumer.
Food prices alone rose 14.6 percent in June, compared to peaks of 15.7 percent in April, according to data from the British Retail Consortium.
As a result, 569 restaurant companies went bankrupt in the first quarter of this year.
It has prompted some of Britain’s major pub bosses to take aim at the government, criticizing its perceived failure to support the industry in times of need.
Harry Gurney told This is Money: ‘I don’t like getting involved in short-term thinking – that is, calling for temporary VAT cuts. [for example].
‘But a long-term structural change that needs to take place is to restore the balance between online sales and physical sales.
“An online sales tax should be introduced to cover the costs of subsequently lowering business rates.
“I love the convenience of online shopping as much as the next person. But the danger of doing nothing about tariffs is that the shopping street as we know it will disappear and be replaced by hordes of Amazon drones.’
– Broad spoke to This is Money in relation to a partnership with technology company Sage, which is running a competition for small businesses in conjunction with The Hundred cricket league, the winner of which will take home £60,000 in support to boost their company’s reputation for growth .
Reborn: The Tap and Run reopened its doors last week
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