the supersonic blog

Today’s episode is with Mark Palmer, who actually superseded me at Pret. He’s a wonderful human being, such a considered and polite guy but boy, is he dangerous in terms of marketing strategy and executing plans brilliantly. Mark’s had an amazing career so far, from United Biscuits to KP Snacks, to Burger King, Green & Blacks and Pret. At the moment, he’s at Cawston press, which he co-founded; LA Brewery, which is a kombucha brand which you can find at Leon and Wagamama; and also chairing Union Coffee which is just the most caring and incredible coffee brand out there.

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I’m in Soho Radio today to run through some sessions, including a real star today who is Alex Reilley, the Chairman of Loungers and Cosy Club. I am really chuffed that Alex agreed to come on the podcast… he doesn’t do a lot of these things but he can offer such a masterclass. From starting from not much at all with some hospitality experience in the ops side of things, and then taking a chance and putting everything on the line to launch Lounge (as it was back then in Bristol) and growing it to 165 different independent feeling outlets.

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I’m so excited to have Will on the podcast, he’s such an exciting, happy-go-lucky and positive guy who’s made a great culture within the business. He’s one of those guys that you meet and you’re so happy for everything that he’s achieved and everything he’s doing to grow the company through people, love and quality ingredients. If you haven’t been to Hawksmoor, go (and make sure you check out the Shaky Pete's Ginger Brew cocktail). It’s definitely one of my regular restaurants.

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We’re just in the middle of Veganaury and we’ve got an opposite episode for you… maybe call it ham-anuary… as we’ve got the amazing George Rice who is the founder and MD at snack company Serious Pig. I’m really interested to know his story and how this all happened, I don’t know loads about the brand yet but what I have seen are great with superb tone of voice, superb branding, superb name and an great little brand book on their website. I also got an amazing bag of goodies sent to me which is stocking the snack cupboard, so as we come to the end of Dry Jan and Veganuary I’ll be pigging out when it comes to February no doubt.

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Today I’ve got an amazing guest who is Kenny Blair, who literally served me my first pint. Kenny now owns Buzzworks and he is here to tell us why Buzzworks, what makes it so great  and what the strategy is going forward. They’re just about to open site 12 so wishing them well with that - I think you’ll get a lot of inspiration from Kenny as he is a great leader who is almost sponge like in terms of always being open to new ideas, new ways of doing things, new concepts and great new ways to make customers happy. 

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I’m in the middle of recording sessions at Soho Studios just at the end of Poland Street and I have an amazing next guest coming up - which is a little off piste somewhat for a marketing podcast. I’m got Suzie Welch who is the Group Chief People Officer at ODEON Cinemas. I’m really excited to talk to her and find out everything that makes that business tick, how the brand is reflected internally and how she grows and manages a great culture that is fanatical about film.

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Today I’m excited because I’ve got three major podcasts in a row and I really think they’re going to bring you some great ideas and add value to your brand. I’m here at the new home of the podcast at Soho Radio Studios with my next guest who is actually an old friend and I’m so glad that he gave up his time to come talk to me today. It’s Kevin Hydes, who is the Chief Commercial Officer of Tim Hortons - the home of amazing coffee and baked goods. You’ll get to learn a lot of Tim Hortons as well as how interesting a task it is moving to a new job when you’ve been somewhere else as Kevin was at Costa Coffee for years bringing the amazing cups and ‘7 out of 10 people prefer Costa’.

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It’s just after the Christmas and New Year break and I’ve been so lucky that Alison and Rich from Avocado Social came down to Brighton to Platform9 at Hove Town Hall to record the third of our ‘social media tips for the year’ podcast. I really hope it will give you some great thoughts about what you should be concentrating on for the year and tips to share with your teams to improve your business. We think there are 20 tips in there but we lost track around 13… enjoy!

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Today I’m so excited because I’m going to meet some people who I’ve gotten to know quite well over social media - and that is Biff & Andy from Biff’s Kitchen. They’ve made great strides in making veganism cool and I can’t wait to hear about how their story began and the partnerships potential they have that could make Biff’s an absolutely iconic household name. 

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Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Hopefully you have a drink in hand! Last night we went out and had some food at Soho Bill’s before our recording of the 2019 Year in Review. There was so much to get through, we got a little tipsy, said what was on our mind and had a bit of fun… hopefully it resonates with you.

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This week’s guest is Scott Macdonald, who has had an amazing career from back of house and some time Masterchef judge, then flipped across to working with brands like Mint Hotels... going through to Polpo, Bill’s and now Sourced Market. Sourced Market is a really incredible brand doing great things to act as a megaphone for independent brands who possibly wouldn’t get listed in any other food outlets. It was a pleasure to speak to Scott and hear the plans for Sourced, they’ve got a real flipped strategic play happening which I think is going to bring great things to them, their team, their customers and all the great brands that they support. 

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It’s a little after breakfast and getting in to brunch time, and today I have the real pleasure of meeting a new friend of the show, Jonathon who is one of the founders of the Breakfast Club. I was really pleased that Jonathan agreed to do the podcast because he doesn’t do much of this media stuff and it was his first podcast experience. Today we cover how The Breakfast Club came about, people (including the amazing Hayley Simpson) and also we talk about all the things you shouldn’t do as an entrepreneur if you want a successful business.

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Today I’ve got three podcast recordings and the first one is starting with a bang...it’s Mark Fox who is the CEO at Roadchef, the amazing service station group of brands. Mark and I go back a long way to his Bill’s days, and I’ve been lucky to help Mark out this year with some positioning work for Roadchef and I’m really glad to see them making a good go of it. It’s a great episode touching on leadership, bringing people along with you and amazing stories from Yum Brands through to Starbucks and Bill’s… and of course through to Roadchef.

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Today we’ve got a podcast investor special. Lots of people have been asking about the interesting world of investment and how it works in the restaurant industry. Together with BDO, we’ve brought together a special which will hopefully answer all the questions you might have. We’ve got Lizzie Ryan-Podbury from Imbiba; Chris Miller from the White Rabbit and who you may have seen on the Million Pound Menu; and Peter Hemington from BDO. I'm certainly going to learn so much... and I hope you do too.

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Today I had the great pleasure of having Marta Pogroszewska in the studio. Marta is the most incredible person that I used to work with at Pret. Marta is now MD at GAIL’s and is leading that business with careful expansion, a very exciting and consciously focused culture and a focus on the best products in the communities that they serve. Listen to hear Marta talk about her Pret journey, which took her all the way to New York, and her journey with the incredible team at GAIL’s.

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So today is a bit of a double header and it’s a bit of a bonus episode featuring two panel shows that I was hosting. First we have Lunch!, which is the show that happens every year, and the second is from the Casual Dining Show... really well attended and really becoming THE shows that everyone must attend. A huge amount of work goes in to it from Diversified Business Communications, Chris Brazier and all the team there. 

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What do you think it would be like starting your Instagram account for a bit of fun to show off your hobbies and then all of a sudden… you have almost 200,000 followers. You give up your job to do it full time, becoming a professional influencer. Well that’s exactly the story for Eloise Head, who’s better known as @fitwaffle. Eloise has been so incredibly successful on Instagram and YouTube, putting a lot of effort into amazing content that’s iconic and has also really helped lots of independent and smaller brands get a far greater reach than they ever could. We spend an hour chatting about the murky world of influencers, what it’s like being an influencer, and what the future of influencing looks like.

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Today I’ve got a really exciting guest for you, I’ve got the CEO of wagamama, Emma Woods. Emma is a real giant in the industry across food & drink, casual dining, entertainment and hospitality. Emma has worked with amazing brand such as Pizza Express, The Merlin Group as well as being the CMO and now CEO at the incredible wagamama. I really hope you enjoy this chat with Emma, it was fantastic and I’m so glad she gave up the time for it. Enjoy!

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I’m just heading back from Leeds after an amazing few days with a client up there who are really ambitious and making seismic steps to own the food, drink and entertainment market up in the North of England. On the way back I was a little hungry before my train journey and popped in to Pret as many people do, and today’s episode we’ve got the new CEO Pano Christou. I met Pano years ago when I worked at Pret, he was an ops manager at the time and he’s been so successful and so focused that he’s got his final reward of heading up the entire company after Clive Schlee. I really hope you enjoy the chat we had, it was like chatting to an old friend. Pano was really honest, setting out his vision for the next couple of years and talking about what makes Pret, Pret.

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I’m so excited about our next guest because she’s one of the happiest, most positive, most driven and most talented people within the hospitality industry. It’s Celia Pronto who is the Chief Customer & Digital Officer of CDG (Casual Dining Group)... which means that she has the responsibility and the joy of looking after many brands including Bella Italia, Cafe Rouge, Las , La Tasca, Belgo and a few others to boot. It was great to sit down and have a proper chat to really understand where Celia came from in terms of her training and her career and knowledge.

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