Alex Turner meets JEREMY ROBERTS,of Living Ventures

EARLY in his career, Jeremy Roberts learnt the importance of events being a great way to drive revenues.

Running the independent Chalon Court Hotel in St Helens (which later became Hilton St Helens) in the early 1990s, he had “a great restaurant that nobody went to”.

It was an unpromising situation and one trade newspaper’s assessment was particularly gloomy: “St Helens in Merseyside would not be an instant choice for many hotel operators looking to open a new- build, four-star hotel in the depth of a recession.

“In fact, judging from the dearth of national chain hotels here, it wouldn’t be a choice at any time.”

Roberts’s solution was to open a nightclub for over-23s at weekends, primarily targeting the local market, which “transformed” the hotel’s operations in its previously quiet period.

Today, he brings his 30 years’ experience in the leisure industry to his roles as commercial director of restaurant group Living Ventures – which he co-founded with Tim Bacon and Dave Hinds – and chairman of the Albert Dock Tenants’ Business Association.

Roberts said: “When people visit Liverpool, especially in the summer, it’s one of the first places they head for. It generates enormous amounts of interest and attracting events here is really important.

“Through the association and through having our own marketing and PR, we are able to present the dock as a whole.” The organisation was resurrected last year as a response to concerns about the slowdown which traders had begun to feel in earnest in 2009.

“Post-2008, there was the potential for a slump in confidence, with the credit crunch and the recession, there was a lot of fear and concern,” he said. “A lot of that has been unfounded, partly because of the catalyst effect of the Capital of Culture year.

“Our raison d’etre is to promote the dock, what the tenants have to offer, and to work alongside the managing estate company as well as the other partners in the waterside area, including the Echo Arena and BT Convention Centre and the museum, and really present a united approach.”

Over a warm duck salad at Living Ventures’ Albert Dock restaurant, Gusto, Roberts explained how the progress made came to the fore earlier this year.

The Liverpool Boat Show, which was meant to start next week and bring in 300,000 visitors over 10 days, suddenly collapsed. A salvage operation was launched, and a smaller event called Spring on the Waterfront will now be held in its place.

He said: “The importance and strength of the links with the city, the ACC and other stakeholders was shown with the way things were pulled together after the boat show.

“Spring on the Waterfront is a bit of an unknown quantity. It has the potential to be a great event – that could be a silver lining, we may have created something that is a bit more inclusive than the boat show.

“From our experience [at Gusto], we had been writing budgets based on it. Because it happened so late, there was potential for a massive hole in a lot of budgets.

“The weather will play its part, but we are giving ourselves the opportunity to repair that hole.”

He is enthusiastic that the range of attractions at the Albert Dock means it is well-placed to thrive, with the footfall and sales figures from the opening months of 2011 offering encouragement for the rest of the year.

“The first couple of months have been really positive,” said Roberts. “Events are important, that things are happening at the dock on a regular basis to create some momentum. That is coming through in the visitor numbers, everyone plays their part in that.

“There’s a great cross-section of attractions. You have got culture, at the Tate, popular culture, at the Beatles Story, even the dock itself. There’s the family element, the night-time economy, some great bars and brands down here, it’s hard not to sound like an advert. Otherwise, it’s just a group of buildings that have been restored.”

Culture is also at the heart of the success of Living Ventures, which today operates 22 sites. Its key brands are Gusto, which has seven restaurants, and Blackhouse, which has six.

It is also in the middle of integrating five restaurants it bought from Heathcotes last year, including the Olive Press, in Castle Street, while its portfolio also includes The Red Door, in West Kirby.

It had successfully created and exited other brands, including The Living Room, which was sold for £28m in 2007, and Prohibition, which was sold for £2.75m in 2005.

Roberts said: “Our specialism is in building brands – people understand brands. People know what Gusto stands for and in the past, with Living Room in particular, we built that into something that was very respected and we were able to move it on and sell it when it was the right time for us.

“It is very important that you do create the right culture in an organisation, as that comes through eventually.

“We have been very successful in training staff, we insist they are trained so they know what they are doing. When people know what’s expected of them, they perform.

“It’s no coincidence we have won Best Waiter at the Liverpool Ambassador Awards for the last two years.”

He added: “I like to think in operations like ours and the ones around us, they are nice places to work. They are not as poorly paid as they used to be and there’s really good opportunities in this industry.

“If you are good, you will go far. It’s such a people industry that if you are good, you will shine. It gives the opportunity to young people as well, it’s quite an energetic industry.

“Hard work is always rewarded at some point.” Roberts, who started off washing dishes in his father’s hotel before going to university to study hotel and catering administration, is an advocate of promoting from within, because of the benefits of maintaining the right culture and demonstrating to all staff that they can have a career with the company.

He said: “If they want to get to the top, then they can move around and create a career path and progression. We actively promote succession planning so they are lined up to move in.

“We bought the Heathcotes business recently and that gave us a number of opportunities. Those kinds of things create energy and gives a boost, people start to look for opportunities, where they can show us what they can do.

“Continuity of management is highly relevant and very important. Consistency – you see it in football, it’s the best example of it, if a manager stays for a while.

“Only time will tell if he’s a Kenny Dalglish, but he will get them to a level. We like to think we employ the Kenny Daglishes and we give them the time to get to the top.”

His six board members include John Branagan, who was the former head chef at the Chalon Court Hotel, and one-time restaurant supervisor Sue Crimes.

“One of the great things that I see is the development of people,” he added.

“The amount of people we have had come through from the shop floor into management, and even the board. Sue started with us in about 1997 as a restaurant supervisor in Chester. She now runs Gusto and is on the board.

“She’s done that because she works hard, is talented and we have given her the opportunity. That’s one of the best things you see in a business like this.”