Head office crew

Graham is the company accountant, and has to keep a grip on things. He trained with BAT in London, qualifying in 1993, and fled North to work for a datacom company and Granada before joining Brunning and Price in 1998. He is married to Fliss, an independent human resource consultant, and they have two daughters. He rides a motorbike and enjoys the aroma of warm leather and oil.

Danielle joined us from Grosvenor Farms where she was an accountants assistant, although she simultaneously worked part-time in local restaurants. She is a keen work-out fiend and when not in the gym she spends much of her spare time cycling alongside her partner Paul, who is a marathon runner.

Helen came to us after years of experience with Manweb, Wrexham Water and seven years at the Grosvenor Garden Centre, so she knows all there is to know about keeping unruly purchase ledgers in order. Amongst her other responsibilities she keeps her eye on the office credit card expenses, so can expect lovely Christmas and birthday presents for years to come. Helen is married to Ian and has two football mad sons, so spends much of her weekends cheerleading Wrexham football club youth teams.

Sam is responsible for pulling all the numbers and information together to compile the Brunning and Price profit and loss accounts. Her infinite patience and diplomacy (and firm hand) are tested when figuring out what everybody has spent all the money on. She would make a great debt counsellor. Sam is the proud owner of a husband called Steven, a son called Joseph and a dog called Bailey.

Janice joined us in the Spring of 2007, and has proved to be a little ray of sunshine in the underground mines that are Accounts. She has been married to husband Rob since forever, and they have three children; Laura, Emma and Chris. They are a musical family, with Chris filling in the sporty side by being an ardent water-poloist. Janice keeps herself trim and alert by walking her dog every lunchtime – while the rest of us keep ourselves trim and alert by going to the pub.

Jane is responsible for the payroll, amongst other things, so is extremely popular and is very very nice. She has two girls, and is a passionate horsewoman - her horsebox, however, keeps bursting into flames thanks to a blackbird who recognises the exhaust manifold as home and persists in nesting there.

A well-known socialite from Chester, Anne-Marie is a keen horsewoman and takes weekly classes. She did her AAT training alongside Danielle and gained accounting experience at Gibson’s Tractors in Tattenhall, where she had responsibility for the Purchase and Sales Ledgers.

Jo, who has a degree in Retail Management, originally came to head office as personnel manager having been a deputy manager at the Glasfryn in Mold, and before that an assistant manager at the Pant yr Ochain, so she knows the score. The role of Operations Director is a challenging one, and she has to keep many plates spinning at the same time. Her common sense approach allied with her years in personnel enable her to keep on top of the many tricky and sensitive issues that arise each day.

Jane came to us after seven years with Nestle: she started there as Customer Services manager but soon progressed to HR manager. At university Jane took options in Cultural Studies, which basically meant watching soap operas, and she still keeps up with Cultural Studies to this day. She drinks Sauvignon Blanc and is a self-confessed foodie, so plays netball to redress the balance.

Beth did her A levels at Yale, followed by a Psychology degree at the University of Wales in Swansea. She honed her HR skills during 5 years at Airbus, and her social skills during 10 years at the Pant, her Gresford local. Unusually for one so appreciative of the pleasures of grape and hop, Beth enjoys running, with the eventual goal of completing a half marathon.

Caroline joined the office crew having worked as a casual in Glasfryn on and off over the years in between stints of travelling the world and getting her degree. She spent 3 months in 2003 working as a team leader as part of Raleigh International helping organise a trek into the Andes and building a sports stadium in Chile so she’s used to getting stuck in and organising all sorts. Organising the office crew is a breeze in comparison.

Mike first joined the company in 1997, and soon graduated to heading up the chef team at Glasfryn at the time of opening. After three years of galloping success he left for the green pastures of executive chefdom, but returned to us after a year or so to run our chef support function in the company and in 2006 he became Executive chef. He's the man to help with in-house training, roving chefs and their rotas, trainee chefs and college liason, and all the key areas surrounding food development and production, acting as a consultant to the pubs. He's married to Lynn and they have two children, Jennifer and Patrick (who looks just like his Dad).

Nigel had his own computer company for many years, and we subcontracted a lot of work to his company before he came to join us. Nigel has one of the more difficult jobs in the company, having to deal with various degrees of techno-frustration from all and sundry around the company. He has adopted a phlegmatic approach to things, and would make an excellent therapist if it all finally got too much.

Kieron did a degree in Electronic Engineering at Leeds, and journeyed a full six weeks into a PHD before being lured by the siren call of business. He helped set up a video conferencing company called Virtex and was technical director for eight years, two of them spent in Dubai where he met his wife Amanda. He was a keen rower, but now grows vegetables, breeds Partridge and keeps Pekin chickens, which have fluffy feet.

Rob was originally a freelance web developer who built our site from scratch before joining us full-time. As well as designing and developing the website he looks after the network and speaks fluently in TLAs with the rest of IT.

Fran is a bit of a dynamo and is never happier than when there are fifteen calls backed up on his mobile phone. He has managed a couple of our pubs in the past, namely Harkers and the Pant. He thrives on pressure, and is in his element when we open a new pub, ’cause then he can engage hyper-drive, warp factor ten. He is married to Barbie and they have a son, Guy, who at a young age is already something of an engineering prodigy. Fran likes to keep his ears to the ground.

Originally a joiner by trade, we’ve known John for many years – he was involved in the original refurbishment of the Pant and a couple of houses for Fran. He was the original site foreman at Glasfryn when he worked for Ken Armstrong, before setting up on his own. He has very high standards, is enormously knowledgeable and painstakingly helpful, so we’re very pleased to have him on board. He is currently working on the B&P beer belly, which is coming along fine.

Andy is John’s other half in the field. He’s been in building all his life and is a chip off the old block, sharing the same sense of humour as his Pa. You’d think that father and son teams would be difficult at times, but they rub along together famously and make a very jolly pair.

Brian started adult life as a painter and decorator before moving to Shell research, working in the civil engineering department. He switched career after ten years to work as a mechanical engineer, again with Shell Research, and eventually took early retirement in 1999 and spent two years lotus-eating before returning to work part-time with Browns Motor Factors. In his time, Brian has built three kit cars from scratch, his latest being an MX5-style sports car called a Stylus.

Martin has been in the auditing game all his working life. He was the stationery cupboard monitor at school and was so good at counting pencils and tracking down missing Quink he decided to make a career of it. Extraordinarily, before he came to us the only previous interview he had ever had was for his very first job after school - it's just that ever since then he's been moved and promoted within companies as they've been taken over and merged, and got to be Deputy Regional manager without ever having to repeat the whole ghastly process. Mind you, he didn't appear nervous at all, so he must know his stuff.

Hennie hails from South Africa via the Lake District, and sure knows his way around a pub. He and his wife Kat had a baby, Faye, in January, so he's got his hands full. One of our projects is to convert Hennie to the pleasures of European wine - at the moment South Africa rules the vines on planet Kruger.

James is a bit of a hip young gunslinger. He snowboards, mountain bikes and generally does all the stuff that makes life exciting. He finished his degree and went off travelling, spending four years running a busy bar off piste in France before realising that going to bed when the sun comes up could be bad for the constitution. Before joining us he’d just spent 18 months in Aus and New Zealand working in some great wineries and restaurants…overall, pretty much an ideal CV in our books.

Known as ' Foxy' by all and sundry, he is famous for exhibiting his builder's bum when going for low pans in the oven, so is normally asked to do a lot of grill work. Foxy has been with the company since 1996, and had a spell as a chef de partie in the Grosvenor Arms, before hitting the road in 1999. He has a silken touch with the company cars, once filling a diesel with ordinary petrol and driving it around until it died, which cost over £2,000 to resuscitate. He can't do that now he's got the company bicycle.

Owen began his career at The Druid Inn before spending three years training at Carden Park Hotel. Having worked stints at The Living Room in Chester, he thought a spell on the cruise ships in sunny Scotland would be a treat, not realising that sea-sickness was part of the deal.

Richard trained at Stoke on Trent College and began his cheffing at Azzurri Restaurant in Alsager, where he was responsible for the day-to-day running of the kitchen - he is old beyond his years.

When Lizzie first walked through the door in1998 she seemed so quiet and vulnerable we wondered how long she would last in the rough and tumble of a busy commercial kitchen, but we needn't have worried - she's a tough cookie who has progressed through talent, grit and determination. Go girl.

Bill originally came to the company from a chef agency for a couple of weeks in 2002. His qualities shone through, as did his ability to cope under pressure. Having led the kitchens at the Armoury for some time, he is now touring the the various kitchens of the company as a roving chef.

Mark came to Pen y Bryn from four years as the head chef at the Fat Cat in Llandudno, and is now a travelling gun for the company. He's a bit of a footie fiend having trialled for Everton and played for North Wales under 16's, before gaining promotion to the Sunday League, Llandudno Fat Cat team (at this rate he'll be the sub for Saighton Primary School's under nines before the year is out). Understandably, he's trying his hand at golf. Mark is a family man with two children, and lives in St Asaph.

Andy is a truly enthusiastic budding chef who believes that the only thing worth talking about is food, food and food, and the only TV programmes worth watching are food, food and food. Apart from this, Andy used to be in a hard-core boy band called “Stoke Roses”, who featured a lot of rock anthems about….food. He used to date a girl called Charlotte, after the apple dessert.

Claire has joined the company from the airline industry, where she was a shining star in the cabins. When younger she spent time in France, and has grown up in pubs, so has oodles of experience. She is a real find, and her cheerful, lively nature will brighten many a bar.

Rob was originally a freelance web developer who built our site from scratch. He had to deal with our ignorance of the technology and its capabilities. We locked him in a cupboard with Duncan for a few weeks and they came up with this site.

Duncan has tried his hand at many things in the company, including managing pubs, without a great deal of success really. Duncan has responsibility for communications, so now he hangs around the office, communicating. Despite being completely bemused by technology, and in the absense of any particular ability or inclination, he was made editor of the website. He is the first point of contact for all things webby, and is always keen for new material (especially old material).