BY DONNIE RUSTTIM MARTINPUBS AND FOOTBALLJD Wetherspoon

How do you build a brand? This is the key question that

entrepreneurs have to ask themselves and it is a question

that has to be asked throughout the lifetime of a business.

It’s a question that does not have one simple answer because the

defining quality has to be personality and character. I spoke with the

Founder and Chairman of JD Wetherspoon, Tim Martin.

To our British readers the JD Wetherspoon brand will be a

household name and a mainstay in the catalogue of destinations

visited throughout the week either for breakfast or dinner and

everything in between. Notorious for not only being pubs filled with

architectural character but also being the most affordably priced and

the most welcoming destination for food and drink, in many cities

they have also become a favoured hotspot for football fans looking to

gather to either celebrate or commiserate their teams.

Timothy Randall Martin, born on 28 April 1955, in Northern

Ireland, was educated at eleven different schools in Northern Ireland

and New Zealand including Campbell College in Belfast. Known for

his stature and his beaming smile he was quick to make an impression

on everyone he met.

“I was training to be a barrister at the University of Nottingham,”

Tim explains, “But dropped out for a couple of years and did just about

every kind of job including working on a construction site and as a

sales rep for The Times. When I went back I started drinking at a pub

while studying and became friendly with the manager. He told me he

didn’t enjoy running the pub and

so I bought it from him.”

That really was the turning

point for this British businessman

and was not the direction he had

originally intended:

“Squash was a booming

sport at the time and I was going

to open up a series of squash

courts,” he reveals, tellingly,

“But that didn’t work out and

I think that pubs are an easier

proposition anyway.”

It was 1979, and the pub

was the ‘Marler’s Bar’, at Colney

Hatch Lane in London. The

name JD Wetherspoon comes

from one of Martin’s teachers

in New Zealand who could not

control his class and who told

Tim that he would never succeed

in business. Now known as one

of the most influential people

in the UK Pub industry how

important is opportunism to

the entrepreneur and business

owner?

“There is an opportunistic

aspect of acquiring a business

by looking for an opening in the

business world, like a footballer

looking for a break in the defence.

1000 components to a BMW. What makes a BMW different to a Ford? It’s the little parts.

to create a leisurely atmosphere

that is comfortable and sociable

during the day when people are

eating and enjoying a leisurely

brew. Or in the evening when

they’re meeting their friends to

have a drink and a laugh.

“Don’t change the character

of a place. Improvements are

consistent with the retaining

of the character that buildings

take; you can upgrade the coffee

machines, upgrade the service

systems, but keep the building as

it is.”

Changing the coffee

machines is actually a great

euphemism for the management

style that the company takes.

After thirty years of growth and

expansion, of providing so many

staff with a secure and rewarding

job there is an emphasis on the

importance of keeping your feet

on the ground. With this Tim

makes sure he spends time in the

pubs. But you wouldn’t believe it

was him. He comes in and speaks

with the customers, speaks with

the staffs and most importantly

he listens.

“I’ve always known it was

important to call on the pubs,”

he explains, “And I’ve done it

since the start, looking not only

at the floor but also the kitchens,

Sometimes it works, sometimes

it doesn’t but you have to go for

it. You also need some luck.”

Luck, being in the right

place at the right time, may

have played a part at the start

of the company but the real

success of this company which

runs JD Wetherspoon pubs

that employs over 30 000 staff

across the country comes down

to a business philosophy that

Tim firmly believes in, one of

communication and trust.

“Early on it was perceived

that in the 1970s when brewers

refurbished pubs to upgrade

them, they destroyed the

character of the building but

individual buildings have their

own character which needs to

be retained because it’s within

the building of character that the

place finds itself.”

With this in mind they

will convert any location

into a pub and have done so,

changing the faces of stores,

banks and even cinemas to

JD Wetherspoon. Favouring

spacious environments, elevated

flatscreen televisions for the

sporting channel and wide bars

with a lot of standing space the

locations are carefully chosen

Don’t change the character of a place. Improvements are consistent with the retaining of the character that buildings take; you can upgrade the coffee machines, upgrade the service systems, but keep the building as it is.”

speaking with staff, cooks, and

customers. It’s important that

throughout the organization

people know they have the

ear of the Chairman, that their

thoughts are heard.”

“Ultimately I know less about

running these pubs than the

people running them so who

better to suggest changes?”

Many companies with

fewer employees and fewer

successes than Tim’s have

CEOs and managers who make

sweeping changes without really

understanding their industry,

these broad changes often cause

more trouble than good. Tim’s

approach is one of small changes.

“The aggregation of marginal

advantage, the accumulative

weight of small changes is more

important than major shifts,” he

states, “An upgrade of the coffee

machine, the improvement

of staff logging in systems, an

improvement in incentives for

the staff it is the little things that

improve things.”

A central database allows

staff and managers to log

remotely to view schedules of

shifts and also to give suggestions

and request repairs.

“If something needs to be

fixed we fix it right away,” Tim

says.

The communication with his

staff has allowed Tim to keep

his business consistently ahead

of the times, and generally what

the JD Wetherspoon does other

places tend to follow. An example

is the smoking and non-smoking

areas brought in before the law

was changed in 2005 and since

then have converted all of their

locations to non-smoking. They

are also going to be the first to

have a JD Wetherspoon on a

motorway at a service station

which will initially be open from

6am to 1am and eventually could

become 24 hours.

When speaking with Tim

he has such a comfortable style

about him that it would be

easy to believe that running a

business comes easy for this 6

foot 6 inch giant and that success

was a guarantee. So humble

and quick to credit other people

in his company for the success

of the brand he is the sort of

down-to-earth entrepreneur

that you simply can’t help but

like, and it has taken a great deal

of consistent hard work to get

to this stage. A lifetime worth of

learning what it takes to offer the

perfect pub experience.

“For the customer the price

has to be right,” he says, “Our

prices are very affordable and

we make money by getting stock

moved off the shelf.”

This could very well be the

reason why a JD Wetherspoon

pub is always a busy pub, packed

with people.

“1000 components to a

BMW,” he says, “What makes a

BMW different to a Ford? It’s the

little parts.”

JD Wetherspoon now

operates 883 JD Wetherspoon

UK wide and is the single largest

supporter of microbreweries

worldwide.