Fuller’s chief executive Simon Emeny has told MCA that technology is playing a huge role in helping the company develop its relationship with its staff.
He said the use of the Fuse app had allowed the company to communicate with its 5,000 staff and encourage them to engage with each others, as well as access key materials.
Speaking on the back of yesterday’s trading update for the 42 weeks to 20 January, Emeny said Christmas had matched expectations. He said that, unlike some of its competitors, the company doesn’t report numbers that exclude weather-hit weeks.
Emeny, who was recently appointed chairman of the British Beer & Pub Association, also gave his view on the merger of the ALMR and the British Hospitality Association
On recent trading, he said: “It has met our expectations. You are always going to get some anomalies with the British weather and one has to expect that. We don’t change our numbers to reflect some inconsistent weeks of weather. We have come through 2017 where we wanted to and traded well over the Christmas period.
“That festive performance was boosted by a couple of things but they can largely be summed up as being geared up for a busy period. The big change was a significant investment in securing pre-booked functions. We set up a call centre at Chiswick to handle the calls coming into pubs. As a result it was our best Christmas ever both in terms of having advanced bookings and NPS scores.
“We saw very strong drinks sales over Christmas as well as good food sales but we also saw very strong accommodation revenue. Drinks performed slightly better than food but food was in growth too.
On technology, he said: “I’m really proud of all the technological advances that Jonathon Swaine and the team have made and Fuse is a really important cog in how we continue to develop our relationship with our staff. We’re starting from a position where the 5,000 colleagues we have across the business are already really engaged with what we stand for as a company. I think it’s one of the great USPs of Fuller’s is that high level of engagement. Fuse just makes that even easier. It’s the next stage on that journey – making sure we can communicate new openings, job opportunities, products, ways of doing things with our staff. The sign-up rate has been fantastic. “
On the creation of UKHospitality, he said: “It’s a move quite a few of us have expected. I’m delighted for Kate Nicholls, who I think is very talented. I’m sure that new organisation will continue to work with Brigid and the BBPA to make sure the voice for the industry is consistent. Over the past couple of years the ALMR has worked very well with the BBPA and that unified voice has proved very powerful.”
