Businessman "went through hell" with venue project but is now reaping the dividends

Entrepreneur Bill Kenyon has ploughed a seven-figure total into his Up Holland hotel, pub, restaurant and events venue - Holland Hall - but it's beginning to pay off, with sales up around 35 per cent compared to the same period in pre-pandemic 2019.

"Sir Winston Churchill said 'when you're going through hell, keep going' - and that's precisely what we did for two and a half years," he said.

"But it looks like we've got some going through hell to go through yet, though, with the challenges we're all now aware of relating to cost of living.

"I only need to mention one cooking essential as an example - vegetable oil - to illustrate the issue across our cost base, and every other hospitality business's cost base: prices have doubled, and somehow we have to balance absorbing and passing on the cost," said Mr Kenyon.

He acquired Holland Hall in 2018 and immediately embarked upon an across-the-board refurbishment of bar, restaurant, event space and bedrooms.

"I appreciate not every business could embark on such an investment during a pandemic, but I'm fortunate that I could - doing my bit for the local economy, and keeping both direct Holland Hall employment and supplier jobs alive, and, it has to be said, all in the face of local and central Government bureaucracy and obstruction," said Mr Kenyon.

Holland Hall Group chief executive Bevan Middleton joined a year ago, and Mr Kenyon credits him for not just maintaining the momentum, but raising the game even further.

"We were pretty good before Bevan joined, but now we're exceptional. That's not just my view, but what customers say in reviews. Bevan has a great ability to make everybody feel special.”

Over the past three years - some of it stop-start during the pandemic - there has been a complete upgrade, with a refurbished pub, soon-to-be full-speed restaurant, and weddings, funerals and events facility which is fast gathering bookings, including at-cost or at-loss weddings with which Holland Hall has stepped in to assist when other venues in the region folded because of the past two-and-half years' challenges.

"Under Bevan's guidance we have also rebranded to better reflect our image and offering - a much simpler proposition of Holland Hall The Hotel, Holland Hall The Pub, Holland Hall The Restaurant and Holland Hall Events: there's an elegance in the simplicity of the new look," Mr Kenyon said.

"We also have a new executive chef, Matt Ellis, who has worked all over the world and is creating and serving up some amazing food - again, customer comments, not mine - and we've opened a specialist pastry kitchen."

But the Holland Hall team - 11 full-time and 26 part-time staff - has put costs in general under scrutiny, maintaining standards while watching costs with staff and management "energy patrols", and a close-as-possible to zero-food-waste policy.

The team checks that any energy-consuming features of the building are switched off the instant guests vacate, while in the kitchen the team is deploying its creativity with unused food - fruit and vegetables are dried and dehydrated then used for decoration, or pasteurised and frozen to be used as sauces or ingredients in cooking.

"It's a balancing act - maintaining or even improving standards while managing costs, while also investing in improvements throughout the facilities and developing the team," said Mr Kenyon.