A passion for people

Bill Wolsey is a realist who isn’t afraid to speak out when it feels an issue demands it. At heart, however, he remains an optimist with an unfailing belief that the success of any business depends on the passion of those within it…

On the advice of Jimmy Nesbitt, Bill Wolsey tries never to smile for press photos. For the most part he’s successful and the resulting images often depict a seemingly stern and perhaps, vaguely angry individual who, it seems, might just have argued with the picture-taker.

It’s an illusion, of course and it readily fades as the 63-year-old hospitality veteran relaxes into an armchair amidst the hushed environs of the cocktail bar in his flagship Merchant Hotel.

Wolsey comes, in fact, from humble roots in the Ballysillan area of north Belfast. The son of radically socialist parents, he has a deeply enduring regard for people and sees the outlook and talents of those around him as critical to the success of his endeavours.

“It’s important to have people with passion in your business,” he remarks. “If it happens that your family is passionate about what you do, then that’s great. I’m fortunate to be in that position. I told both my sons [Luke and Conall] that I didn’t care where they worked as long as they were passionate about something.

“As it turns out, they are very passionate about what we do here, but many of our businesses are run by non-family members who are equally as passionate and talented…It’s not about being in the family – I can point to 100 family businesses that have problems – it’s about loving what you’re doing.”

It’s difficult to argue with the runaway success of Wolsey’s approach. His burgeoning Beannchor Group is now the largest hospitality chain in the country, comprising five bars and half-a-dozen Little Wing pizzerias which it runs itself along with a further 30 bars which are leased. Its portfolio also includes the plush Merchant Hotel in central Belfast and its near neighbour, the new Bullitt hotel.

Total turnover for the 2014-15 financial year was £18.5m, up nine per cent on the previous 12 months.

Bullitt – now under the care of Wolsey’s son, Conall – was undoubtedly the highlight of 2016 for the group:

“We wanted another hotel that would give us the opportunity to grow,” he says. “We could have a Bullitt in Derry or Manchester or wherever if things go well. We’ve designed the brand to be forward-looking, modern and reflective of people’s lifestyle today. Early trading has been amazing.”

Bullitt is the brash, modern face of a group that finds its roots in Wolsey’s late entry to the hospitality arena. He’d enjoyed a brief career as a promising footballer in England during his teens, but enduring problems with his eyesight robbed him of the dream.

An abortive career in the print industry followed before Wolsey finally turned his attention to hospitality:

“My father had been keen for me to serve my time [as a compositor]”, he recalls, “but I decided that my life wasn’t going anywhere. I started going to catering college in the evenings and I began to do some waitering.

“As soon as I did that, an epiphany took place. I decided that this was something I could really do, I’d been disastrous at school and now, for the first time, I found myself enthusiastic about something.”

Eventually, Wolsey gathered enough cash to realise what had become a burning ambition: to own his own pub. With some financial help from his parents, and his own savings, he was able to put down a deposit on what was then The Trident Bar in Bangor. He renamed it The Sportsman’s Bar and through hard work and perseverance, he made it successful. Renamed Wolsey’s, the bar and restaurant is still part of the Beannchor portfolio and is now one of the most successful venues in the seaside town.

The self-determination evident in Wolsey’s early attempts to gain a foothold in the trade has left its mark:

“Whatever I was working at now, I think I would probably be a survivor,” he says. “The Trident was a very difficult proposition. I bought the place at a good price and made it a success, but it wasn’t easy. I’ve had a few very difficult periods like that in my life, even over recent years, but we’ve come through them and we’ve never stopped growing. Few people can say that.”

Hard-won success breeds confidence and Wolsey isn’t afraid to speak his mind. He declares the current plethora of hotel development programmes across Belfast as “insane”:

“Tourism NI clearly want to talk up what they do but the figures don’t lie,” he comments. “That’s the simple fact.

“If you look at this year from January to June, Belfast is running at six per cent down on room occupancy, July and August have been very good, but we expect that occupancy will be down nearly seven per cent by the end of the year [2016].

“So, in a market that isn’t expanding, to introduce 20 new venues would be disastrous. We will all be left scrambling round for business and that’s not good for us or for the consumer.”

Wolsey identifies what he says is “a modern Irish disease”:

“Where there’s a perceived gap in the market, everybody piles into it. I doesn’t matter whether it’s whiskey, pubs, hotels or housing and I don’t want us to end up back in the dark days again.

“I’m very concerned that five years down the line, occupancy is going to be at a level that doesn’t give us an opportunity to grow or reinvent. Look at London, it’s gone through a growth period and everyone thought it would never end, hotels were being built all over the place. But now, they are two per cent down this year. There is a lesson for us to learn in that.”

Beyond that, he’s disappointed by a perceived lack of willingness at government level to treat the hospitality sector fairly:

“We contribute half-a-billion to the coffers of NI plc, yet we have antiquated licensing laws, VAT which doesn’t equate to our nearest neighbour in the Republic and we are about to exit Europe, but we have nobody in the government to represent us and nobody who understands the urgency of getting the industry and education together so that they can provide a flow of talent to work in our business.”

But Wolsey doesn’t excuse the hospitality sector itself from a share of responsibility for its plight, particularly in relation to the abiding skills shortages:

“Sometimes I feel the industry needs to give itself a kick up the backside,” he adds. “We have school parties traipsing through here every week or we’re out ourselves talking to the schools because nobody else is doing it.

“The industry needs to get together now with the catering colleges so that the courses they offer are more relevant. Students need to be spoken to at a younger age so that they understand that this really is a career and that the days of long hours and low wages have gone. Until we do that, our industry will continue to flounder.”

And he adds:

“Staff are now our biggest priority. It’s an issue that sends a shiver down my back. Getting the right people into the kitchen is our single biggest problem, getting a well-trained and talented workforce that we can keep within the business.”

Above all, however, Bill Wolsey remains an optimist:

“I think we’ve been brave, we’ve been passionate and we’ve been able to spot a trend before it happens and one thing that I have found to be true, if you invest and if you have well-trained staff in a premises that says something about your lifestyle, then the people of Northern Ireland will support you.”

Going forward, he’s hopeful that the weak post-Brexit pound will do something to stem the decline in RoI trade, although he bemoans the pressure on food and drink costs which, he says, will have to be passed onto the consumer.

“Utimately, I think every generation is better than the one that comes before it”, he adds, “and my ambition is to build a business that my sons will be happy in, I think it’s one of the reasons we are all here, to provide a stable base for the next generation to go ahead and build on what we’ve done.”