When Ted Tuppen, the chief executive of Enterprise Inns, which reported its full-year results yesterday, was negotiating to buy his first pubs from Bass, he is said to have arrived at meetings in a battered Renault 5. These days he drives an Aston Martin and is part-owner of a restored 1923 ketch.
The divorced father of four, recognised as one of the smoothest operators in the pub industry, started his career as an accountant with Peat Marwick. He then gained an MBA from the Cranfield School of Management before becoming managing director of a privately owned engineering company, where he spent eight years.
When the Beer Orders were introduced by the Government as a means of breaking the dominance of the big brewers, Tuppen saw his moment. In 1991, he founded Enterprise Inns to buy up some of the thousands of pubs that the brewers were being forced to offload.
In the ensuing 13 years, he struck deals culminating in the acquisition in 2004 of the Unique Pub Company for £2.3 billion. He has acquired well over 10,000 pubs and sold on almost 3,000, although even with a current total of 7,800 pubs Enterprise is not Britain’s biggest pub landlord — that is Punch Taverns.
Mr Tuppen, who has homes in London and Devon, once told a conference: “I don’t know much about pubs, but I employ people who do.” He is, clearly, a shrewd employer and many pundits believe that his latest personnel move, promoting Simon Townsend to chief operating officer, is a clever piece of succession planning ahead of Tuppen’s likely retirement in two to three years’ time.
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When he is not sailing, Mr Tuppen, 54, spends his free time skiing, shooting, racing cars and playing golf.