When pub mogul Stephen J. Hunt scored his first job as a hotel dish pig, he couldn’t have known he would one day be the proud owner of a multi-million dollar pub empire of his own. He joined editors Adam Bub and Cec Busby on the First Act podcast to share some secrets to his phenomenal success.
Founder of Hunt Hospitality and author of Find, Build, Sell, Stephen J. Hunt turned his teenage dream to become a business owner into a seven-pub juggernaut that continues to thrive. How did he do it? And survive the pandemic with minimal staff losses while so many others in the hospitality industry struggled, or even folded?
He says it’s all about starting from the bottom, connecting with the community and supporting your staff.
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Starting at the bottom
“You have to start somewhere,” says Stephen. “Starting at the bottom is good because you get to know every aspect of the business. I was happy to be working – I went from dish pig to glassy and then levelled up to barman and the bottleshop. If you dig in and get into it, the opportunities to grow will happen. You have to look for them, though – you have to put your hand up and say, ‘I want to learn’, and keep your eyes open so you can move up the ladder.”
Despite his varied experience in the hospitality industry up to that point, Stephen admits running his first pub wasn’t easy.
“I was fortunate enough to be backed by family into the Thurles Castle Hotel in Chippendale in Sydney. It was an interesting experience because, effectively, I went from being a boy to a man. After all, it was my name on the door, and I literally had to do everything in the business. I had to order stock, take the deliveries, do the rosters and look after the finance.
“Our chef said they wanted to have a day off and we just couldn’t afford it, but the show must go on, so I said, ‘teach me how to cook,’ and I would cook on Mondays. Then our cleaners said they wanted to put their prices up, and I said, ‘okay, we’ll just clean ourselves’. Again, that was reinforcing knowing every aspect of the business.
“As my confidence grew as a manager, so did the business. People talk about marketing budgets, but we didn’t have one then. How we got entertainment into the venues was what we called the ‘beer economy’ – we paid people with beer and food. We had a soccer team of Brazilian guys who used to come in, so we sponsored the team by paying for their jerseys and then they said, ‘We’ve got some friends who are musos. Do you mind if we come in on a Saturday night?’ We were paying them with beer and food, and that took us from having 30 people in the courtyard to 60.
“These were great lessons learnt at a young age about how you can survive and eventually thrive in the industry.”
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The heart of the community
It’s a well-known Aussie fact that pubs are often the heart of a community. Stephen says it’s one of the core considerations in every pub he buys and explains how he’s leveraged that community connection to build his businesses.
“Firstly, we do our due diligence,” says Stephen. “We put the pub we’re looking at in the middle of the map and then measure one to two kilometres around that. Then we look at the demographic of the people and community groups in the area, such as sporting clubs.
“I always like to be in the local Chamber of Commerce and get my general managers to join. We do a significant amount with charities like Variety and the Westpac rescue helicopter service. We also do a lot of smaller charity events where people are bit down on their luck, like when someone’s having surgery, because you can have a really positive impact that way. It’s just something that we feel an obligation to do – it’s never been our intention to say, ‘let’s see what we can get out of them’.
“When we were shut for COVID, we could only sell food and beverage takeaways, selling through our bi-fold windows. We decided to do a community day offering discounted meals, and we contacted the local rugby club. Because of their promotions, we sold three hundred meals. Those were tough times, but we realised that if you look after the community, they look after you.
“With Chambers of Commerce, the time you put in can have huge benefits. I was in the Chamber of Commerce in Newcastle as a public officer for around 15 years, and we had a 50-year celebration festival for the Confucian Institute. The Chamber said, ‘Steve because you are here every week and you contribute so much, we want to set the stage up across from the pub’. On that particular day, we had close to 19,000 people come to the festival, and about 8,000 come through the doors of the pub – so it was an awesome trade day. We held a function for the Lord Mayor and Police Commissioner and state and federal politicians – that wouldn’t have happened if I wasn’t giving to the Chamber.
“So it’s time well spent – not just signing a cheque and throwing it at people, it’s actually taking the next step and getting stuck right in.”
Image: Stephen J. Hunt/Facebook
Supporting your staff is essential
One of the biggest challenges for any business over the past couple of years has been to learn to innovate to survive the COVID pandemic. Aside from selling takeaway food and beverages from their windows, Stephen found a raft of clever ways to retain his staff throughout multiple lockdowns.
“We’ve been quite lucky,” he admits. “In fact, over the COVID period, I think we only lost two or three of our team. To keep good team members, we always involve them in the decision-making process, so they also own what’s happening in the business.
“The other thing we did was start an employee assistance program. If people were suffering through stress and had decreased wages and all the uncertainty, we would put them in touch with a group of medical professionals who would offer them advice about coping and looking after themselves.
“We also put a survey out to staff and asked if they had any other skills. One of our chefs was a welder, so he came in and did some repairs and maintenance. We had a young guy say, ‘I want to get involved in marketing and finish my degree’, so we introduced him to the marketing team.
“We kept them all working the whole way through, and they knew we had their back. I think that contributed to people staying and working with us.”
Stephen shared many other great pieces of advice about becoming a successful entrepreneur and a good leader; listen to the full episode of First Act.
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