COOK SNUBS M&B BOARD FOR VILLAGE HOTELS LIFE
MITCHELLS & BUTLERS offered him a “senior role” following his resignation as chief executive of hotel group Malmaison last September.
But Robert Cook turned down the chance to help chairman Bob Ivell steer the FTSE 250 pub group into calmer waters to instead put the Village Hotels brand, part of the Lloyds Banking Group-backed De Vere Group, “up in lights”.
“I was amenable to [the M&B] discussions,” confirms Cook, while dismissing speculation about a move to troubled travel operator Thomas Cook as “absolute nonsense”. “But let’s face it, I am a hotelier, so I thought ‘let’s stick to that’.”
The new role is a job swap with incumbent Gary Davis – Cook replaces Davis as Village Hotels chief executive as Davis fills his old shoes as CEO of Malmaison – and one that comes with an aggressive expansion brief: to open between 15 and 18 new hotels on top of the existing 26 affordable “urban resorts” within three to five years from 2013.
The north-west is already covered; later this week, Cook – who expanded the Malmaison group from six to 27 hotels in his eight years at the top – will hit Scotland to look at potential sites in Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Glasgow. South of the border, meanwhile, Hull, Portsmouth, Crawley and Bracknell are high up his hit-list of expansion targets.
GREEN GRID
ON THE subject of glamorous English towns, McLaren yesterday chose Woking to reveal its Formula 1 race car for the 2012 season – its first as the world’s only carbon neutral F1 team, thanks to offsetting projects arranged by green financiers Carbon Neutral Investments.
Vodafone McLaren Mercedes team principal Martin Whitmarsh told The Capitalist: “This announcement is proof we’ve gone further than any other Formula 1 team in becoming more environmentally sympathetic.” Competition, one imagines, is cut-throat.
BOARDROOM BEST
NOT EVEN the presence of his DJ nephew Mark Ronson on the judging panel could squeeze Heron boss Gerald Ronson on to this year’s list of the best-dressed men in business.
Instead, expect double-page ads from shoemaker Kurt Geiger, high street outfitter M&S and Jaguar LandRover owner Tata Group in tomorrow’s issue of men’s monthly GQ, which voted the firms’ respective bosses Neil Clifford, Marc Bolland (left) and Sir Ratan Tata into its top ten ranking of the sharpest suits in the boardroom.
MICRO-POLO RECORD
IT’S OFFICIAL: Argentinian restaurant group Gaucho has hosted the world’s smallest polo match, as contested yesterday on Swallow Street near Piccadilly Circus.
Two five-a-side goals blocked each end of the newly turfed “micro polo” pitch, where England, represented by number two player Maurice Ormerod, beat Argentina’s Oscar Mancini 5-4 in a two-horse race.
The show-game was staged to launch The Gaucho International Polo tournament at the O2 Arena on 21 March, where “high-octane polo” and wine-tasting from 7pm will be followed by late-night after-parties, Buenos Aires-style.
Tickets are on sale at £20 through Ticketmaster from 21 January.
For hospitality enquiries, contact elli.sallis@gauchorestaurants.com