As Good as You Have to Be
At times our industry can be full of "hidden daggers" for those that have been successful and it is very rare to find anyone be successful without at least a few barbed comments from the jealous and envious.
When there is a character that is both successful and universally popular and respected, it is a remarkably rare feat and one that says more about that person that any accolade could. William Baxter is one such character and it is the more remarkable for the fact that he has been a leading figure in three very successful business entities, who have all carried his name within the contract food service market over the past twenty years - Baxter and Platts (1987-1999), BaxterSmith (2000-2004) and BaxterStorey (2004-present day). There is literally no one else who can lay claim to such a feat.
POSITIVE IN HIS OUTLOOK . . .
So why is it that so few have anything bad to say about the man? Part of the reason is that it is very rare to ever hear William being critical of others. It is quite difficult o be critical of anyone who is never critical of others themselves. I remember taking a reference from William on someone that he had dismissed and he still had more good to say about the person than bad. It is a strange contradiction for a man who has achieved so much but he does appear to understand other's failings; "Sometimes you just have to understand that not everyone can be as good as you want them to be," he commented. "Generally, they will live up to 80% of what you want and you just have to accept that as good enough".
William is invariably positive in his outlook and possesses an infectious charm that does make people feel good about themselves. Over lunch recently, I asked him why he was always so positive even when speaking about his fiercest competitors. He looked at me slightly bemused by the question; "Because, I genuinely like them all. They are good people. It doesn't mean I don't want to beat them but neither does it mean that I don't like them."
Maybe, this is also part of his secret - the fact that he has a clear perspective and lives a full life beyond work. One does get the feeling that work is just one of many challenges that he enjoys. Others include motor racing - he has competitively raced in karts, cars and on bikes over the years - fishing and golf. He has a boat moored near to Oban, on the west coast of Scotland, which he takes out regularly around the Hebrides. He is one of life's natural enthusiasts. If he had not found his success in the contract catering sector, he would have surely found success in some other discipline.
"At the end of the day, this is a business I enjoy because it evolves around people and good food. This industry is made up of people of all shapes and sizes and many of them are just genuinely good people who enjoy what they do. That has to be a good start of any business."
LOOKING BACK . . .
In his younger days, William was of four children and his brothers and sisters were naturally academic. The other three went onto become either lawyers or doctors. By contrast, William was dyslexic and worked hard to prove himself. He both worked hard and played hard. Despite his dyslexia, he still gained three "A" levels in Zoology, Geology and Art.
He was offered two places at University to study Architecture but turned them down and instead choose to go to Westminster College to gain an HND in Hotel and Catering Institutional Management. It was here that he met his wife and they married during the second year. Upon graduating he joined Sutcliffe Catering and was soon progressing. At the age of 23 he was managing 17 operations.
"I had a great time at Sutcliffe and they had an excellent team of characters," recounted William. "I remember once falling foul of a client and Don Davenport was called in. I remember thinking "That's it, there goes my career!" I had only been an Area Manager for a short while and had just received my first company car. Don handled the situation superbly and even had the client almost apologising. It was a real team at Sutcliffes in those days and you felt that people were there for you. There was a good banter in the office and good atmosphere throughout the operations."
MOVING ON . . . .
In 1987, William resigned from Sutcliffe Catering to found "Baxter and Platts" with Robert Platts who had been a colleague at Sutcliffes. Robert Platts was a different but similar character in many ways - the son of a military doctor, he dropped out of Bangor University where he had been studying Biochemistry and soil science and went to Ealing College to study for his HND in hotel and catering management. He joined Sutcliffes as an assistant manager but worked his way up and became General Manager for the caterer's City of London operations.
Both men were charismatic characters in their own right and although, it may have appeared that they would be successful, it did not initially all go to plan.
"It was quite an experience and we were hardly an overnight success," recalled William. "It took us 9 months to win our first contract and we were probably one month away from giving up. At the time, Rob and I just went for it and it was nerve racking as we could see out mortgages building up. But, fortunately, it did come good."
"It was a real partnership with Rob as we both went through those really tough early years together and we had skills that complemented each other. He was superb at IT, accounts and administration. I was better at building up sales leads. We would make decisions together and we always agreed early on that we both had to be in agreement on an issue for something to happen. It worked for us as we did not lose a contract until 1995"
Baxter and Platts became an established player and they won the Food Service Catey Award in 1997. Turnover grew to around £25m at the time they were acquired by Granada Food Services in 1997 for an estimated £16m. After their "earn out" year, Rob Platt retired to Guernsey whilst William stayed initially within Granada Food Services before starting again with BaxterSmith. At the time of his departure from Baxter and Platts, the company had grown to a £90m turnover, with over 300 contracts. William and Rob were one of the very few very to increase the value of their earn out following acquisition.
"I could have retired but I have four children at school and I could either sit at home making myself some coffee or I could come to work and be somebody"
THE LAUNCH . . .
In 2000, BaxterSmith was launched alongside his friend and former colleague and director at Baxter and Platts, Mike Smith. Unlike the early difficult days at Baxter and Platts, BaxterSmith seemed to ease smoothly into becoming a competitive force.
"Yes, it was different as people knew that he had done it and could deliver what we said we could deliver. It does make it very different from starting from scratch. Mike had joined Baxter and Platts early on and we worked very closely together for a number of years, so we knew each other very well. Mike had been our Sales Director and then became MD when I became Chairman. We both knew what we could achieve and how we wanted to go about it."
At the end of year two, the turnover was £16m with a profit of £400,000. When BaxterSmith merged with Wilson Storey Halliday in 2004, it created a business with a turnover of £105m with over 200 contracts. It also brought together a formidable group of senior players including Alastair Storey (former CEO of Granada Food Services), Keith Wilson (Finance Director at Granada Food Services), and Linda Halliday (CE of Halliday Catering Services) as well as William and Mike. It was a board that matched almost of those possessed by the larger, more corporate players in the sector. Cynics at the time suggested that the team would soon break up as they would find it difficult to work as a unified team but two years on, BaxterStorey is seemingly moving from strength to strength and has acquired even more senior talent to its ranks in Noel Mahoney, John Bennett and Dawn Gallimore.
"Alastair and I have been friends for a long period and we trust each other in business. Alastair was CEO of Granada when they acquired Baxter and Platts. I have been friends with Linda too for a long time, so it was not as though we were all new to each other as happens with some mergers. Friendship already existed; we just needed to find the best methodology for working together effectively."
Cynics also suggest that BaxterStorey is preparing itself to exit. William just lightly chuckles at this last assertion;
"People have always being saying that for the past few years but we have no exit strategy as we are all still relatively young, with young families and we are enjoying building the business. It is an exciting prospect at the moment. We are the biggest privately owned contract catering company and we are growing. We all want to know how far we can take it and that is a great challenge for us to have. We want to build a business that delivers for the client and that offers an excellent environment for talent to flourish."
-x- Article from 'En Passant' December 2006 -x