Success story
James Brown, Cluster Manager within Belhaven Managed Pubs.
James Brown joined Belhaven in 2002, initially as Pub Manager at Molly Malones in Glasgow City Centre. When asked why he decided to join Belhaven James said:
"I had worked for Tennents for 13 years and really enjoyed working for a managed house operator. A lot of the pubs at that time were going to lease so I decided to apply for the manager vacancy at Mollys when it was advertised in the Evening Times."
When interviewed for the vacancy, the Recruitment Manager knew right away that he would be a good fit for Molly Malones. Elaine Bissett said:
"James was one of the first managers I interviewed after joining Belhaven and he really impressed me with his positive attitude and the way he spoke about customers. He is such an energetic character and I have yet to come across anyone who is not won over by him."
After several years at Molly Malones, James moved out to the Millcroft in Rutherglen, a multi discipline business incorporating liquor, food and functions. Under the management of James, the Millcroft has experienced year on year growth. As a result he was promoted to Cluster Manager, where he was given additional responsibility to support the Area Manager by looking after several smaller sites in the Glasgow area.
"Belhaven asked if I would be interested in taking on a more senior role so I thought I would give it a go."
This was a newly developed role for Belhaven Pubs and it works for us in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Stirling and Inverness. It allows senior pub managers to enhance their people management skills and to give them additional responsibilities.
Speaking of his Belhaven career so far, James says, "I really enjoy watching people develop their careers and I do what I can to help them. I have recently been involved in a Customer Service training roadshow which was great fun and involved delivering a short training course to hundreds of frontline bar staff around Scotland over a six week period."
James has been responsible for developing the careers of several of our current Pub Managers, who started as Assistant Managers to James. One of them runs one of our highest volume pubs in Fife.
