The pub industry is still reeling from the retirement of stalwart Tony Hughes, the architect of pub giant Mitchells & Butlers’ (M&B) thriving food business, but the gossip among publicans is not how will M&B cope without their food figurehead but who will turn up to the year's award ceremonies to collect a gong?
Hughes, who stepped down from the M&B board at the end of the year, has since gone on to join the board of the struggling Restaurant Group.
According to that most scientific of tools, Google, a search of the terms "Tony Hughes + Mitchells & Butlers + Awards" generates 43,800 possible answers including Hughes winning a Pub Industry Award Catey in 2001. Searching on the terms "Mitchells & Butlers + awards" generates just 24,400 potential hits. It could be a lean year in the M&B trophy cabinet.