Yes, the other Tony says he's going too

Life at Mitchells & Butlers after this autumn's departure of restaurant boss Tony Hughes

He is an industry icon. Some call him the godfather of UK casual dining. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, it's Tony Hughes, who will retire as managing director of Mitchells & Butlers restaurant group on October 1 and from the M&B board at the end of December.

No one should underestimate the impact that he has had on both the pub and restaurant markets over the past decade or two or his role in the growth of popular dining in this country.

So there will probably be a few more glowing introductions like that in the coming months. All the tributes and all the praise will surely be well deserved.

But hold on, this is not an obituary. Don't draw a line under Tony Hughes' contribution to the industry just yet. My guess is that like the other Tony, there are still a few more things to do and more to give ' and on an international stage too.

It would take a weighty tome to chronicle thoroughly Tony Hughes' contribution and achievements. But, the highlights would include his time at Whitbread when he headed the team that brought TGI Fridays to the UK and how on the numerous trips to Fridays' headquarters in Dallas he first 'got religion' and became a full-on disciple of the American approach to eating-out and running chain restaurants.

That appreciation of the best of the US has run through most of what he has done since, in particular in recent times building M&B's now market-leading eating-out presence. M&B became one of the first pub businesses to really 'get food' and to understand the culture, systems, detail, value, quality and, not to mention, passion required to deliver the right product.

Hughes' habit of talking about 'everyday value' also betrays his short time spent working in retail as director of service quality at Kingfisher group. Those retail disciplines, like those in American restaurant groups, are woven through his philosophy of operating.

His partnership with M&B chief executive Tim Clarke ' the operator and the intellect ' has helped M&B become the closest thing to a Tesco among UK bar and restaurant companies. The only other challenger to that crown would be Wetherspoon's, which has a very similar focussed, systematic and intelligent approach to the business of selling food and drink.

Tony Hughes is an enthusiast. He can inspire the people around him ' not least that early Fridays team, which produced the likes of Rod McKie, now running Welcome Break, and Steve Wilkins, the serial entrepreneur behind the like of Smith & Jones, Lewis & Clarke and now Little Gems.

This enthusiasm has also taken him outside the narrow corporate arena 'creating industry relationships in Europe and the USA, as well as Britain. He has been a great supporter since its inception of the European Foodservice Forum in Zurich and has long established links across the Atlantic with Cornell University and the restaurant school at the University of Central Florida.

It is in this sphere that Tony Hughes is likely to spend more of his time. In private, if not always on public platforms, he is naturally open and generous. Away from corporate life there will be more opportunity to share his thoughts and passions ' not just to a domestic but an international audience. He has much to tell and give. The market can only benefit. He will be a man in demand.

So far from leaving the stage, Tony Hughes is likely to find a new one and quickly.

So what of M&B? What will it be like without him? Many observers believe he will leave a large gap. His successor Adam Fowle, now M&B's managing director for acquired sites and business development, is not an operator, it is pointed out ' although people might forget he has already headed up the group's pubs division.

M&B would probably have liked to have hung on to Hughes for a little longer, but he has been pondering 'retirement' for some time and it was only a matter of when.

The truth is that M&B will move on. The problem always in these circumstances is that praising the past can be seen as criticising the future, or vice versa. This is not the case.

M&B has an opportunity to build on the foundations now in place, especially if the operational standards that Hughes has left become enshrined in its culture. Adam Fowle is an intelligent man who brings something different and his two years as retail director at Sainsbury should be invaluable to a company determined to keep a healthy distance ahead of the following pack.

Retail sector disciplines, professionalism and sophistication will only become more important to this sector ' especially with the likes of Marks & Spencer threatening to enter the foodservice space in a big way.

The eating-out market remains on a roll, largely buoyed by a wealth of creativity, entrepreneurial energy and operational instinct. Its weaknesses are in the harder skills where the likes of M&B and Wetherspoons, who aspire to being like Tesco and Sainsbury, have invested and that will help squeeze greater efficiencies from their businesses.

There are those in this sector, for example, that still equate marketing to promotion and have no clue what their customers think. Why should they when their restaurants are full? How many even medium-sized players have a marketing director on the executive board?

That's not the M&B way. Market positioning, like supply line efficiencies, are serious disciplines ' and M&B's existing marketing director Adam Martin is another bright thinker likely destined for a bigger role in the organisation.

Yes, it is the end of an era. People like Tony Hughes don't move on without leaving a ripple or two, and he should enjoy the tributes and slaps on the back he'll receive in coming weeks. But for both M&B and the wider market it may well be one of those real win-win situations.

Hughes has done his considerable bit for M&B and it should build on it. The rest of us will get more of Tony Hughes to ourselves. Sounds like a good deal.

first published in M&C Report, July, 2007