In this episode, Timothy R Andrews sits down with operator and campaigner Andy Lennox in the Old Thatch pub in Dorset to talk about what’s really happening behind the scenes in hospitality right now. Andy shares his journey from building Co-Tai into a multi-site business (and the reality of private equity ownership), to launching Nusara, and growing a pub portfolio in a market that keeps getting tougher.
The conversation moves quickly from business story to industry survival. Andy explains why the sector is “busy but broke”: rising utilities, rent pressure, business rates shocks, and margins shrinking to the point where reinvestment becomes impossible. He unpacks the Wonky Table campaign, why the “no Labour MPs” sticker spread, and how press, trade bodies and political pressure combine when an industry finally decides it’s had enough.
It’s a practical, blunt, and sometimes controversial discussion about tax reform, VAT, business rates, and why hospitality needs to get better at explaining its economic importance — and the consequences when it isn’t heard.
