Industry award celebrations for family company with pubs at Brancaster Staithe

A family-run hospitality group, which has pubs along the coast, has been recognised at a major industry awards ceremony.

Anglian Country Inns (ACI) was crowned Best Pub Employer at The Publican Awards - dubbed the UK hospitality industry’s Oscars - at a ceremony hosted by television presenter Claudia Winkleman.

The Nye family company said the recognition reflects “all the work which has gone into building our business over the last 29 years, ever since dad first saw an opportunity in a little rundown pub on the Norfolk coast in 1996, to what it is today”.

The business is also in the running for Best Premium Food for the third year after winning on two previous occasions.

Anglian Country Inns’ portfolio includes The White Horse and The Jolly Sailors both at Brancaster Staithe.

The award is in recognition of creating an “excellent working environment for employees including comprehensive training, strong staff motivation and benefits, and a clear and meaningful career path and development structure for our employees”.

Will Chew, head of people and culture with Anglian Country Inns, said: “It’s incredible for everyone at ACI to be recognised in this way.

“We know that we’re on a journey to always improve the working conditions and lives of our people. When ACI started 29 years ago, caring for the team was at the forefront of everyone’s mind, today the ACI values and culture they help to create, are just as important, and will be for the foreseeable future.

“We’re really proud to be recognised for this award, entering always helps us with a blueprint for the next phase of improvement and we love learning from all the other great businesses out there.

“We know we’re not perfect, but we also know that we are quite good at supporting managers and creating places where people can be themselves, learn some valuable life skills which make people happy and enable our teams to grow as people.”

Thanks have gone to everyone who has supported the business, which has 10 establishments including pubs, hotels, bars, coffee shop, microbrewery and a bakery.