How school failure has turned a young man into a multimillionaire hotelier

If Robin Hutson, founder and CEO of the British chain Home Grown Hotels, had pbaded his high school exams, he would not have
to become a billionaire.

"I missed all my exams and I could not go to high school," recalls Hutson, 62. "Then I had to look for something different to do."

"At the age of 16, I was no longer really interested in girls, until my mother told me," Well, you've always loved experimenting in the kitchen. "

His mother advised him to take a hotel and restaurant course, which sparked his appetite for a career in the sector.

In 1994, opened the doors of the famous TV channel Hotel du Vin, sold 10 years later for about 87 million dollars.

Since 2011, Robin has started and built another chain of hotels, The Pig. At present, Home Grown Hotels, which has six hotels in the South of England, has an annual turnover of more than 26 million US dollars.

Although his success has earned him the name of "hotelier having more influence in the UK", he can not be accused of not having left from the bottom.

After graduating from the Surrey School of Catering, South London, in the mid-seventies, he began training in the Hotel Savoy Group's administration program.

He started out as a junior waiter at Claridge's, a 5-star hotel in London, and then at the prestigious Crillon Hotel in Paris. Then he returned to London and, at age 23, he became the youngest person in charge of receiving the history of the Berkley Hotel.

After two years spent in a Bermuda hotel, he was offered a position of general manager of the Hampshire Hotel.

After nearly eight years working in Hampshire, Hutson set out to start his own business and create his own success.

"I was 36 years old and I had already spent enough time working for others and I thought to myself," Is that what I want to do for the rest of my life or am I going to try to do something else? "".

Doing something more meant opening a boutique hotel focused on fine dining and wine. In 1994, with his friend Gerad Bbadet, a former sommelier, opened the Hotel du Vin in the South of England.

To raise the funds they needed, Robin said that he had to convince his wife, Judy, to
Put your house as a guarantee. "It's probably one of the most courageous things Judy has done, and thank God for doing it," he says.

Robin and Gerard raised $ 660,000 with the help of their family and friends and also asked for a loan of about $ 995,000 from the bank.

Due to lack of funds, the two founders were forced to get to work. "Gerard and I used to take turns taking turns on the couch to cover the night hours," he says.

"It was exhausting, we prepared everything from breakfast to restaurant service, but we were profitable the first year." Anxious to offer something new, the Hotel du Vin offered fresh milk in the minibar and served a good quality coffee.

Although these things do not seem to be innovative, Hutson says that at the time, they were considered "revolutionary" in the hospitality industry.

Hotel du vin has become a chain of six hotels, but on the occasion of its tenth anniversary, Robin and Gerard have received a very tempting offer and have decided to sell the chain.

He has been president of a prestigious chain of private clubs called Soho House for four years. In 2011, he opened the doors of his new 5-star hotel, Lime Wood, also in the south of England. The first hotel The Pig Hotel was opened in 2011.

As at the Hotel du Vin, Judy, his wife, manages the interior design of each of The Pig hotels. Hutson is inspired by the name of the famous New York restaurant The Spotted Pig.

Zoe Monk, editor-in-chief of Boutique Hotelier magazine, explains that the secret of Hutson's success lies in "the ability to understand where the market is going and what are the niches in the hospitality sector".

He adds: "He defines the trends after identifying what is missing on the market". Last year, The Caterer ranked Hutson as the second most powerful hotel in the UK.

The Caterer's editor, Chris Gamm, says that Hutson and other hotel owners can tackle it after Brexit, the UK's exit plan from the European Union.

"One of the challenges the industry faces is recruiting and retaining enough staff, which will be difficult for Robin, who is opening up new hotels," said Gamm. .

Hutson agrees that Brexit can be a hindrance. "Everyone in the industry is worried about the possible loss of staff," he said.

"In the industry, our staff usually comes from outside the UK 25% of our 700 employees are not British."

Regarding the future of The Pig, Hutson plans to keep its ambitions at a low level. "I have no ambition to have a chain of 50 hotels," he says.

"That does not interest me," said the businessman who traveled 7,000 km on motorbikes in Chile and Argentina in December. "I do not know how many other hotels I will open, they must be in the right place.