A man of unquenchable enthusiasm

Oct 23 2006 By Graeme King, The Journal

The last ever boss of Vaux Breweries in Sunderland now has a more diverse business career. Frank Nicholson talks to Graeme King about pubs, the nature of enterprise, his Sunderland roots... and a move into recycling.

Meeting Frank Nicholson for the first time, you can't help but be a little overwhelmed - and charmed - by his boyish enthusiasm.

Though 52 now with three children aged 17, 15, and 12, he retains an attitude to life that is refreshingly upbeat, engaged - and downright jolly.

He was born in Sunderland, and has a lifelong connection to the city, but is well used to scepticism that a man whose uppercrust accent owes more to his years at Harrow School than those on Wearside could have emerged from such a heavily accented city.

And he is very engaging company, and very honest in his assessment of his career and the opportunities which have come his way.

Rarely in a conversation with someone from a famously family-run firm does the subject of nepotism get raised by the subject - and to such self-deprecating effect.

And almost as rarely will they admit to such an emotional attachment to that business, at least publicly.

For Vaux was clearly much more than the source of a salary to Nicholson - he felt very deeply entwined in its fortunes, and responsible for its place in the Wearside community.

The hurt caused by the business's demise, now more than seven years ago, is still apparent. To Nicholson's credit, he resists the opportunity to take too mighty a swipe at those who cut his family adrift, particularly at a time when the Swallow Hotels company, which grew out of Vaux's demise, has recently imploded.

We meet in the polished blandness of a conference room in the International Centre for Life, where Nicholson has recently been made deputy chairman of the governing board.

Nicholson is smart in a gold buttoned blazer, striped shirt, conservative tie, and dark jeans.

He tells how he started his education at The Chorister School in Durham, alongside a little boy called Anthony Blair, before going on to attend Aysgarth Boarding School in Bedale, North Yorkshire, from the ages of eight to 13, and then being sent to Harrow.

He admits to not knowing Blair at all well - perhaps connected to his Conservative links which saw him lunching with David Cameron last Friday - and, though he recognises such a recollection would make a great anecdote, he did not spot any signs of leadership ability in the infant PM.

He says he enjoyed boarding school and was successful there, partly through his sporting prowess.

He also recognises that the accent borne of his time there, and at Cambridge, has contributed to people's perception of his `poshness', but says once anyone takes the time to meet him properly, the preconceptions are overcome.

And he points out that, as the youngest of five brothers, he does not have a huge family income to fall back on, and is responsible for making his own way in the world.

We start off talking of his days at Vaux.

He says: "My eldest brother Paul was always groomed to go into the business but I did not particularly expect to join Vaux.

"Also, my father made clear none of his sons could go into business until we had professional qualifications.

"I became a chartered surveyor, so I chose property as my profession. Then in 1981, out of the blue, my brother said there was an opportunity for someone like me - though of course I'm not sure nepotism did not play a large part in that."

Although set on a fairly steep path to the summit of the company, Nicholson was sent off to get a grounding in all aspects of the Vaux business - and to get a ribbing for his accent and background.

He says: "I spent time on the drays, and in the brewhouse, and running a pub. The people who worked at Vaux were marvellous people. And the attitude of Sunderland people is `If he's a decent bloke, then fine'. And it does not matter what his class is, what his future is; if he's decent, reasonable and good humoured, then he's all right.

"The hardest part of the training was running a pub. Beer tankers left the brewery at 6.30am each morning, and they made a point of waking me up first when I'd only got to bed at 2am. It was a great game for them."

As expected, Nicholson did get promoted quickly, and took the managing director's chair at the age of just 30.

He says: "I worked very, very hard through my time at Vaux to promote the brewery as a quality brewery and the beer as quality beer.

"There was a huge loyalty to the brewery in Sunderland, through things like our sponsorship of the football club.

"When I see the site derelict in the middle of the city, it shows how we were very much the heart of the city.

"I did an interview on the morning of closure and I said as long we see something here soon, and it creates employment, then we won't have to reflect on the tragedy of all this.

"The interviewer asked if I thought it would happen soon, and I said I thought it would be 10 years which he was surprised by. But we are now seven and a half years on with no imminent sign of building work starting - though I take no pleasure in that at all.

"I particularly regret that the scar - or is it the wound - that the brewery closure left in Sunderland has not been healed.

"I live outside Sunderland and my regret is great, so I don't know what it must be like for people who live in the city and go past the site each day."

He has only a brief word to say on the demise of Swallow Hotels, and its London & Edinburgh parent, which grew out of Vaux.

"Essentially, if you grow too quickly, you don't have the money to support the growth and to keep going. The saying is true - turnover is vanity, profit is sanity, cash is reality."

And time has also allowed a certain distance to assess how Vaux was run.

"It was not a family business as such, though my family was highly involved," says the youngest Nicholson brother. "We were actually interlopers and it became a management dynasty and, with the benefit of hindsight, maybe that was not such a good thing. People might have got sick of the Nicholsons."

So what would he like to see happen to the giant Vaux site, which is currently being fought over by owners Tesco, the local council and regeneration company Sunderland Arc?

"The sad thing for me is that my style of leadership or management is one that tries to embrace all views. I don't think Tesco have embraced the views of the Arc and the council and, similarly, the Arc and the council have not embraced Tesco.

"Let's have a supermarket but combine it with elements the Arc and council would like. Rarely is there not middle ground to be found.

"Unfortunately, there are entrenched positions and the bigger the holes they dig, the harder it is to clamber out."

And Nicholson still has strong views on how pubs and the brewing industry should operate.

He says: "The whole leisure landscape has changed out of all recognition. I was recently invited to give a lecture to the Small Independent Breweries Association - I said we had come out of the Jurassic period, with the Tyrannosaurus rexes of Bass, Whitbread, Tetley, S&N, etc, but no sooner had we done that than we were dumped straight back in by the Velociraptors in the pub companies.

"They have a style of management that is completely different to what I was used to. Their success has been considerable in City terms but in human terms, I'm not so persuaded.

"I'm sure there are still many happy pub landlords, but many unhappy ones too. I suspect Vaux licensees probably complained we were ruthless landlords but our attitude was more supportive than you see today.

"For those who struggle, they probably struggle more than when there was a more paternalistic brewery in charge. Now it's either the landlord will go or the pub will go, or both. It's an attitude I don't like at all.

"The way they tackle competition is so ruthless - and maybe if Vaux was still around we would have suffered.

"But I believe we would have been very successful, without being ruthless to the same degree."

Does the ex-MD ever yearn to go back into the pubs or wider leisure industry?

"I have a non-executive directorship of a company called Joseph Holt's in the north-west, which has 120 managed houses and is a very successful company operating with principles I applaud, and people often say to me `why not go back in full time'?

"But on my heart is engraved `Vaux', rather than `beer' or `breweries'. Without Vaux, the job would not have the same appeal."

Nicholson does admit to a certain frustration in not having his own company to operate, and clearly the experience of running his own show leaves a supporting role feeling a little bit second best.

However, the man who has been so heavily involved in the Spirit of Innovation Awards, and whose CV includes a period with regional venture capitalists NEL, knows all about growing companies and their needs.

He says: "I'm not an entrepreneur, though I am enterprising. An entrepreneur will think of an idea, create it, develop it. But an enterprising person will take someone else's idea and assist in its development.

"I don't have the imagination to think of things in the first place but I like to involve myself in enterprising activities - I hope I bring that to all the businesses I'm involved with. Much of my life involves advising small companies.

"There is great Government support to new businesses and I welcome that, but, when a small business is no longer new, there are mountains of red tape to tackle.

"I see it very clearly - attention drifts to the bureaucracy a business faces. How marvellous has the Government been at developing small businesses and how bad has it been at presenting obstacles that don't need to be there?"

However, this has not put Nicholson off getting involved in a new venture, having disposed of his interest in computer games business Make Believer to Newcastle company The Amazing Group. He says: "I always keep my eye open for business opportunities. I pursued Make Believer for several years, and probably the idea was good but the timing was bad.

"It was a good lesson in how not to run a small business! We spent a lot of time developing the idea and technical requirements, and too little time on the market.

"My latest business venture is borne out of a growing interest in waste, and the increasing pressure to recycle. That nearly led to the establishment of my own waste company, but now I am involved with Innovation Recycling, based in Newcastle.

"It's run by two enterprising - and entrepreneurial - individuals called Karl Houseley and Sean Cassidy, and they have asked me to help develop it so I will be taking up the chair of the company.

"It's about recycling waste glass, plastic, cardboard, paper, aluminium. They have created an opening in a market that is very poorly developed. With environmental legislation, their timing is very good."

So, with the shadow of Vaux receding and a redevelopment of the brewery site edging closer, Frank Nicholson is moving on.

While acutely aware of - and grateful for - his past, he is now living very much in the present, and delighting in all the challenges placed in front of him.

It's heartening to find such a fiery ball of enthusiasm available to offer up his expertise.

The North-East's industrial past helping to inform its future.