What do you do when the Budget wipes a million pounds off your bottom line overnight? You find the optimism anyway. We sit down with Laura Harper-Hinton, CEO and co-founder of Caravan Restaurants and MCA Leader of the Year, on what she calls the hardest moment in 16 years of hospitality, and why optimistic leadership is the only way through it.

Laura takes us right back to the beginning: running coffees at a roastery at 14, training as a photographer in Europe, and learning the art of teamwork running million-pound events where you get one night to get it right. From a small, intimate first site on Exmouth Market to the 'beast' at King's Cross and an old tin factory in London Bridge, she explains how three New Zealanders built an all-day dining and coffee group on one founding value, All Welcome, and a home-away-from-home feel that still defines every site.

We dig into the people side: why she celebrates the wins first, how she delivers training and development that actually means something, and why not everyone wants to be the next GM, so you have to keep your quiet superstars inspired too. Laura is candid about leading through survival mode, the real cost of rising wages and business rates, re-questioning every step of service, and tracking diversity to design out unconscious bias, plus how better comms tools like All Gravy help scale a culture that still feels human.

If you care about hospitality, leadership, or building a values-led business that performs under pressure, this one is a masterclass in finding the joy when it has never been harder. Subscribe, share it with a fellow operator, and leave a review telling us which idea you will try first.

Topics: Caravan Restaurants, Laura Harper-Hinton, hospitality leadership, restaurant operations, multi-site hospitality, coffee roasting, employee retention, team culture, rising costs, minimum wage, All Gravy

It's All Gravy is a hospitality podcast where we dig out the best stories from industry leaders - about comms, learning, AI, and Gen Z.

Most hospitality operators are pointing AI at the wrong target. They're optimizing menus, building guest chatbots, and chasing surface-level wins - while the real opportunity is sitting on the people side of the business.

In this episode, All Gravy CEO Jonatan unpacks why AI's biggest impact in hospitality isn't guest-facing - it's operational. We talk about using AI as a "personal mentor" for every new hire, killing onboarding anxiety in the first 90 days, turning operators into prolific content creators, and giving multi-location HQs a data brain that actually surfaces what matters.

You'll hear concrete examples (Pizza Pilgrims' "Joshua" bot, customers saving 2+ days of admin work, beta users seeing major time savings), why context-rich AI beats generic ChatGPT for hospitality, and what's coming next on All Gravy's roadmap - including a proactive AI that reaches out when something's off across your locations.

If you run 10+ locations, this one's for you.

Topics: AI in hospitality, hospitality operations, employee onboarding, multi-location restaurants, restaurant technology, Gen Z hospitality, AI assistant, hospitality software, frontline employees, All Gravy

It's All Gravy is a hospitality podcast where we dig out the best stories from industry leaders - about comms, learning, AI, and Gen Z.

What if profit isn’t a plan but a consequence? We sit down with James from Anglian Country Inns to explore how a rundown coastal pub became a 10-site group by betting on one core belief: look after your team like family and the numbers will take care of themselves. From codifying “DNA” behaviours to empowering general managers within clear frameworks, James shows how culture can scale without sanding off what makes each site special.

We trace ACI’s roots in simple, brilliant food and local suppliers, then dig into the operating model that keeps standards high across very different venues. The system is refreshingly clear: measure team health with retention and eNPS, measure guests with satisfaction and revenue, and keep business controls tight. When one pillar drifts, focus there without sacrificing the others. Along the way, you’ll hear how “Be More Beyoncé” turns reflection into a habit, why the right GM matters more than the right building, and how recognition rituals like “happy checks” make going above and beyond contagious.

James also opens the playbook on leading through hard moments. During COVID, ACI backed its people early, then rebuilt around sustainable hours, four-day weeks, and smarter productivity. The results speak: stronger retention, engaged teams, lower recruitment costs, and growth that outpaces price rises. We close with why they won Best Pub Employer under 500 staff and how better comms tools like All Gravy help scale a culture that actually feels human.

If you care about hospitality, leadership, or building a values-led business that still performs, this conversation is a masterclass. Subscribe, share with a fellow operator, and leave a review telling us which idea you’ll try first.

It's All Gravy is a hospitality podcast where we dig out the best stories from industry leaders - about comms, learning, AI, and Gen Z.