When Antony Penny took a job as a barman at the North Lakes Hotel in 1989, he didn’t know it would be the start of a 30-year career with Thwaites Hotels.
It’s a journey that has seen him manage prestigious hotels all over the country, leading multi-million-pound transformations, attract Michelin-starred chefs and help put Cumbria firmly on the hospitality and fine dining map.
After three decades working across a portfolio of luxury hotels, inns and wedding venues, Antony, of Melmerby, was head-hunted by the Lakes Distillery in 2019 to be general manager just before Covid struck and the world of hospitality was turned upside down.
Following an intense period of gaining multiple accreditations through the Business Coaching Academy, Antony launched his own business as a hospitality consultant and professional business coach in 2021.
He has invested further in his own development with the academy, recently gaining eligibility to join the Worldwide Association of Business Coaches as a registered corporate coach.
AWP Consultancy now boasts clients including fine dining restaurants, luxury hotels, accountants, the Cumbria Distilling Company and Carlisle’s Tullie House Museum.
He said: “At 53 I decided I wanted a new challenge and had a vision of what I wanted to do. After Covid, the landscape I had become so used to changed completely, with a decline in tourism and uncertainty across the whole sector.
“I knew I could offer something to the industry I loved so much and decided to use my experience, skills and qualifications to build my own consultancy that would help get businesses back on track and affect systemic changes that would help drive growth and make them sustainable again.”
Within 10 years of beginning his career in the bar at the North Lakes Hotel, Antony had completed Thwaites’ management development programme and in 1999 found himself in the position of general manager at one of north Cumbria’s best-known hotels and wedding venues, The Crown Hotel at Wetheral.
He then spent seven years in charge of the Solent Hotel and Spa near Portsmouth before returning to the North Lakes in 2008 to oversee the multi-million-pound redevelopment of the entire ground floor – including the bar, restaurant, spa and all bedrooms.
He said: “For the company to trust me with overseeing such a big investment was very gratifying and I am extremely proud of the work we achieved.
“We travelled to Bordeaux to get inspiration for the kitchens and dining area and returned with a new concept around ‘the theatre of cooking,’ where the chefs can grill and cook in the front of house where the guests are seated. This has been a huge success and gives visitors a new experience.”
During his tenure at the Lakes Distillery, Antony worked with his friend and Michelin-starred chef Terry Laybourne from Newcastle-based 21 Hospitality to develop a new menu for the venue’s bistro.
Since then, it has consistently been named among the top eateries in Cumbria by food critics and travel guides.
Just three months into his new role at the Lakes Distillery, the Covid pandemic arrived and Antony was subsequently made redundant following a sharp decline in visitor numbers and uncertainty around the future direction of the site.
“I had no regrets whatsoever; nobody could have predicted what was going to happen.
“It was difficult to leave Thwaites after 30 years, but I was ready to take on a new challenge and I am pleased that I did.
“Without that change, and without the changes that were forced by Covid, I may never have realised my ambition to start my own business. I love my work, and I enjoy building relationships and finding common ground to achieve the outcomes my clients need and want,” said Antony.
Inspiration and encouragement to begin his solo venture came from an unlikely source: Social media platform LinkedIn.
“I was connecting with various people and colleagues I’d known over the years on the LinkedIn platform and started posting some thoughts and tips on how businesses could recover from the pandemic.
“Before long I was receiving some really positive feedback, and then requests from places like the Lounge on the Green at Houghton and Farlam Hall in Brampton to provide some guidance and expertise and it’s just grown from there,” he said.
Antony encouraged Farlam to appoint an industry-leading head chef and helped them to recruit one of the stars of the British culinary scene. Hrishikesh Desai, who was at the helm of Michelin-starred restaurants, now leads the dining experience at the luxury hotel which is nestled between the town of Brampton and nearby Hadrian’s Wall.
Working with accountants Armstrong Watson, Antony helped the company to consolidate its portfolio of three office spaces into a new purpose-built site at Rosehill in Carlisle, with an in-house bistro for staff and visitors. The accountancy firm has now appointed a full-time head chef and catering team.
He is currently involved with Tullie House Museum and Art Gallery in Carlisle, helping them to improve their food and drink offering, as well as developing potential secondary revenue streams as part of a restructure, known as Project Tullie.
He added: “I am not here to teach; I am here to help people learn. That is an important distinction. What really motivates me now is business coaching.
“Self-awareness, self-improvement, rebuilding the mindset to ultimately improve the businesses I work with is what gets me going in the morning.”
