Back in October we held the 2025 Wells & Co. Conference and Awards!
This annual get together is our favourite chance to review the year that’s passed and set the shared vision for the one to come.
More than 120 colleagues from all over the country, and even our friends from France, gathered together in Bedfordshire for a day of vision setting and inspirational speakers.
2025’s event was no different as we reflected on another year of growth, with members of the Board each presenting their highlights from the last 12 months, before unveiling the areas of focus for the upcoming year.
For the first time, we welcomed a guest speaker to reflect on their personal and professional journey and inspire our teams. We were delighted to be joined by James Peach – former Global Brand Director at Vinted and an award-winning global marketing leader at brands including Innocent and Uber.
As well as taking attendees through some of his career highlights, James reiterated the importance of the Great British pub for delivering moments of joy, celebration and togetherness. It was a pleasure to have him join us to discuss how to thrive in a fast-changing environment.
But in the evening, the lights are dimmed, the glad rags go on and it’s time for our company-wide awards evening! Our annual awards are designed to recognise and celebrate those that have shone brightest in the previous 12 months.
This year, we embraced an Oktoberfest theme as The Kingfisher in Bedford was taken over by oompah bands, lederhosen and plenty of steins of Supernova, Foghorn and Genesis.
It was another incredible evening and we’re delighted to announce the full list of winners below. From colleagues who have been leading the way, to entire team efforts who represent the very best of what we do, here are the Wells & Co. heroes of 2025:
We’re in it Together – Emma Lingings, Procurement
Everybody Counts – Fanny Rauzet, The Red Lion
Learn to Improve – Debbie Dunnage, Legal Services
Love What We Do – Tim Hickford, Sales
Shout about Success – Emma Miller, Marketing
Manager of the Year – Andrew Fulford, Brewery
The Wells Pub You’d Recommend to Friends – Brewpoint, Bedford
Chef of the Year – Jamie Philcox, The Old White Horse, Baldock
Pub Team of the Year – The Bear, Rugby
Most Profitable Pub – The Charles Dickens, Bordeaux
Highest Sales Growth Pub – The Old White Horse, Balsall Common
CEO Award – Matt Chapman and Jack Tracey, Finance
Our value awards are all nominated by colleagues across the entire business and this year we had our highest number of nominations yet! As well as recognising success, these awards are a wonderful way to bring our people together and get everyone thinking about what makes each other great.
Pete Wells, our CEO and MC for the night, had this to say about the importance of celebrating success and, above all, having fun in your hospitality work!
“There are heroes everywhere in this business, and unfortunately it’s hard to recognise heroes on a daily basis. So at Wells & Co. we aim to create an environment and a platform that is able to acknowledge our incredible people – today’s AGM has been an opportunity to do that.
I’m so proud of not only our winners tonight, but of the entire business. What we achieve every day genuinely humbles me, and it’s important to take the time to reward those achievements.
We’re committed to putting our talent on a pedestal and making sure that we can provide them with every opportunity to flourish by equipping them with all the tools available to us and all of the support and training that we can.
The other side of that coin is celebrating our accomplishments and letting off a little steam to pat ourselves on the back – nights like tonight are all about doing both at the same time!”
Congratulations to all our winners – you are all fantastic!
