Devon-born Tom Trubshaw took over The Peterville Inn in St Agnes, Cornwall, with his wife Lara, in June 2020.
The pair have three children and, as much as the middle of a pandemic felt like a strange time to take over a pub, the climate around hospitality in his local area presented a unique opportunity for Tom to take his first steps into running his own business.
Tom has been in the hospitality industry his whole career and describes taking on his own pub with three kids and a mortgage as “terrifying”, but something he always dreamt of doing.
The Peterville Inn is the oldest pub in St Agnes, with plenty of heritage and a great location on the Cornish coast and just a 15 minute drive from Truro.
Formerly a drink-led pub, it has two distinct areas, which Tom is using to marry-up the combination of a more food-led offer while retaining the atmosphere of a good drinking spot.
Tom took part in Punch’s online training programme before taking over the pub, which involved plenty of Zoom meetings and CPLE online training courses.
He says: “I’d done some of the training when I worked in the operational side of things, but running my own business is completely new to me. Things like contracts, legal and payroll were new to me and quite scary!
“The training walks you through all that really well and it was really helpful to iron out the more intimidating bits of the job for me.”
“Reminding myself with the basics was also really useful too. After a while working in the industry, you get used to your own way of doing things so it was good to have a refresh so that when I sit down with my team and go through the various bits of training, I can do so with confidence, knowing I haven’t forgotten anything.”
“The online aspect of the programme worked really well. There was plenty to do but it was all really well organised.”
“The online PATH of learning is set up as a really simple progression and is something I definitely want to use with my own team. It’s brilliant and works really well with a beginning, middle and an end so you don’t feel lost.”
