Rob's back to his roots - and latest venture is a banker!

WITH strong family connections to the hospitality industry, it's not surprising that Rob Hattersley's career went in that same direction even before he left school.

- By ZENA HAWLEY

His grandparents ran local well-known pubs - The Lathkil Hotel at Over Haddon and The Monsal Head, near Little Longstone and his father, John, opened the first wine bar in Sheffield in 1975.

Rob himself worked for his parents at the age of 14, took food technology at Lady Manners School and headed off to Manchester Metropolitan University to study a degree in hospitality and management.

A graduate scheme took him to London, and then it was on to Bristol and Newcastle, where he managed a large nightclub at the age of 25 and was in charge of 200 staff, but admits to being "burned out" at the end of it.

Rob took to cruise ships for two years, which he said was "hard work but I saw some amazing places", before his next stop was as general manager at The Pitcher and Piano in Nottingham, where he says he created 160% growth before heading to The Farmhouse Hotel at Mackworth, near Derby, for more than three years.

But gradually the idea of being his own boss and forming his own hospitality company, Longbow Venues, began to take root.

Now, Rob has no fewer than five hospitality venues on his books that he has acquired in the past five years - renovating and reinventing each of them with a sixth on the way which is arguably one of his biggest challenges so far, converting the former Royal Bank of Scotland in Bakewell into The Charleston, which he is hoping will open in late January.