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Mark left his home town of Brighton to study


economics at Loughborough University. His first job was running a racquet centre and golf club. He joined the Holland Group three years ago


after responding to an advert in The Caterer to run a “concoction of different businesses under one heading.” “It attracted me because it was a mixture of all of the


sorts of things I’ve done individually in the past. “I’ve run everything from golf clubs to sports clubs to


holiday parks to hotels and restaurants to this set up.” Combining all of his skills to take on the Holland Group was a challenge Mark couldn’t resist. But the nature of the hospitality


industry has since changed beyond recognition. “The whole way of working and


culture of being an employer now is different to what it was, even three years ago,” he said. “It’s way harder now. Everyone is feeling the


pressures of society more than ever which translates itself to pressure on your staff, whether it’s in the workplace or out of the workplace. “The pressure on visitors is greater as they put


pressure on themselves to have enjoyable leisure time. No-one is relaxed any more and that translates itself to the way we manage people, guests and everything about the business. “And with everything else going on in the world - whether it’s Brexit, wars or shortages - it adds to the difficulties of being certain of even what you are doing on a day-to-day basis. There’s no consistency in anything.” The Covid pandemic played a part in the changes although thankfully the Holland Group pretty much sailed through the crisis. “We were very lucky. Rishi Sunak, bless him, it


almost felt at times like he was thinking about us, just the Holland Group, because everything he did - the furlough scheme, the rent relief, the grant schemes, the VAT cut, all of that - absolutely everything played into our hands.” It was after the shutdown rules began to relax that a


“The numbers of people who didn’t


shift in the status quo was revealed. “The whole way of working and the whole culture of being an employer became different,” said Mark “Lockdown gave people the chance to think “I quite enjoy working from home, or not working in the evenings, or seeing my family a bit more.” “The numbers of people who


return hit us as much as it hit everybody.


didn’t return hit us as much as it hit everybody. “Combine that with Brexit and the


Eastern Europeans not feeling welcome and not returning, that was the start of it all really.”


Mark says an important part of his job today is


to provide all-round support for staff including turning many of the group’s holiday lets over to staff accommodation. “We’ve got 35 staff in the town, all of them dealing with the day-to-day pressures of the cost of living, accommodation, families and everything else,” he explained.


“I spend more of my time thinking about that side of it than actually running a business. “They need more and more. They need certainty of


employment year round. The old model of hospitality was you did all the hours under the sun in the summer time and then either you’re let go or you do very few hours in the winter time. “That’s not fair. I think the Covid period has made people realise that that’s not the way to live your life. I’ve seen that so we now offer year round contracts.


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