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The book launch with, from left: Garry Hawkes, Nick Drabble and Howard Colliver


Garry Hawkes with his daughter Claire Jones


“Given that it was the middle of the night, all our staff would have been in their sleeping quarters”


to the official memorial service, there were several other individual gatherings which we tried to attend. The resolution of pensions and compensations was extremely complicated and took time to resolve. The situation was not helped by the com- plicated marital relationships of our offshore personnel. By the end of the process, I felt


About Garry Hawkes


Garry Hawkes grew up in post-war Yorkshire and began his hospitality career with Edward R Barnet & Co in 1960, working his way up the ladder to become a director with THF. He joined catering company Gardner Merchant in 1963 after National Service in the RAF and became north-east regional manager and then managing director in 1978. In 1997 he became chairman, when the company was the biggest contract catering company in the UK. Gardner Merchant’s owner,


Trusthouse Forte, sold the company to Sodexo in 1994


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for £760m, with Hawkes leading the negotiations behind the deal. Hawkes was a pivotal figure


in contract catering, with Sir Rocco Forte describing him as a “charismatic leader” with a “great sensitivity for people”. Bill Toner, chief executive of


CH&Co, cites Hawkes as one of the strongest influences on his career, while Bob Cotton, former colleague, government advisor and chief executive of the British Hospitality Association (now UKHospitality), recalls many occasions when Hawkes spent time meeting clients, visiting


catering units, chatting to the people working there and making them feel truly valued. He says: “As a leader, he made you feel special. He could build a multi-talented motivated team, aligning it to a successful business. Few have the skill to do this effectively.” Hawkes received a CBE in 1998 for his services to business. He was knighted in 2009 for his contribution to vocational training and business as president of independent education foundation Edge, which founded the Edge Hotel School in Colchester.


22 March 2024 | The Caterer | 33


deeply depressed. Dealing with mass death is not easy. Bringing together a team of profes- sional human resource experts helped. One hundred and sixty-seven men died on


Piper Alpha. Sixty-one workers managed to escape and survived. Thirty bodies were never recovered. The total insured loss was about £1.7b, making it one of the costliest man-made catastrophes ever. We really felt the substantial loss of the


Gardner Merchant personnel who died. The horror of their deaths in the middle of the night, in the middle of the North Sea, sur- rounded by fire and explosion cannot be imag- ined. I was thankful that we had the resource to cope and care.


Taken from Meals, Deals and Quangos – the Life of Sir Garry Hawkes CBE (Impress, £25)


PHOTOS: LIA VITTONE PHOTOGRAPHY; SHUTTERSTOCK/ANASTAS_STYLES


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