That was in 1988. Derek initially started out in Galway where he covered the West as a relief rep. From there he was to move onto Athlone, Wexford and Dublin, before taking his biggest jump yet – half way across the world! "In 1997 I moved to the Indian Ocean at the Seychelles Brewery where I worked in brand development. Fundamentally I was there to launch a new beer. From there I went to the Middle East where we were promoting Guinness in cans. I came back in 1998 and worked from the East Coast in the packaged beer department, which meant mostly working with Off Licences and such." After a move to Waterford in 2001, Derek stayed three more years before taking up the company on a redundancy plan. It was, he says, the right time to try something new.

"They (Diageo) were trying to get people out of production, but they were told they would have to offer the redundancy plan to people in sales and management also. I gave it some serious thought and came to the conclusion that after 17 years it was time to try something new. I went to Port Elizabeth in South Africa for six months where I learned to fly and got my private pilots licence. I don't get the opportunity to fly as much since getting back to Ireland though – it's quite expensive and the weather isn't really suited to it."

So what tempted Derek back home? "It was the opportunity to team up with my father at the Bull McCabe's. Howard was originally in business with two other partners but they were looking to exit and I then had the opportunity to get involved. My fathers been there for 10 years now, since day one. The quality stamp that the Bull McCabe's enjoys now is all down to him really. He's the one that has made the pub the success that it is today."

But neither Derek nor Howard are preparing to rest on their laurels. "Ireland has undertaken a serious cultural change in recent years in terms of both eating and drinking and as publicans we've got to keep the finger on the pulse. Change is really the only constant," he asserts.

"Food is now a huge part of the business, and whereas four years ago beer was a much greater percentage of the business, nowadays we couldn't function as a stand-alone bar. We have to discern what it is the people want. We've got to offer them convenience, because that's what people are willing to pay for. For example, we run a mini-bus service on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays – because gone are the days when you could just open your doors and people would walk in. We have to make it easy for people and we have to keep getting better."

Comments (0) »

Show/Hide comment form

Name

Email

Title

Comment

Write the displayed characters

Add Comment