Top 100: Bill Toner, CH&Co Group

Overall ranking: 10 (58 in 2012)
Foodservice ranking: 2 (8 in 2012)

Snapshot
Bill Toner is chief executive of CH&Co, a catering heavyweight and the ultimate comeback kid. Having originally trained as a chef, Toner rose through the ranks at Gardner Merchant to become managing director until its sale to Sodexo in 2000, when he joined Aramark as chief executive. Here, he oversaw the growth of the business from £150m to £400m in annual turnover in five years and bagged himself the Foodservice Caterer of the Year Catey in the process. His route to chief executive of CH&Co Group took him from Aramark via Host and a number of mergers and consolidations. Today CH&Co Group has a turnover of £300m, caters at 750 sites across the UK and Ireland, and employs 6,200 people.

What we think Toner made a graceful exit from Aramark in 2005 following a change of leadership at the US parent company. But few people expected his supposed early retirement to last, and rumours of Toner joining entrepreneur Jerry Brand's Host repeatedly surfaced.

After five years of gardening leave he did just that, coming on board as a non-executive chairman. Within a year he and Brand had swapped roles and, with Toner in charge, it was full steam ahead. M&As were the driving force behind swift expansion and the most significant deals were with Catermasters in 2014 to form HCM Group, and with CH&Co in 2015, which saw the creation of CH&Co Group.

Further market consolidation followed with H+J, the Brookwood Partnership, ABsolutely Catering, Harbour & Jones (now H+J) and the Concerto Group among the boutique independents and major players to join the fold.

The strategy of buying market share to scale up the business has the added advantage of taking competition out of the market, and with startup costs in catering far higher than they used to be, there will be fewer new players coming in to fill the void. This is something of which a savvy operator such as Toner is well aware.

The challenge will be what to do with all the different brands and big-hitting catering personalities that now exist in CH&Co. To date, Toner's integration of businesses and people appears successful, but the general expectation must surely be that a shake-up of some sort is on the horizon.

CH&Co's founders Robyn and Tim Jones led a major rebranding exercise in 2010 that saw the creation of six distinct business entities (Charlton House, Lusso, Ampersand, Chester Boyd, Via 360 and It's the Agency), all under the CH&Co umbrella. Could 2018 herald a similar move?

New and retained business worth £58m was secured by September 2017, and Toner has been busy surrounding himself with the right people to continue this winning streak, with key appointments across the business and a new partnership with chef Mark Sargeant.

With the number of businesses left to buy dwindling fast, Toner has ensured CH&Co is well positioned for organic growth.

Further information
CH&Co Group merges with Concerto Group, taking its turnover to £300m >>

CH&Co Group unveils partnership with chef Mark Sargeant >>

CH&Co Group and Harbour & Jones merge >>