‘I bought a pub having never pulled a pint. Now I’ve got a empire of them’

This week we’re chatting with Rob Star, 45, who owns a pub empire in London, all called The Star.

The biggest site is The Star by Liverpool Street, which has just opened seven karaoke rooms – and it makes sense, as Rob has always loved clubbing, and if it hadn’t been for a cash flow issue, he’d have invested in clubs over pubs.

He bought his first pub having never even poured a pint, and was a naïve to say the least – but decades on he’s now an expert in the trade, and credits his partying days with helping him do it.

Here’s how he made it.

Hey Rob. How did you get into the pub industry?

I nearly bought a nightclub called The Rhythm Factory in the early 2000s with my friend Richard, but the deal fell through and he went off travelling.

I couldn’t afford a nightclub without his money, so had to settle for buying a pub with a late license – The Star of Bethnal Green (which at the time was called The Pleasure Unit).

I’d never pulled a pint, so operationally I didn’t have a clue what to do, but I was putting on some pretty big warehouse parties across East London at the time, so I knew I could book great bands and DJs to play.

I also had a pretty big database of movers and shakers to invite down, which created a good word of mouth buzz.

How hard was it to set up your first pub?

I was very naive when I got my first pub.

A lot of more experienced operators than myself had looked at the pub before I bought it – most had decided that it was too small, needed too much work doing to it and the area was still unproven… not a great combination!

It needed someone like me with absolutely no experience, tons of naivety, with a can-do attitude, to come in and make it happen.

It wasn’t all plain sailing though, we ran out of money pretty quickly during the refurb, so I had to beg, steal and borrow all of the furniture.

I then had to wait about 12 months before I could afford to put a kitchen in.

What training or experience had you done to help you build a pub empire?

I spent a lot of time studying businesses, looking at how people had grown their businesses from the ground up.

I went on lots of courses and seminars specifically focused on growing small companies, learning about the pitfalls and studying other industries (not just hospitality), to see if there were other ideas that could help me to build my pub business.

Do you think being a partygoer was key in establishing yourself in this trade?

Yes, 100% – a lot of the contacts that I made from my early days of partying have helped me out on my journey.

It’s quite a small industry, so you tend to make a lot of friends for life on the dancefloor and very often these become the people that you do business with.

It also means that people know I’m in this business because I love it – I started my journey dropping flyers off at record shops in Soho and have done my time handing out flyers outside clubs and on the streets of Ibiza.

What’s the biggest change you’ve seen from the 90s until now in your field?

The way people go out has changed considerably – when I moved to London in the mid 90s, you could go to a nightclub and listen to world class DJs every night of the week, we ruled the world in clubbing.

There were very few late opening bars or pubs, the late night economy was all night club-led and I think the gentrification of large areas of the City has played a big part in killing club culture.

What do you love most about your job?

Sitting in the pub on a sunny day with my mates and having a cold pint – The Star by Hackney Downs is perfect this time of year, as you can watch the sunset over the park.

That’s my office for the day and technically I’m at work, there’s not many better jobs than that.

What do you dislike the most?

The bureaucracy that comes with running licensed venues, there is so much red tape – all of which comes at a cost and ultimately affects your bottom line.

As with every business at the moment, our margins are getting squeezed from all angles and unnecessary compliance, taxes and administrative costs do not help small businesses.

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