Ben Page-Phillips

Current

• Restaurant Consultant at Edible Management
• Managing Director at Nincomsoup Ltd

Past

• Manager at Corney & Barrow Ltd
• Manager at Oddbins Ltd

Education

• Norwich City College

Connections

7 connections

Industry

Hospitality

Ben Page-Phillips’s Summary

My inspiration and passion for food started early thanks to my Mother's cooking. After some kitchen experience in Santa Fe, New Mexico I took on a chef's apprenticeship with Churchill College, the largest conference catering college in Cambridge where I gained experience with industrial catering equipment and high volume production. On graduating I decided to study hospitality management full time at Norwich. During my year in industry at the Hilton I became interested in wine and on graduating joined the wine trade with Oddbins on their graduate management training program. I went on to manage a number of their London wine shops before taking a year out to tour the vineyards of Australia. When I returned to the UK I managed Corney & Barrow's London fine wine shop for 3 years before setting up my own company, Nincomsoup, a casual diner specialising in global soups, founded jointly with my brother Tom Page-Phillips. This marked a return to my food roots and presented a new challenge and passion - the art of running a business.

My successes and numerous mistakes led me to form Edible Management, a part time restaurant consultancy business to provide mentoring to new start ups with the objective of removing the initial steep learning curve and avoiding the early mistakes.

Ben Page-Phillips’s Specialties:

Cloud migration and web 2.0 solutions for purchasing, product development, production, payroll, accounting, stock control, collaboration and project management, management training, EPOS solutions. Advocate and trainer of GTD, Zero Inbox and MBWA.

Ben Page-Phillips’s Experience

• Restaurant Consultant

  Edible Management

  (Hospitality industry)

  September 2006 — Present (3 years 4 months)

  Help and advice for new and established hospitality businesses from single operators to multiples. I help equip businesses with smart and inexpensive tools and solutions for success.

• Managing Director

  Nincomsoup Ltd

  (Hospitality industry)

  November 1999 — Present (10 years 2 months)

  Nincomsoup is a casual diner specialising in global soups. I co-founded the company with my brother Tom to provide healthy alternatives to the usual fast food suspects. We now serve more than 2,500 soups per week and have over 100 soup recipes and employ a team of 11 people. Our food is made from scratch in own kitchen, and I'm responsible for developing all the recipes.
  
  My working week is divided between recipe development, business administration and business strategy and development. I liase with the shop manager once a week to discuss operational issues and performance.
  
  Being a big proponent of Web 2.0 I have taken advantage of the advanced features and lower costs that web apps offer and migrated all Nincomsoup desktop apps such as stock control, accounts, payroll, office, email and data storage to the cloud.

• Manager

  Corney & Barrow Ltd

  (Privately Held; 501-1000 employees; Wine and Spirits industry)

  July 1996 — October 1999 (3 years 4 months)

  Corney & Barrow has been an independent wine merchant since 1780 and is home to some of the world's most sought after wines, such as DRC and Petrus. I ran their London fine wine shop in fashionable Notting Hill providing cellaring advice, tutored wine tastings and event services.

• Manager

  Oddbins Ltd

  (Wine and Spirits industry)

  July 1992 — September 1995 (3 years 3 months)

  Oddbins, Wine Merchant of the Year winner several years running has a reputation for innovation, and some of the most informed and enthusiastic staff in the world of wine. I joined Oddbins on their graduate management training program and went on to successfully manage a number of their London wine shops while attending the Wine & Spirit Education Trust. I was rewarded with a trip to Cuba to study cigars for achieving one of the company's highest % increase in sales.

Ben Page-Phillips’s Education

• Norwich City College

  Hospitality Management 1989 — 1992

Additional Information

Ben Page-Phillips’s Interests:

Photography, architecture, independent film, dance and performance art, classical and modern art, world music, gastronomy, baking, dining out, computers Activities: Tennis and racquet sports, walking, climbing, swimming, cycling, roller blading, canoeing, circus skills, kite flying

Ben Page-Phillips’s Contact Settings

Interested In:

• consulting offers
• new ventures
• expertise requests
• reference requests
• getting back in touch