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The Pig's Robin Hutson on legacy, retirement and the key to success
As he steps down, The Pig’s co-founder Robin Hutson is handing the reins to Tom Ross. They chat to Vicky Jessop about all things hotels, retirement and Robert De Niro
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For its legions of dedicated fans, The Pig isn’t a hotel so much as a lifestyle.
“We get a lot of people throughout the year who are returning visitors. They'll move from Pig to Pig,” its founder Robin Hutson tells me.
“They’re very keen to tell you how they've collected the set of Pigs, if you know what I mean. You know: ‘we've been to Bath and we're going to try this one’ and so forth.”
This dedication even extends to opening new branches. “The rush of bookings from our existing database is really substantial. We’ve broken the phone lines and the website and all the rest of it that on occasions when we open up the bookings first thing. Yeah, there's a real commitment from the tribe.”
Isn’t there just. It’s only been 14 years since Robin Hutson launched the first Pig in Brockenhurst, but these days, it’s a booming business boasting nine branches – plus a new Cotswolds and several more in the pipeline.
Boasting a farm to table ethos (plus excellent food), quirky design (from Hutson’s wife and co-founder Judy) and sprawling gardens, they’ve become the go-to countryside destination of choice for London’s fashionable set. But after 14 years in the business, Hutson and Judy are stepping down.
Robin Hutson and wife Judy At The Pig in Harlyn Bay, Cornwall
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It is Hutson’s birthday when we talk – rather appropriately, for a chat that’s all about legacy. With him is Tom Ross, the man who’ll be replacing him. It’s not a retirement, per se – “we don’t say the ‘r’ word,” Hutson jokes – but it’s certainly a stepping down, handing the reins over to a man who has been part of the business almost as long as he has.
Unsurprisingly, they’re very in sync. What makes a Pig hotel a Pig? The pair don’t even hesitate. “It should always feel friendly; welcoming. It shouldn't feel too grand and formal,” Hutson says.
“It's got to make your heart sing when you see it,” Ross adds. “You've got to feel an attraction to that building. You've got to be excited when you first see it because if you don't feel that way when you first see it, the guests don’t feel that way.”
It’s hard to overstate how much of a gamechanger The Pig was when it launched: a mile away from the often-stuffy, stately country manor hotels that dominated the English countryside beforehand. Drawing from Hutson’s experience of running chains like Soho House and Hotel du Vin (which he also co-founded), this was different: fun, irreverent, warm and welcoming.
Ross came onto the scene a few years later. With hotelier parents and experience of working with Hutson (he started out in Hotel du Vin Winchester), he was brought on board as an Operations Director in 2013.
As The Pig went from strength to strength, it spawned its fair share of competitors – or imitators. Hutson cites one person telling him how hoteliers have started saying that they’re “going a bit Pig, or Pigging it up a bit’ – it’s created a certain style.”
However, he’s also quick to stress that he sees it as a compliment.
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“I think you'd be naïve to think that people were copying you and it wasn't – not a challenge, but I think you've constantly got to be evolving. You've constantly got to be looking at what you're doing and making sure you're ahead of the competition, but of course it's a big compliment that people are influenced by what The Pig does.”
The other thing it’s drawn in over the years is a considerable celebrity crowd. Who? “You're on very dangerous ground there,” Hutson laughs. But still: he will say that The Pig near Bath’s proximity to events like, say, Glastonbury, has seen its fair share of headliners come and go.
“We're lucky enough to see some good faces,” he concedes.
With that in mind, are there any celebs the pair would still like to stay over? Penelope Cruz, says Hutson; Ross demurs. “Actually, just meeting just some really interesting people - I'm just as fulfilled by that as seeing someone super famous.”
He then chooses Robert De Niro, before Hutson jumps in. “De Niro stayed over, didn’t it?”
“I served him as well,” Ross adds. Another thing you need to know: the pair stay over at the hotel’s various branches. A lot. “We do get around them,” Hutson says.
Over the last few years, there’s been a slow shift in power. In March 2022, Ross was named managing director; he was confirmed as CEO in 2023 and has been slowly taking over from Hutson ever since.
“There is a pinch me moment of thinking, how lucky I am to be in a position where you are in charge of a business that’s so well set up, just surrounded by great people, it’s in an industry that you love,” he says.
Homegrown Hotels
With Ross at the reins, The Pig’s future looks healthy. After all, in addition to the recent Cotswolds launch, there’s a Pig coming in Stratford, and the pair cite tentative plans to expand north, out of the hotel’s traditional stomping ground south of London.
Does he have plans of his own? “I think the really important part is to maintain what The Pig is all about,” he says. “There's a big reason why it's been a success for so many years and to have the thought that there's some major plan that would change all of that for the better, I think would be dangerous.”
“That said, the eighth and ninth Pigs are different from the first Pig and there always has to be some form of evolution… what does The Pig look like in 20 years’ time? I don't know, but my job is to ensure it gets from here to then in an orderly fashion.”
As for Hutson, he’s got plans of his own. In addition to a few side projects – plus running his hotel Lime Wood, “I'm really looking forward to having a bit more time to myself. I'm a keen fly fisherman, so I intend to do a little bit of that.
“In these last few days, both Judy and I have remarked about some of the little, tiny things that we've got around to doing that we haven’t for the last 10 years or something. 50 years in hospitality is probably like cat years. It's probably three hundred and fifty in a normal situation, so yeah, it’s good to have a little more space in my in my diary.”
