STONEGATE GROUP
As the largest pub company in the UK, Stonegate Group faces unique challenges in implementing technology across its diverse estate. The company has undergone significant growth, expanding from around 500 sites when Ashlie joined nine years ago following multiple acquisitions, the most notable of which, Ei Group taking the group to over 4,500 sites.
Ashlie’ s role has evolved considerably during her tenure. She began as the company’ s first business analyst, coming from a fintech background at Currency Cloud in London, and has seen her responsibilities grow alongside the business itself.
“ My role grew organically with the business, moving from business analyst to programme management,” Ashlie explains.“ When we merged with the Ei Group, I led the integration of the two technology stacks, which was challenging but gave us the opportunity to cherry pick the best elements from both businesses.”
The digital transformation journey at Stonegate has accelerated dramatically in recent years, with the global pandemic forcing rapid adoption of technologies that had previously been considered optional.
“ Booking capability is a perfect example,” Ashlie explains.“ We had been using the Access Collins platform in our higher volume sites, but suddenly needed to deploy it across our entire estate immediately.”
This urgent need to adapt to changing guest behaviours marked the beginning of Stonegate’ s transformation, but the true catalyst came with new leadership.
The arrival of CEO David McDowall, along with the company’ s first-ever Chief Information Officer, Guy Tambling, brought fresh perspectives to the business.
“ They’ re applying retail principles to hospitality operations,” Ashlie says.“ Guy’ s retail background with TFG Limited and his experience in IT and e-commerce has brought a completely different perspective to our business.”
The challenges of transformation in hospitality For Stonegate, the technological challenges are multifaceted due to the company’ s unique structure.
“ It’ s a really exciting time to be in technology, more so in hospitality, because there’ s so much to go after”
ASHLIE THURSTON, HEAD OF IT AND DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION, STONEGATE GROUP aimagazine. com 151