Rising operational and technical management star joins expanding Avenue9 hospitality IT solutions consultants’ team

One of the UK hotel and catering industry's rising operational and technical management stars, Phil Brown, has joined rapidly expanding hospitality IT solutions specialists, Avenue9, as a Hospitality Consultant. He was formerly Area Operations Manager for the 12-strong Bath Ales retail estate, encompassing five different concepts – ranging from the Gordito charcuterie bar and Beerd craft beer and pizza bar in Bristol, to the Graze Bar, Brasserie and Chop House in Cirencester.

Brown brings twenty years' operational and technical experience to Avenue9 – including time as General Manager for Mitchells and Butler's Premium Country Dining Group, and eight years with Malmaison/Hotel du Vin. Whilst at the latter, he spent two years as the company's IT Commercial Liaison Manager, which took in project managing the opening of five hotels and the successful delivery of IT projects. He was also Deputy General Manager of the Hotel du Vin, Harrogate. In addition, from 2008 to 2010, he was Consultant/Project Manager for PRB Projects – working on assignments ranging from a multitude of hotel openings and team training, to business development and operational practices.

Commenting on the appointment, Avenue9 Managing Director Kevin Edwards said: "We are delighted to welcome such an experienced and dynamic hospitality industry practitioner as Phil, to our growing team of Hospitality Consultants. One of Avenue9's great strengths and priority concerns is fully understanding our clients' hospitality businesses; and to do this, it is vitally important to employ Hospitality Consultants such as Phillip – who have the breadth of technical and operational experience, as well as the vision and personality – to fulfil this objective.

"Phil has joined us at a very exciting time of growth for Avenue9 – with Gleneagles recently joining our ever growing portfolio of clients that currently includes: De Vere Village Hotels, Shire Hotels & Spas, The Hotel Collection, and the independently owned Crieff Hydro in Perthshire. Our expert knowledge of delivering business systems is in great demand as the industry seeks to gain advantage through prudent technology investment."

Newcastle-upon-Tyne based Avenue9 is a highly experienced IT solutions delivery company – specially designed to take the fear out of IT systems management in the hospitality and leisure industry through a clearly defined, seamless and independent bespoke approach to solving client IT challenges. In June 2014, following a soft launch, it was officially unveiled across the UK and overseas to all sizes of operation.

About Avenue9 

Formerly part of the highly reputed Claritas Solutions Group of Companies, Avenue9 was the focus of a management buyout in December 2013 by former Claritas employees Kevin Edwards and Philippa Witheat.

Based on their extensive industry experience and market knowledge, the new company's Managing Director Kevin Edwards and Sales and Marketing Director Philippa Witheat identified a key challenge common to many hospitality and leisure Finance and IT directors – namely, the need for a seamless and independent approach to managing a multitude of vendor relationships and disparate systems, often inappropriate to the nature of many hospitality and leisure operations.

Avenue9 have, and are currently involved in, the following types of projects:

• PMS (Property Management Systems) and EPoS (Electronic Point of Sale) rollouts (consultancy, RFP - Requests For Proposals - delivery, hosting)
• PCI compliance – both technical and operational consultancy
• Various network solutions
• New-build properties
• General consultancy and IT health checks
• Technical support
• Contract negotiation
• Brand development and website hosting