WOW, this week marks 2 years of our wonderful New World journey. We’re celebrating by taking a look back on our team’s successes over the past year, along with a couple crates of cupcakes!

We wouldn’t be where we are without the dedication and determination of our teams, who give their all, flying the New World flag high. From late nights to early starts, kind hearts and creative minds, group motivation and team spirit, the foundations are and always be, our people.

So, what have we been up to? Well…

Our Marketing and Creative teams have bought to life two new brand concepts; The Florist and The Canal House, along with six new sites, taking us to a total of 22 across the UK. They also developed eight new websites and launched a popular new gift card system, plus, 56 new menus developed throughout the year. NWTC’s Head of Marketing, Stephanie Lloyd said “2017/18 marked a significant year of growth for Marketing and Creative! The team grew from 4 to 10 taking 90% of brand, digital and design work in-house. We’re excited for what this next year holds!”

As well as designing and project managing the new openings, our Property department completed over 20 internal refurbishments. “Extra, extra read all about it”, they wouldn’t like to brag but The Florist was named ‘most picturesque restaurant’ in the UK by the Daily Mail all thanks to their vision and delivery!

Speaking of extra… we introduced our new Marvellous Book of Benefits to offer an abundance of incentives like; staff food, education subsidies, paid day volunteering and updated maternity and paternity benefits, just to name a few! We also updated our appraisal processes, to give our teams clear guidance on their pathway to success because recognising individual talent is the future of NWTC. From our sites, we welcomed 237 new team members to the New World family with over 75 internal promotions and counting!

As the world recognised 2017 as ‘The year of the Woman’ and female empowerment, some of our female team members were doing just that, representing the ladies. Natasha Waterfield become our HR Director and the first female on the NWTC Board, plus, we welcomed Lauren Soderberg as the first female Beer Guru who featured in the article “The Female ground breakers of 2017” by The Independent, alongside international athletes, business women and philanthropists, what an achievement!

We also picked up a few awards along the way too; being named 7th best company to work for by The Sunday Times, as well as, taking away 4 wins at The Publican Awards including ‘Best Pub Employer’, ‘Business Leader of the Year’, ‘Best Operations Team’ and ‘Best Drinks Offer’. Our Operations Director “Leading an award-winning Operations team fills me with pride every day, we’ve taken a huge step forward this year in operations with people and technology and there are so many exciting projects to come”. However, we can't forget the lovely surprise of our CEO Chris Hill being named ‘Business Leader of the Year’ and taking home the title of ‘Trailblazer of the Year’ at 2018 Casual Dining Restaurant & Pub awards… we never doubted him.

What’s more, TRIBES broke records in 2017/18 and had “the best year yet” according to our TRIBES elder, Tamara “the national events bring so much incredible energy!! Getting everyone together is always my highlight”. 841 of our teams took part in 23 national & local TRIBES events over the year, not to mention, sharing over 2,897 posts on our very own TRIBES app. At the annual TRIBES party, we saw Orbiter win the top spot, gaining those sought after 2 days extra paid holiday! Plus, the addition of our company mascot ‘Chief’ who is arguably the most loved dog on Earth, with 1300 adoring fans!

Our teams are real-life heroes who’ve been working hard at challenges and events, collectively fundraising over £110,000 for our national charity, Barnardo’s and local ones, too! New World doesn’t stop giving there, through our new ‘Grow With Us' pledge, we have 6 greenhouses under construction with the help of our NWTC Good Eggs. Talking of which, ‘Good Eggs’ is our new charity ambassador scheme, born out of this past year. Our Good Eggs proactively support local communities and charities close to their team’s hearts!

New World takes us on an adventure every day but with our kind-hearted crew onboard, we can not sink. Our sails are high, the wind is in our favour and we’re excited to see what’s on the horizon for next year.