Jinnie found her lunch guests waiting for her in reception and while Paolo popped upstairs to get the twins and Izzy for lunch, Jinnie chatted to them. On his way back, Paolo spoke to the restaurant manager and arranged for them to have two tables; Belinda, Paolo, Izzy and the twins were to be on one table while a hastily assembled interview panel of Jinnie, Alberto, Brian and Brooke were on the second table with Rick and Sue. Jinnie and Belinda whisked Rick and Sue off on a quick guided tour of the hotel, explaining what was new, what was old and what was planned, comparing them to the rendered images. When Rick asked how many rooms there would be when the work was finished, Jinnie said “sixty” but Belinda interjected, “While you were in hospital, we reworked one or two things into the basement and made more space for bedrooms, I think you will find we are up to 72 now.”
Rick asked one or two pertinent questions, including when they were taking over the space occupied by the ship’s chandlers, as that seemed critical to the development. Jinnie explained the problem they had in obtaining the space and Belinda said dismantling work was starting there the next week, moving vans were booked to relocate the chandlers on Wednesday and Thursday. In the coffee shop he saw the queue at the Artisan Sandwiches counter and asked, “Is Artisan Sandwiches part of your business or is it a franchise outlet?” “It’s one of our companies,” answered Jinnie. “The managing director of the division will be joining us for lunch.” Rick nodded sagely.
Everyone else was seated when Jinnie’s party got to the dining room. Jinnie watched as Rick looked around the extended dining room only half of which was in use for lunch and took in the bustle and atmosphere. The restaurant manager, who recognised this new boss, said, “Good afternoon, Dame Jinnie, it’s lovely to have you back with us. The rest of your party is waiting,” before showing them to the table. As the lunch menus were being presented, Jinnie quickly introduced Rick and Sue to Alberto, the Group Chairman, Brian, the Group Financial Director and Brooke the Managing Director of the Fastfood Division. Rick said, “I hope you don’t mind me asking, Jinnie, but where do you sit in this hierarchy?” Jinnie smiled and said, “I am the Group’s Chief Operating Officer.”
Alberto quickly spoke up saying, “I’m sorry but that’s not quite right. At the last board meeting we had a little reshuffle and we recognised we need someone who, as we are growing fast internationally, was tasked with looking at all our divisions and it was decided that it should be you, so you are now Chief Executive Officer. It was felt that we should abolish the COO role and instead have a group Managing Director reporting to you. The general opinion was we should ask Sir Nigel to take on that position, but we wanted to run it past you before making a formal announcement.” “Gosh,” said Jinnie, “this needs a bit of thinking about, but my first thought is that if Nigel is happy to accept the post, I am happy to agree to it.”
Alberto said, “The lunch menu here is completely new, a few of us put our heads together and came up with some lighter dishes and we decided to offer a fixed-price traditional Sunday lunch. I know it’s not very full yet today but the last two Sundays have been manic. I’m not too bothered about the lunchtime trade, we are just about full every evening and when we open all the bedrooms, it’s going to be difficult to offer tables to all the residents when they want them.” “That’s a wonderful problem to have,” said Rick. “Do you turn many tables around for second use?” “At the moment, no,” he replied, “but it is definitely something we will be doing when we need to.”
Jinnie enjoyed her meal, and the service was good. She said to Alberto, “Now I’m back I suppose you will be able to revert to your normal job.” “I hope so,” replied Alberto. “I need to get back into the wife’s good books, she is not very happy with all the time I have been spending here. She wants me to take a week off and take her away. I would love to take her abroad, but the doctor still won’t allow her out of the U.K. She says she would like to go to Bournemouth. I hear it has a wonderful beach, but I’m a bit old for sitting on the beach.” Rick and Sue looked at each other and Rick said, “I can recommend a recently refurbished hotel in Bournemouth.” Jinnie laughed and said, “You are only trying to drum up business.” “True,” said Rick, “but the Supreme is a fine hotel.”
“Now you’ve seen our little business, as an experienced hotelier what do you think of it?” asked Jinnie. “I like it,” said Rick. “The new rooms are fabulous, the plans are interesting, the off-site parking is a novel answer to a problem, this restaurant is excellent. Obviously, the reception is only temporary, but it is efficient, I was watching while I was waiting. The sooner you can get the whole thing finished the better. Now two suggestions, you need to incorporate the coffee shop into the reception and think about offering alcohol there too. I would turn the existing coffee shop into a full-blown Artisan Sandwich shop. I visited the branch in Windsor a while back when we were staying with my brother and it was superb. Now the basement, I like the plan for a basement bar, but I’m not so sure of a big event area. I don’t think you will ever get it past the council. I think the bar is a goer, but the council will cap the numbers who can use it, so put a reasonable number in your planning application. Now, instead of the events space I would suggest a spa and gym, maybe even a pool and/or a business centre. It makes the hotel more acceptable to the big spenders. A pop group playing in the basement may sell a lot of pints, but you will make more money out of fancy spa treatments and selling potions to rich old ladies going to New York on the Queen Mary 2.”
Jinnie suddenly saw he was right, a couple of dozen rich cruise suite customers and businessmen paying to hire a secretary for a day, or getting a business letter typed up, were a much better and easier income source than hundreds of poor students the event space was aimed at. That convinced her Rick was their man. She looked at Brian and he nodded yes; Brooke did the same and finally Alberto smiled widely and mouthed yes. Jinnie turned to Rick and said, “I know you are not tremendously happy with your current employer so what would you say if we offered you the position of General Manager of this hotel and restaurant, it would be everything on site except what is currently the coffee shop. This morning, I issued the order to turn it into an Artisan Sandwich shop so it will fall under Brooke’s domain. The coffee shop is to move to the reception area, and I would need to take more advice on whether we could get a license to sell alcohol there, but I like the idea.”
“Oh, I nearly forgot,” continued Jinnie. “If you take the job, we can offer Sue the Head of House Keeping position. Now, some other things that may swing it for you. I haven’t mentioned it, but we plan this to be our first hotel in a chain. At the moment this is a standalone operation, and you would oversee it reporting directly to me. When we open more hotels, the idea is we will form a new company to run the division and that means you will be the leading contender to be the Group Managing Director. Talk to Brooke, she will tell you we like to promote from inside the organisation. I don’t know what you are earning, we will have to talk about remuneration, but we will better your current wage. You will be eligible for both the non-contributory management pension fund and the management bonus scheme. The position comes with a company car. We have an agreement with Citroen, and you would be at the C5 level. If you don’t want to give us an answer before talking it over with your wife, please take your time. I know you have my mobile number, just ring me when you’re ready to say yes or no.”
It was Ricks turn to look at his wife who smiled back and said “yes”. Rick turned to Jinnie and said, “Before I give you my answer can you answer me a couple of questions? At the moment no one has actually said who the company is, all I know is that you own this hotel and the Artisan Sandwich chain. Please tell me a little more about the ‘group’ you are talking about.” “OK,” replied Jinnie, “let’s see if I can make this not too complicated. The group is the Trattoria Trevi (Group) Limited. We own wholly or partially several companies who are our divisions. The original group was Trattoria Trevi (Restaurants) Limited, and they now own eight or nine Trattoria Trevi Restaurants around the country with more under development or planned. Then we own 50% of DKL Limited they own I believe it to be up to 16 now dark kitchen sites around the country, each site has 12, or a few six, individual takeaway kitchens that prepare and deliver meals. The chances are if you have ever phoned up for a SuperBurger delivery or a Trattoria Trevi delivery it will have come from one of our kitchens.
Then we own Trattoria Trevi (Kitchen Services) they operate kitchens on behalf of smaller companies, for example around the country we operate dark kitchens for several pizza companies, a Greek restaurant chain and at least a couple of Chinese restaurants. Then there is Brooke’s Trattoria Trevi (Fastfood) Limited division. They have 18 Artisan Sandwich shops and growing at one a month, and two AuntyJoJo’s Chicken Shacks here in the U.K. Now it gets a bit messy, the Fastfood Division owns 100% of Trattoria Trevi (Caribbean) Limited a Barbados company that owns 50% of AuntyJoJo’s (Operations) Barbados. They run eight Aunty JoJo’s branches in Barbados and growing plus two each in St Lucia and Grenada, and at least 16 in Trinidad but that is growing at 2 a month and I have lost count, maybe Brooke knows the current count.”
“That’s not all, we also own the TT Continental, a fine dining restaurant in Bridgetown, Barbados. It currently falls under Trattoria Trevi (Caribbean) but I think we need to look at that. I want to open up in Jamaica next and that holding structure will need revisiting when we open more TT Continentals in, say, Jamaica and Trinidad. At the moment it is convenient to have the one restaurant under (Caribbean) Limited as they have offices in Bridgetown but it’s going to have to change.”
“Now, we just test-launched a new chain of smaller restaurants to be called ‘Sybaritic’ explained Jinnie. “The first was opened when I was in hospital in Bridgetown, and I have yet to see it or have any official reports, but I was told it was doing well. Then we have a 50% holding in TT (Events) Limited. They put on weddings, engagements and house parties. They specialise in enormous Christmas parties for companies, either privately or at places like the XL Arena, the National Exhibition Centre or a Sussex vineyard. They make use of our Dark Kitchens for the catering. I think that’s it,” said Jinnie. “You didn’t mention that DKL was opening kitchens in Barbados and owns 90% of the business, so that means we effectively own 45%,” added Brian.
“I really had no idea that I was dealing with Trattoria Trevi, I think everyone in the restaurant trade knows and admires the name,” said Rick, “and I had no idea how quickly you are growing the business in the Caribbean. I would be delighted to join such an illustrious organisation.”
***
After lunch, Rick said he and Sue would take a cab to the station and as he shook hands with all the directors, he said to Jinnie, “I will put my resignation in tomorrow morning. I still have two weeks’ holiday to come, so could I start two weeks on Monday.” Jinnie said, “The sooner the better. I will instruct HR to make the formal job offer on Monday and send you a contract of employment. If you ring me tomorrow afternoon, I will be home by then and we can discuss the final details like exact salary and how the bonus scheme works.”
Belinda suggested that she and Jinnie should go over to look at the Shamrock Quay warehouse, and Jinnie jumped at the idea. As it was a pleasant afternoon, Paolo and Izzy took the twins to Mayflower Park where they could play and watch the four cruise ships in port that day sail. Belinda drove Jinnie the few miles to the nearly complete building and unlocked the main entrance as it was Saturday, and no work was taking place. Belinda commented, “It’s nice not to have anyone in today doing last-minute jobs, we are so close to being finished. I walked the chandlers’ directors around yesterday and I expected them to find fault, but nothing. The only comment was, ‘It is just like the render,’ I couldn’t help saying, ‘That’s what it’s supposed to be.’ After the tour the MD thanked me and said it was far better than he expected.”
Belinda continued, “Nigel has a team ready to document the contents and computerise it. In fact, his is just about the last system to go in. As you know we can’t put the computers in before we are substantially finished and that is being done on Monday.” Jinnie had to admit the glass curtain wall made the project. She had only seen the building before in photos with a massive roller shutter, but with acres of glass in its place it looked fabulous. Jinnie noticed the new signage included a huge ‘Macauley’s Yacht Chandeliers.’
Belinda showed Jinnie round and explained the difference between all the types of racking and shelving that had been installed. By the time they had finished Jinnie thought she had an idea of the shelving for ‘smalls’, the lightweight racking, heavyweight racking and the pallet racking. She was more at home in the offices and the glazed offices with oak doors looked good and new oak office furniture was already in each office. Jinnie asked, “Did we include for new furniture?” “No,” answered Belinda. “But the MD said he didn’t want to spoil the ship and ordered this as an extra.”
The new custom-made counter was smart, and Jinnie loved the coffee corner with its numerous brightly coloured tub chairs and coffee tables. Belinda told Jinnie, “I’m very happy with this project. I always like these industrial jobs; we haven’t been getting enough of them recently. It has been a long run of office jobs, it’s nice to show our flexibility. I have a reporter from one of the big construction magazines to show round on Monday and a decent write-up can’t do us any harm. Do you mind if I talk to him about the whole Ennios project?” “Not at all,” said Jinnie. “I love a bit of free publicity.”
***
As the twins had eaten a big lunch, there was no point in including them in the plans for dinner so Izzy suggested tea in the coffee shop would be ideal for them. So, while the adults enjoyed a cup of tea, the twins tucked into ham sandwiches, chocolate cake and orange juice. After which everyone headed for their rooms where the twins watched a children’s channel until Izzy announced it was bedtime time. With the twins tucked up and sleeping peacefully, Paolo, Jinnie and Izzy had a pre-dinner drink in Jinnie and Paolo’s suite.
Jinnie showed them a new app on her phone. A cheap dumb phone left in the twin’s room acted like a listening device and notified the app if any noises occurred in the twin’s room. Jinnie asked if it was possible to download the app to her phone as well and that was quickly done. With one last check on the twins, who were sleeping peacefully, the adults headed to the restaurant for dinner. As they entered, the Restaurant Manager and the Maître‘d were in conversation but immediately broke off and hurried to seat the trio who had been given an excellent table with a view over the very full restaurant. Jinnie said to the manager, “This is a bit busier than lunchtime.” “Definitely,” he replied, “we could have filled the restaurant twice over this evening. In fact, we are planning to use some of the early diners’ tables twice tonight. We always had a reputation for good food and service, but Alberto’s tweaks have given us a huge lift.”
Jinnie cast her eye over the menu and immediately spotted that fillet steak was now on offer. Jinnie knew this was one of Alberto’s ‘tweaks,’ he knew that despite its hefty price it always sold well and offered a good margin. The layout of the menu had changed and there were a couple of other new dishes which showed Alberto’s influence to anyone who knew his style. They all ordered soup of one sort or another as their starter but while Jinnie and Izzy both went for lamb cutlets, Paolo had the fillet steak commenting that when it was on a menu it was too good to miss. Immediately the order had been taken, Izzy went to check on the twins saying, “This is the app’s first outing, I really want to make sure it works.”
Izzy was back before the soup was served and said, “Sleeping like babies.” The food and service were good. Jinnie thought, ‘This is better than last time I ate here, is it because they are entertaining the boss or is it a genuine improvement?’ By the time Jinnie was drinking her Jamaica Blue Mountain coffee accompanied by mint crisp chocolates, she was sure it was a general improvement as she had been watching surrounding tables. As they got up to leave, the Maître‘d bustled over and said, “I hope you enjoyed your meal.” “Yes, thank you,” answered Jinnie. “I think I can speak for all of us, it was excellent.”
When Jinnie looked in on the twins they looked like they hadn’t moved an inch since going to bed. Jinnie whispered, “Good night my darlings, you don’t know how much I missed you,” before closing the interconnecting door.
***
After breakfast in a very empty restaurant, Paolo called for the Lexus, and it was delivered to the main entrance within five minutes. Jinnie noticed it had been vacuumed, washed and polished just as she had suggested in her vision for the hotel. Someone had been listening. The journey to Hadley was uneventful and as they turned onto the drive, Jinnie caught sight of Larry leaving his place on the internal windowsill and she knew he would be waiting for her as soon as the front door was opened. Jinnie also noted her father’s car was parked over by the garage.
Jinnie opened the front door while Izzy got the twins out of their booster seats and Paolo got the luggage out of the boot. Stepping over half a dozen letters she bent down and scooped up Larry who was purring loudly. Holding him closely she said, “Hello Larry, it’s lovely to see you again in person.” Larry meowed loudly and rubbed his head against her cheek. Jinnie put Larry down and moved out of the doorway to let the others in, and realised she could smell chicken roasting. The twins rushed in and shouting ‘hello’ to Larry raced off in the direction of the kitchen. Next in was Izzy, carrying the twin’s backpacks, who said, “They were moaning they were hungry so I told them they could have a biscuit.”
Paolo arrived pulling a wheeled suitcase with one hand and holding a carry-on bag in the other. He dumped them in the hall and said, “I’ll be back in a moment with the others,” and turned back to the car. The twins emerged from the kitchen each holding a chocolate-covered caramel wafer closely followed by their grandmother. Millie announced, “Granny says she is making you a welcome home dinner, roast chicken, roast potatoes and pigs in blankets.” Willie continued, “We like pigs in blankets; we want three each.” Mrs Walsh said, “I’m sorry but I came in the back door, and I didn’t think to look to see if there was any post. Just look at Larry sat on that big envelope.” At that instant the word ‘important’ flashed into Jinnie’s mind and she moved to pick up ‘Larry’s’ letter. Larry saw her coming and moved to one side.
Mrs Walsh said, “I’ve got things to do in your kitchen, you go and open the post. Then can you lay the table for eight. Your Dad’s gone to collect Sir Nigel; he has been on the phone to us every day since he saw you in hospital. He seems to have had a private line to the ward sister. We knew you were going to be OK when you got a coffee machine!” Paolo said, “I’ll put some wine in the fridge.” Mrs Walsh said, “Don’t bother, Nigel said he would bring it, and you know he only likes the very best. He asked what we were having so he could pair it.”
Jinnie sat down on the sofa, Larry laid his head on the lap, she picked up the A4 envelope that Larry had sat on. Turning it over she saw it was franked ‘Mann, Coombes and Company’ and her heart jumped. Slitting it open with her second-best letter opener, her best one, a Christmas present from the twins, was in the garden office, there was a wad of paperwork and a covering letter. The letter explained that the Oldies’ wills had now been granted probate and all outstanding taxes and charges had been settled. The attached documents were the draft paperwork for the twin’s trust funds for her to peruse. The letter explained that the two documents were identical, except for the children’s names, and as per the bequest in the wills the trust was to last until the twins were 18. However, with the written permission of the trustees, money could be withdrawn from the trusts for educational purposes.
Jinnie sighed and continued with the letter, the final paragraph asked if she could make an appointment to see Mr Mann as soon as possible so that the bequests in the will could be finalised and her inheritance transferred to her account. It also asked if Jinnie would bring her passport to the meeting and two independent witnesses to witness her signature, not a family member. Jinnie passed the letter to Paolo, and he read it through in silence. Finally putting it aside, he said, “They don’t mention how much you and the twins are to receive.” “I think they have to disclose all their accounts if as a beneficiary I ask, but I expect they will offer a copy of the accounts at the meeting,” replied Jinnie.
“Who will you ask to be your witnesses?” asked Paolo. “Well, Nigel knows a bit of the story so probably him. But I haven’t told anyone else, I didn’t want to jinx things. I think I should tell Mum and Dad over lunch, but I can’t ask them. What do you think of me asking Izzy, she is nearly family?” “I can’t think of anyone better,” answered Paolo.
Sir Nigel and Mr Walsh turned up clutching three bottles of what Paolo said was an excellent Chardonnay and although it was already cold Paolo popped it into the fridge. He whispered to Jinnie, “When you build that new kitchen with your inheritance can I request a proper wine fridge and one of the massive double-door American fridges with a chilled water and ice dispenser?” Jinnie laughed and said, “Let’s wait and see if we can afford it.”
Halfway through the delicious roast chicken, just as Jinnie was about to launch into the story of her forthcoming inheritance, Mr Walsh cleared his throat and looking at Jinnie said, “I have some news for you. Your mother and Nigel are aware of this, but we didn’t want to give you anything to worry about until you were better.” Jinnie replied, “Go on.” Mr Walsh continued, “While you were unconscious, the MP for Sir Nigel’s old seat was moved into a hospice and applied for the Chiltern Hundreds. As you know, I had been informally selected as his successor some months ago, so I was adopted as the formal candidate at a meeting of the Finchley and Golders Green branch of the Reform Party and started canvassing immediately. The writ for a bye-election was moved weeks ago and the election is on Thursday. Much to my surprise the party’s private opinion polls puts me 25 points ahead of the Labour candidate. Of course, if I am elected, I will only be a backbencher, but I intend to join a number of the back bench committees.”
Jinnie said, “Oh Dad, I am so pleased for you. Are they counting overnight or the next day?” “I understand,” said Mr Walsh, “the count will be the next day; the local council don’t want to pay overtime to the workers conducting the count. The result is expected about midday on Friday. I hope you can be there; your Mum and your sister will be.” Jinnie answered, “Of course, I wouldn’t miss it, it’s only a pity the twins can’t be there wearing giant rosettes, Friday is a school day.” “Ah but next Friday isn’t,” said Izzy “It’s part of the school Easter holiday.”
As the dessert of apple pie and custard was served, Jinnie said, “Now it’s my turn for an announcement. Only Paolo knows all of this, Nigel knows a bit, but he promised me he wouldn’t tell anyone.” Jinnie explained how she had been left most of estate of the three Oldies and the remainder was going in trust to the twins. “Oh, that’s wonderful darling,” said Mrs Walsh, “I suppose that means you can afford another Christmas cruise.” Paolo spluttered into his wine and Jinnie answered, “Yes, I think so, before I went to Barbados the solicitors indicated that the final estate could be worth about £70 million so that would be £7 million each for the twins and £56 million for me, but there was still a lot of property to value, and they all had several antiques that no one was quite sure of the value of.” Mrs Walsh sat there trying to take in what her daughter was saying. While Mr Walsh simply said, “I don’t believe it,” and Nigel sat smiling.
Jinnie saw Izzy was looking worried and asked if there was a problem. Izzy said, “I was just thinking you would be looking to move to a big house and what a pity it would be with the twins so settled at school.” “Well, a bigger house is on the cards,” answered Jinnie, “but I love it here so what I would like to do is add a big extension on the back and maybe the side of the house. I want at least two more en-suite bedrooms, a sitting room and kitchen for you, and an enormous kitchen and formal sitting room on the ground floor, separate from the TV room.”
“Now,” said Jinnie, “I have a special request; I have to make an appointment with the solicitor early this week and I need two witnesses who are not family so I wonder if you and Nigel would oblige.” “Of cause,” answered Izzy, while Nigel said, “Just tell me when and I’ll make sure I’m available.” “Thank you,” said Jinnie.
In Chapter 8 – Plans for the future
© WorthingGooner 2024
