Chris Jowsey wins the Business Leader of the Year Award at Publican Awards 2025

The glittering black tie event was hosted by TV star Claudia Winkleman in London’s Battersea Evolution on March 26. The biggest event in the pub industry saw over 1,500 people from a wide array of businesses attend to celebrate their exceptional achievements.

Poppleston Allen was proud to sponsor The Business Leader of the Year Award, an award that is presented to the leader of a majorly successful business over the past 12 months. This year Associate Solicitor, Joe Harvey, presented the award to Chris Jowsey, CEO of Admiral Taverns.

After receiving his award, Jowsey said: “Community pubs are what it’s all about for us at Admiral, and the country would be bereft without them. I’m really positive about the future. We adapt to everything. It would be so wonderful if everyone could value the social and economic impact pubs have.”

Admiral Taverns is the UK’s leading community pub group. Headquartered in Chester, Admiral runs over 1,600 predominantly wet-led pubs. Its unique operational approach has earned industry recognition, with the group awarded Best Leased and Tenanted Pub Company in 2019, 2016 and 2013. The group has also been consistently highly rated by licensees in the industry’s annual KAM media survey, exceeding the scores of all its national peers.

Jowsey has 20 years of experience in the brewing and pubs industry. He was Heineken’s Commercial Director before leading Star Pubs & Bars for four years. He then joined the Board of Heineken UK as their On-Trade Director in January 2016, joining Admiral Taverns in July 2019 as CEO.

After presenting the award, Joe Harvey, Associate Solicitor at Poppleston Allen, said: “It was an absolute pleasure to present this year’s Business Leader of the Year Award to Chris. He is a most deserving winner of this prestigious award and I am thrilled for him and his team.”

Ed Bedington, editor at The Morning Advertiser, said: “These awards celebrate the best in the business and recognise operators that are performing at the very top of their game. The pub and bar sector, and the wider hospitality industry, is facing some unprecedented challenges, particularly in vastly increased taxation, but it is good to step back and recognise some of the amazing work that is going on, particularly from operators like Craft Union in the community space.”

Other leaders short-listed for the Award on the night were:

• Mary Willcock, Managing Director at Brunning and Price
• Jonathan Lawson, CEO of Butcombe Group
• Tim Martin, Founder and Chairman of Wetherspoons
• Simon Dodd, CEO of Young’s
• Phil Urban, CEO of Mitchells & Butlers

For further information on this news item, contact marketing associate, Paula Kioko on 0115 953 8500 or p.kioko@popall.co.uk