Natalie Dobson

Where were you born?
I was born in Bridgend and grew up in Cowbridge. I went to school
in Cowbridge and Bristol.

Why Bristol?
I attended boarding school there. It was my parents’ choice. It was a girls’school, which probably meant less distractions and more hard work!
I made some amazing friends during my time there who I have never lost touch with. There are five of us now, who live all over the country, all in different fields of work with busy schedules, but we always meet up once a year and go away for a weekend - just the girls.

What did you parents do?
They were local dentists and they retired a couple of years ago. My brothers and I went into catering so we didn’t follow in their footsteps
at all. Being the children of dentists had its disadvantages though - we were never encouraged to eat sweets and sugar as children, which we were unhappy about then. But now at least it means that we all have good teeth! I must confess that I’d much rather have a starter than
a dessert.

Have you lived in Cowbridge long?
I moved back here seven years ago after attending Surrey University
and subsequently working in London for the ten previous years.

What did you do in London?
I was operations director for a contract catering company. I initially trained with the Roux Brothers and Prue Leith after graduating. One
of my first jobs was general manager of Leith’s Events and Caterers.
I worked there for four years and was responsible for all the catering
on the Orient Express trains in the UK and government hospitality for
the Prime Minister and Royal Family. We were also listed caterers at
many of the amazing museums and livery halls in London where I was responsible for co-ordinating parties for up to 5, 000 guests on occasions. Event catering was really my first experience in the trade;I decided to move into contract catering after that as the hours were more sociable.
I was responsible for catering in staff restaurants and directors dining rooms all over London. Some of my contracts included Channel 4, Visa Card, Express Newspapers, Institute of Chartered Accountants, Stationer’s Hall and ITV.

As Operations Director, I was responsible for approximately fifty restaurants at any one time and over 1, 200 staff. In the world of contract catering, your client is often a fairly senior figure in the firm.
So the customer in the restaurant may be your day-to-day customer
but is not actually the ultimate decision maker in relation to catering.

This is a very different situation from the businesses that I run today.
My biggest challenge in Wales compared to running a business in London is attracting the calibre of staff to work for you. For every catering job in London there would probably be fifty applicants. In Wales, sometimes there are none.

Is that where you met your husband?
I first met Nick when he was head of functions for government hospitality and my company was one of the nominated caterers. I resigned from the catering company and he came to my leaving party with a colleague.
Five months later he proposed. The following year, we probably did some of the most stressful things any young couple could do! We sold our flat, got married, relocated to Wales and bought Farthings.

How did you get involved with Farthings?
We came down to Wales for a weekend for my dad’s birthday and went to Farthings for lunch. The owners were looking to retire and, because they knew my background was in catering, we started talking about their options. Eventually we expressed an interest in buying the business from them. Nine months later we completed and took over in a very busy, hot August.

When did things change for you?
In 2005, tragically Nick became terminally ill with a brain tumour. He fought his illness each day with such courage it was staggering. Nick
died at home seven months later - he was only 36.

How did you cope?
Our family, friends, staff and customers were all amazing. Without them,
I would never have coped with looking after Nick and continuing to run the businesses. I particularly have to give credit to my two brothers who had to work day in and out to cover our work as well as deal with all the enquiries and best wishes from customers. George Thomas nurses were also superb.

How did you move forward?
I had a business to run and really immersed myself in that. When we bought Farthings, there were very few restaurants and bars in the town. Now they are popping up everywhere! Jamie Oliver had a really good analogy in one of his recent TV programmes;if you have a bowl of fish soup, take out the mussels and the prawns - that’s your staff wages; take out the stock, that is your mortgage and 17. 5% VAT; take out the herbs and spices and that is your food cost and utility bills and so on.
If you are left with a scraping of soup at the bottom of your bowl when you have taken out all your direct costs, you are probably one of the lucky one’s as that is your small profit.

Why is Farthings successful?
We bought a successful business with strong foundations that we have tried to build on. Our focus is very much on the customer. Eating at Farthings is a sociable experience as well as just a meal. Many customers spend hours here each day. All our dishes are home-made and we use local suppliers where possible. The character of the building is definitely an attraction. We have customers who will travel fifty to sixty miles to have lunch every week. We have a couple who come from Manchester once a month for dinner. They do have family here but they always come here on their way back from a visit and they always sit at the same table.

How did Bar 44 come about?
We identified a definite gap in the market in Cowbridge - plenty of pubs, some restaurants but no ‘bar’. Having lived in London and enjoyed many different ‘bars’, we thought that a good bar would go down well in Cowbridge. We now have some serious tapas followers that come to Cowbridge just to eat in Bar 44. Our cocktails are cutting edge. My brothers are really passionate about their product;they do so much research to ensure that the quality of our base product is right. Customers come from as far as west Wales and Bristol and anywhere
in between.

And now Farthings Deli!
The deli came up for sale and we thought we really needed to have it. We were already selling a lot of our meals and desserts for take away purposes from the restaurant. We were pushed for space and the shop gives us a show case to illustrate what we can do. We now cater for many events and parties throughout the Vale and Cardiff from the deli.

Are you a tough boss?
I don’t think so - sometimes I’m too soft. I used to be really tough in London and then I came home! Because I live at Farthings, the restaurant feels a bit like my living room. Many of the staff have been
at Farthings for years and have been so supportive and loyal to me,
they are good friends.

So who runs what?
There are four Directors of the Company - we split the responsibilities
for running the businesses between us. We all work six days a week,
and sometimes even seven when it’s busy.

Do you have a good tip for someone starting out in business?
Imagine how hard it’s going to be and double it. The only way to be successful is if you’re prepared to put the hours in and do it yourself.