• Alistair Darby, former CEO of hospitality powerhouses including Brains, Marston’s and Mitchells & Butlers, will provide strategic advice to limber
• limber matches unfilled shifts in hospitality venues with people who want to fill them, in a way that suits post-pandemic life/work patterns
• App is already being used by established hospitality brands including Youngs, Butcombe Brewery, Holiday Inn, easyHotel and Mercure

Hospitality sector-focused app, limber, which matches unfilled shifts in hospitality venues with people who want to fill them, and has doubled its business user base in the past two months, today announced that industry heavyweight, Alistair Darby, has joined the company as board advisor.

Alistair Darby has a rich CV in the hospitality sector, having held roles ranging from Managing Director and Chief Operating Officer of Marston’s to CEO of Mitchells & Butlers and, most recently, Chief Executive and Non-executive Director at Brains.

limber is already used by leading brands including Youngs, Butcombe Brewery, Holiday Inn, Hilton, Mercure and easyHotel, is helping a growing number of companies within the hospitality sector overcome well-publicised staffing difficulties caused by both the pandemic and Brexit*. 

As we emerge from the pandemic, the hospitality sector is still perceived to be one of the most vulnerable sectors among existing and prospective employees, which is making the recruitment and retention of staff difficult.

On top of that, the sector is often not as flexible as others, which is not in tune with the new work culture the pandemic has created, one where work/life balance is increasingly a priority.

limber solves that as its users answer only to the app and if they don’t want to work, they simply choose not to. Limber business clients then source alternative staff in real time from the remainder of its rapidly growing community.

Chris Sanderson, founder, limber, commented:

“To have someone of Alistair’s experience onboard is a huge coup for limber as we seek to scale up and become the recruitment app of choice for the hospitality sector in the post-pandemic world. At limber, we’re about attracting people into the hospitality sector but  empowering them to work within it on their terms. Flexibility, variety and control are now must-have requirements for many people after their experiences of the pandemic and the traditional employment model — especially the zero hours contract — can no longer deliver on that front. The days of asking people to work a rigid shift pattern every weekend night, and badgering them to cover a shift if someone else is off ill, are well and truly over. Limber is an app that is fit for purpose in the post-pandemic world where flexibility and lifestyle choices are key.”

Alistair Darby, board advisor, limber, added:

“I love the hospitality industry and have worked in it for most of my life but I’m afraid we haven’t done ourselves any favours for a long time. Covid and Brexit have caused all manner of problems, but it’s definitely time to rethink how we engage with a generation of staff who either don’t want the jobs we have to offer or, increasingly, don’t like the regimented way we structure them. For me, limber solves this problem and that’s why I was so keen to get involved and help Chris make limber the default setting for hospitality businesses of every size and kind. The challenge for hospitality businesses now is to accept that, in order to regain control, they need, paradoxically, to lose a degree of control by accommodating flexibility. This may initially feel counter-intuitive but it will make hospitality companies significantly more attractive to the millions of people who will no longer respond to traditional job ads and working practices. The future of the hospitality sector lies in engaging with staff on their terms, not the rigid legacy terms that are often still in place.”

Limber is currently used by 10s of thousands of people around the UK by brands including Hilton, Youngs, Mercure, easyHotel and Butcombe Brewery. Its technology can be effortlessly deployed in multiple sectors and the app has international expansion in its roadmap.