TEACHING’S LOSS PROVES TO BE POSTE OF STONE’S GAIN

Shift manager Andrew Best is pictured celebrating 20 years’ work with Wetherspoon.

Andrew has spent the past decade at The Poste of Stone (Stone), in the Staffordshire town where he was born and brought up and where he started his career with the company.

Andrew’s Wetherspoon career came about by (happy) accident, after deciding that a career path in teaching “wasn’t for me”.

He was cheering himself up with a drink at his local pub when the manager offered him a job.

Andrew recalled: “I walked in The Poste of Stone to drown my sorrows, having moved back home – and the pub manager said ‘ come and work for me instead’.”

That was 20 years ago, when he started as a bar associate at Stone, before several moves and career progressions – at The Picture House (Stafford), The Old Swan (Uttoxeter), The Thomas Botfield (Telford), The Wheatsheaf (Cheadle) and The Acorn Inn (Lichfield).

He returned to The Poste of Stone in 2015, as a shift manager, where he has worked ever since.

Andrew said: “I have three children (16, 13 and nine), who have all grown up knowing that I work for Wetherspoon.

“They have not known anything else, which puts into perspective how long that has been.

“Like every job, it has its ups and downs, but I have had an enjoyable career, so far.”

Andrew, who is also a local councillor, as well as deputy mayor of Stone for 2025–26, continued: “When, 10 years ago, I came back to The Poste of Stone, I felt at home and settled and really felt like I wanted to stay at the pub for a long time.

“My future aim would be to become a pub manager, once I have finished all of my mayoral responsibilities, which take up a lot of my time away from work.

“At this stage, it would be too much to be responsible for a pub as well, but it’s something I would like to do.”