How Maison Talbooth started and went on to have 70 years of success

If you invest the right amount of time and effort, your discipline will multiply your reward.

But there is no straight line to success, no secret shortcut. And sometimes the greatest businesses have started from something small.

In restaurant Le Talbooth’s case it was from a simple tea room, set aside the River Stour.

The story of the Milsoms brand goes back to 1952 to this same tearoom, and Gerald Milsom, the founder of the family business.

Years after his death, his son, Paul, continues to build the family legacy.

Paul said: “It’s a bit of luck we are here 70 years later.

“Having done military service, my dad was stationed in Felixstowe and was going with a big military vehicle to pick up the provisions for the Felixstowe camp for Colchester.

“He came over the bridge and looked down the Talbooth and thought ‘That’s nice, let’s stop for tea’.

“In stopping in for tea and chatting with the owner he found out she was going to put it on the market the next day.

Rebrand - the Le Talbooth restaurant will now be know as Talbooth Restaurant

“If he hadn’t had that journey, he would have never discovered it and someone else would have bought it.”

Paul says it was always his father’s idea to expand the business, so the purchase of the Maison Talbooth hotel in 1969 was a reasonable decision.

Both the restaurant and the hotel will now undergo a slight rebrand and be known as Talbooth House and Spa and Talbooth Restaurant.

As the name suggests, the hotel will make pamper treatments key to customers’ experience, with a new spa facility set to open on April 4.

READ MORE >> Boutique hotel in Dedham to rebrand as it opens new spa facilities

Paul said: “We were staying by the pool with my wife and two kids during the enforced enclosure in 2020 and we realised we weren’t making the most of the pool area.

“So we decided we will rebuild the current pool house to have more treatment rooms which will double the scale of the spa.

“When my father started at Le Talbooth and Maison Talbooth, France was the dominating influence in international hospitality, hence the use of French in the name.

“Seventy years on this is no longer the case, British hotels and restaurants are now amongst the best in the world, and we wanted to reflect this in our name.

Family - Paul. Gerald and Geraldine Milsom

“I suspect my father would have described this as our version of Brexit.”

The Milsom family is also known for the Idle Waters cottage in Dedham, The Pier at Harwich and Milsoms Kesgrave Hall in Suffolk.

They have also been successfully breaking ground in the catering business, while offering picturesque estates as wedding venues.

But what makes the whole empire successful is the combination of loyalty, investment and constant desire for improvement.

Paul said: “On the one hand you have these beautiful properties and listed buildings in those locations which have been fine tuned and manicured over the time to look as they do now.

“But long service is a key because it gives that ability to maintain standards over a long period of time.

“Most of our key managers have been here for a long period of time.

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Leader - Paul Milsom has recently become life president of Pride of Britain, a selection of the country's finest independent hotels

“You have to have people who are passionate about the food, passionate about looking after people and giving good service.

“You need a group of like-minded people to help do that.”

Paul also recently become life president of Pride of Britain Hotels.

The consortium was founded in 1982 by his father Gerald as marketing collection of Britain’s finest, independently-owned hotels.

The biggest lesson Paul’s dad taught him was to “never accept second best”.

He said: “His influence on me is around constantly improving the quality of what you are doing, and making life exciting for customers.

“I have been here through thick and thin, good and bad times.

Countryside - the Milsoms Hotel lies in the Dedham Vale

“I worked from the age of 13 upwards while I was at school, during school holidays and university holidays.”

The Milsoms brand has gone through many trials and tribulations, the most recent of which was the closure of the hospitality sector due to the pandemic.

The business had to fully close for three months but even in times like these, Paul managed to find the silver lining.

He added: “Nobody thought they wouldn’t be allowed to go down to the local coffee shop, to their pub or out for holiday and yet it happened.

“Hopefully that will live in people’s memory for a long time - how important the hospitality sector is.”

He added: “It was very hard to understand how our business could survive.

“If we hadn’t had the furlough scheme, we would have lost all our staff.

“And then when we were allowed to open we wouldn’t have opened because you can’t just suddenly find those people.”

Rebrand - Relax - the Maison Talboith Hotel will go by the name Talbooth House & Spa

The business has now managed to recover and part of it is because entrepreneurial decisions in the past have played to its strength in the present - like the outside dining areas, which were allowed to reopen during lockdown.

Paul and his wife Geraldine, who is the brains behind the interior design of the business, are now hopeful their children Charlie, 23 and Jack, 19, will one day take the reins of the family business...and rise to the challenges.

Paul said: “People look at a business and they think it has always been a straight line of success from the starting point to the end.

“Ours has been hugely bumpy along the road but we ended up stronger.

“My message to all the people who run their own business is to try and stay on the treadmill.

“Even if it going backwards stay on it because you can get it rolling forwards again.”