The owners of Pups and Cups' French bulldogs in the garden of the bistro

The Liverpool Echo reports the bistro in question (pictured above during its refit) – Pups and Cups on Prescot Road – is the brainchild of co-owners Andrew Cain and James Steele from Huyton, who own French bulldogs (see right). The duo revealed they came up with the idea because they struggled to find places to take their dogs.

But there is an added benefit for Cain, who is also operations director at local agency Charlton Recruitment.

He told Recruiter the bistro will be home to new recruits, who will be able to learn on the job and gain sector qualifications. They will later be offered assignments through Charlton Recruitment as they build a career in the hospitality sector.

“The one thing we are lacking [in hospitality workers] is the confidence – some people, you can train them all you want but they need confidence.

“The idea is to get the less confident people to grow in confidence by putting them out there, and once they get the confidence they come to work for Charlton Recruitment … working on festivals, concerts etc.”

According to Cain, a common complaint among the agency’s client base, which includes the likes of Manchester City FC, Doncaster racecourse and St Helens Rugby ground, is staff across the sector tend to be untrained.

“We want to give the market more trained staff, who stay in the market and don’t use hospitality as a stopgap,” he added.

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