About Andy
There's a moment I keep coming back to.
I was twenty-three, navigating a container ship through a typhoon off the coast of Japan. Between us and the rocks: a compass, a chart, and whether I'd done my job properly.
The Merchant Navy teaches you something that stays with you. When it matters, people don't want a system. They want a person who knows what they're doing and picks up the phone.
That's still how I work. Forty years later.
The hospitality years
I came ashore and landed in hospitality. I never really left.
Twenty years with Whitbread. Started as a Regional Sales Manager, worked my way to Account Director responsible for the Punch Taverns estate, roughly 9,000 pubs across the country. Nine thousand different setups. Nine thousand different landlords, each one trying to run a business while managing suppliers, systems, and staff who may or may not turn up on a Friday night.
Ran my own pubs and restaurants. And that's when everything I thought I understood about the industry got properly tested.
From other operators, from myself, was always the same: why is the technology that's supposed to make this easier making it harder?
Showed me how the industry actually works. The cold calls. The contracts designed to confuse. The support that evaporates the moment the ink dries. Salespeople who'd never run a pub in their lives, selling systems they didn't understand to people who trusted them. I'm not that.
Why Credo FS exists
Why Credo FS exists.
I started Credo FS because I got tired of watching good operators get a raw deal.
Ten years working in merchant services showed me how the industry actually works. The cold calls. The contracts designed to confuse. The support that evaporates the moment the ink dries. Salespeople who'd never run a pub in their lives, selling systems they didn't understand to people who trusted them.
I'm not that. I've sat where you're sitting. I've had the card machine go down on a Saturday night. I know what that moment feels like, and I know what it means when someone actually picks up the phone.
That's what Credo FS is built on. Not a slogan. A way of deciding whether to take on a piece of work.
How I work
Independent. Honest. One point of contact.
I started Credo FS because I got tired of watching good operators get a raw deal. I've sat where you're sitting. I've had the card machine go down on a Saturday night. I know what that moment feels like, and I know what it means when someone actually picks up the phone.
No commission from a single brand
I work with Square, Teya, Sunmi, Elavon, Shift4, Loyverse, and others, because different businesses need different things, and the right answer for your pub isn't necessarily the right answer for the one down the road.
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A relationship, not a product
When something goes wrong, and in hospitality, something always does, you call me. Not a helpline. Not a chatbot. Not a number that rings out. Me.
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Word of mouth
About 70% of the people I work with came through a recommendation from someone I'd already helped. I don't run ads or cold-call anyone. I just do the work properly and let people talk.
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Five years, one client, no slogans
Sallyann Reed has been a client for five years. When there's a better deal available for her business, I tell her. When something goes wrong, she calls me and we sort it. That's how it should work.
That's what Credo FS is built on. Not a slogan, but a way of deciding whether to take on a piece of work in the first place.
Proof
Five years and counting
“He has always been committed to providing me with an excellent service, knowing how my business works. If there's a better package for me he'll come in and advise me to change.”
Sallyann Reed, Five years as a customer, TrustPilot
The full picture
Outside of work, I've spent twenty years as a rugby referee across twelve countries.
Life Member and past Chairman of the Bristol Referees Society. If you think dealing with a pub landlord whose card machine is down on a Saturday night is stressful, try telling a front row they're not scrummaging straight.
It teaches you the same thing the Navy did, and the same thing running a pub did.
Make the call. Explain it clearly. Stand by it.
Not sure if you're getting a fair deal?
Let's find out. I'll go through your setup, tell you straight, and if there's nothing to change, I'll say so.
A conversation costs nothing.