Food for thought - Mike Racz
(left) with Stephen Winspear.
COMMON
GOAL
Talent spotting gives
pizza boss his kicks
WORDS: MICHAEL MCGEARY
PICTURES: TOM BANKS
60 | Tees Business
F
Team game - Domino's
Pizza operations manager
Stephen Winspear.
or former footballer
Stephen Winspear,
there’s nothing more
satisfying than spotting talented
new team players and helping them
reach the top.
The operations manager for the 29
Domino’s Pizza outlets within the Wynyard
Park-based Racz Group, Stephen loves
to find young delivery drivers and store
staff who have what it takes to help the
company continue its spectacular success.
After all, if founder and owner Mike Racz
hadn’t done the same for him, Stephen
doesn’t know where he’d be now.
After playing for Hartlepool as a
schoolboy he had a spell with Darlington
and then signed for Middlesbrough, where
he played as a striker in a flourishing
Academy set-up that included future stars
Stewart Downing, Lee Cattermole and
David Wheater.
“We had a great team and the first
team had famous names like Mark Viduka,
Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink and Mark
Schwarzer,” Stephen recalls.
When he was released at the age of
19 his prospects didn’t look great, until a
twist of fate led to him landing a job as a
delivery driver at Racz’s first store, in York
Road, Hartlepool.
“I was always bright at school, but I
was only really interested in football and I
didn’t put any effort in, and I came out with
grade Cs.
“When I finished college my mam said,
‘Right, you’ve got to get a job.’ She was on
a bus when she saw a sign in the window
saying, ‘Drivers Wanted’.