Hospitality Rising, the group behind the initiative, is aiming to raise £5m to launch a recruitment campaign to attract more talent into the industry as it looks to recover from the Covid-19 pandemic and Brexit.
McCulloch said: “The support we’ve had from the industry and some of our marketing contacts has been amazing. We now need to raise enough money to really land a high profile that will both attract people back into the industry or make those who haven’t considered our sector as a viable, exciting, creative and rewarding career.”
McCulloch has already raised £200,000 pre-funding from a range of companies supporting the campaign.
Kate Nicholls, chief executive of UKHospitality, added: “We’re very pleased to be working closely with Mark and Hospitality Rising to develop and promote a comprehensive campaign to address chronic labour and skills shortages in the hospitality industry with a range of short and long-term plans, and in particular to raise awareness of the need for all-important campaign funding. It has our full backing and we’re excited to see such early and positive momentum.”