A high profile hotel manager who quit his job a year ago has returned to Birmngham city centre with one of his former employer’s biggest rivals.

Mark Davies made his name as general manager of Hotel du Vin and helped make the hotel a favourite haunt for the business community and celebrities visiting the city but quit the post last March after six years with Malmaison which owns hotel.

For the past nine months he has been working for catering giant Compass but Mr Davies has now been appointed as general manager of Hotel Indigo Birmingham and Marco Pierre White's Steakhouse Bar and Grill at The Cube – just a stone’s throw from Malmaison’s flagship hotel at the nearby Mailbox.

Mr Davies said it was an opportunity he couldn’t afford to turn down.

He said: “I missed Birmingham. I have lots of friends in the city from my time at Hotel du Vin and have kept a close eye on what has been going on.

‘‘If I’m honest I don’t think I would have come back to the city for anything else so it was a real honour to get the call and have the opportunity to work at such a prestigious development, one that I have watched grow.

"I have enjoyed nine months at Compass having a very different experience in large scale catering and have achieved what I wanted to and now feel I am back where I belong.”

The new Marco Pierre White restaurant is on the 25th floor of the landmark development with the hotel on the two floors below and the hotel’s club and spa on the ground levels of the scheme.

‘The restaurant has become one of the city’s most popular haunts since it opened in December although some customers and food writers have been critical of the dining experience.