PIVOVAR is still riding a wave a decade after starting up.

That is the view from the bosses of the Elvington-based brewing and pub company.

Named after the Slavic word for brewery, Pivovar now runs eight bars nationwide and has a wholesale business, which is growing at 150 per cent per quarter.

Add to that two breweries, an £8 million annual turnover and 156 staff and joint managing directors Jamie Hawksworth and Jon Holdsworth, both 39, have created something of an empire.

Mr Hawksworth: "There wasn't a masterplan. Had there been a fixed target, this business would probably only have grown to half its size.

"At the moment, we feel like we are a ship in a storm just holding on. We are saying can we take any more growth?"

Mr Holdsworth added: "We have been riding the wave for 10 years now, but it's still pushing us on."

Pivovar now operates three bars in York - Pivni, the York Tap and Pavement Vaults, but its origins can be traced to Mr Hawksworth's childhood.

He said: "I brewed from a very young age, probably about 13. I just wanted to home brew and made many, many mistakes.

"Back in those days you had to research products in the library - the internet didn't exist. You had to be pretty determined.

"I wanted to be a brewer, but my parents said go to university and get a proper job."

Mr Hawksworth duly studied engineering and architecture at Leeds University and moved to York for his first job with Railtrack.

He and his business partner had grown up a mile apart in Chesterfield and done the same degree at the same university, with Mr Holdsworth a year ahead.

But it was only in York that they met when Mr Holdsworth found Mr Hawksworth sitting at his desk after returning from a work project in London.

Mr Hawksworth said: "All this time I was still brewing. I did a fair bit of travelling with work and realised there was a fair bit of beer and opportunity out there."

By then he was working in telecommunications and came across the Bernard brewery in Prague.

Having become a partner in Bernard, the first seeds of Pivovar were sown.

Mr Hawksworth said: "Eleven years ago the first assignment arrived on our driveway on the day of my daughter's birth."

At this point, Mr Holdsworth got involved and they managed to sell the beer.

"It just got bigger and bigger from there," he said.

Pivovar's imported beer won a couple of Tesco drink awards and the company's reputation started to grow.

Having become disillusioned with the licensing trade and the difficulties of getting new beers into existing pubs, the pair opened the Pivni bar in Patrick Pool, York 10 years ago.

"I think we were a bit ahead of our time," said Mr Holdsworth

"This was before the UK microbrewery revolution. The products needed to be imported beers."

Pivni proved the springboard and Pivovar developed separate wholesaling and retail arms.

Next up, Pivovar opened the Sheffield Tap, followed by the Euston Tap and the York Tap at the train station.

Mr Hawksworth finished his training as a brew master at Strahov Monastery in Prague and Pivovar added a brewery to the Sheffield Tap.

Tapped Leeds and a second brewery followed, with Harrogate Tap and Cider Tap in Euston, London added to the portfolio.

Pivovar's Tapped Brew Company now produces English ales, continental lagers and wheat beers.

York's Pavement Vaults, which opened in November, is the firm's latest project and first foray into food.

Mr Hawksworth said: "The more we travelled, we found there was a big demand for high quality smoked meats, which pair beautifully with beer."

Pivovar appointed three-time UK barbecue champion and world finalist Andy Annat as its executive chef to oversee Pavement Vaults' cuisine.

As they look ahead to more big plans including building a main brewery at Pivovar's Elvington base, the pair admit the extent of their success has been a surprise.

Mr Hawksworth said: "I'm not quite sure how all this happened.

"I would certainly advise anyone not to start their business on credit cards, but somehow we did!"

Mr Holdsworth added: "We never had a plan 10 years ago that we wanted to get to this point."

The pair say Pivovar is defying trends in the industry by having much higher than usual staff retention levels and that the firm feels like a family.

As well as the Elvington brewery, Pivovar plans to relaunch the Cider Tap in Euston as the Northern Tap, serving purely northern beers.

Mr Hawksworth said: "Our two breweries can't sustain the demand for their own sites at the moment, let alone for the rest of the business."