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Published since 1976 Vol 38 May 2013
hong Kong sAR hK$50 china RMb50singapore s$15 Malaysia RM30Thailand bt300Rest of Asia us$10
LOOKING GOODThe evolution of the uniform
A YEN FOR HOSPITALITYThe industry is back on track in Japan
SMOKIN’Asia’s growing love affair with salmon
AsiAn Hotel & CAtering times is publisHed montHly by tHomson press Hong Kong ltd (tpHK)
The opinions expressed in Asian Hotel & Catering Times do not necessarily represent the views of the publisher or the publication. Whilst every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of information contained in this publication, no responsibility can be accepted by the publisher, editors and staff, agents and contributors for omissions, typographical or printers errors, inaccuracies or changes howsoever caused. The editors reserve the right to edit any material submitted at their discretion. All materials published remain the property of TPHK. Reproduction without permission by any means is strictly prohibited. Correspondence should be addressed to The Editor, Asian Hotel & Catering Times, Room 1205-6, 12/F, Hollywood Centre, 233 Hollywood Road, Sheung Wan, Hong Kong. Tel: (852) 2815 9111 Fax: (852) 2851 1933. Fantasy Printing Ltd. 1/F, Tin Fung Industial Mansion, 63 Wong Chuk Hang Road, Hong Kong.
All rights reserved (c) 2013Thomson Press Hong Kong Ltd
Welcome to the May issue of AHCT, the most trusted source of information on what is happening
in Asia-Pacific’s hospitality industry.Most hotel guests have no idea what really
goes on in the housekeeping department. And as long as beds are made and amenities replaced you wouldn’t expect them to give it too much thought.
What’s more surprising is that members of the management team outside housekeeping
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HONG KONGThomson Press Hong Kong Limited/Media Transasia LimitedRoom 1205-6, 12/F, Hollywood Centre,233 Hollywood Road, Sheung Wan, Hong KongTel: +(852) 2851 7068, 2815 9111 Fax: +(852) 2851 1933, 2581 9531Email: [email protected]: Mr Daniel Creffield
AUSTRALIAMass Media PublicitasLevel 9, 215-217 Clarence Street Sydney NSW 2000 Australia Tel: + 61 2 9252 3476 Fax: +61 2 9251 3726 Email: [email protected]: Mr Charlton D’Silva
INDIAMedia Transasia (India) Ltd323 Phase IV, Udyog Vihar, Gurgaon - 122016 (Haryana)Tel: +91 (0) 124 4759500 Fax: +91 (0) 11 26867641Email: [email protected]: Mr Xavier Collaco
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THAILANDMedia Transasia Thailand Ltd14/F, Ocean Tower II, 75/10 Soi Wattana,Sukhumvit Soi 21, Asoke Road, Klongtoey,Prakanong, Bangkok 10110, ThailandTel: +66 2 204 2370 Fax: +66 2 204 2391Email: [email protected]: Mr Gaurav Kumar
UNITED KINGDOMThe Powers Turner GroupGordon House, Greencoat PlaceLondon SW1P 1PH, United KingdomTel: +44 (0) 20 7592 8300 Fax: +44 (0) 20 7592 8301Contact: Mr Chris Morgan
USARiverside Media159 Main Street, 2nd Floor, Lake Placid,NY 12946, USATel: +1 518 523 4794 Fax: +1 518 523 4708Email: [email protected]: Ms Christina Eccleston
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ITALYEdiconsult Internazionale s.r.l.Piazza Fontane Marose, 3-16123 GenovaTel: +39 010 583684 Fax: +39 010 566578Email: [email protected]: Mr Vittorio Negrone
JAPANEcho Japan CorporationGrande Maison Rm 303, 2-2 Kudan-kita 1-chome, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 102-0073Tel: +81 3 3234 2064 Fax: +81 3 3263 5065Email: [email protected]: Mr Ted Asoshina
MALAYSIAPublicitas International Sdn Bhd.S 105, 2nd Floor, CentrepointLebuh Bandar Utama, Bandar Utama47800 Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia.Tel : 603 7729 6923Fax : 603 7729 7115 Email: [email protected]: Ms Shallie Cheng
are often similarly ignorant about daily operations within what many consider the toughest job at most properties.
Our management feature on page 12 looks at the huge housekeeping operation behind the scenes at Macau’s Sands Cotai Central and we talk to some of the people working within this dynamic sector.
Also this issue – salmon, uniforms, customer relationship management and much more.
EDITORDaniel Creffield
DESIGN bYKoon Ming Tang
CONTRIbuTORSDon GasperZara HornerRebecca LoJane Ram
Michael Taylor
ASSOCIATE PubLISHERSharon Knowler
CIRCuLATION ExECuTIvEBecky Chau
CHAIRMANJS Uberoi
DIRECTORGaurav Kumar
endoRseMenTs
We need to hear from hospitality professionals about the constant developments in the industry, good or bad, so please do send your comments and suggestions in to: [email protected]
E d i t o r ’ s M E s s a g E
AHCT May 2013 3
CuLINARY42 Bulgarian truffles; Fairtrade coffee; delicious choux
MANAGEMENT12 Housekeeping – it’s a tough job ...
MARKET REPORT16 Japan’s industry continues to consolidate post 2011
NEWS INDuSTRY6 A historic reopening in Christchurch; happenings in the world of cheese, chocolate and oysters; a significant anniversary for Hilton
PRODuCT40 Classy outdoor furniture from Spain; eclectic carpet collection; quantum energy textiles
JuNE• Investment opportunities• India• POS• Condiments• Flavourings and syrups• Buffet equipment• Gym equipment
July• Integrated resorts• Philippines• Cloud computing• Swimming pool design• Cheese• Fruit juice• In-room amenities• Knives
CONTENTSV o l u m e 3 8 M a y 2 0 1 3
TECHNOLOGY18 Harnessing the power of CRM
DESIGN20 Why’s there’s more to hotel lounges than just lounging around
FOOD26 Salmon catching on in Asia
36
20
DRINK32 A reappraisal of Californian wine
EQuIPMENT30 The changing role of the minibar
36 Uniforms – the hardest-working member of the team
Fresh take on uniforms
NowoniPadAvailable on App store
Advertisers’ Index
ADA 21Alpha International 35Anuga 29Athena Tableware 9Bartech 31Boncafe IFCChef Works 39Global Chef 37HOFEX 47Hosfair 45Italian Trade Commission OBCM.Schaerer 23Pevonia 14 & 15Restaurant & Bar IBCSafemark 27Scottish Development International 24 & 25
Turning design on its head
EvENTS AND ExHIbITIONS46 Events calendar
48 Gulfood reviewed
INTERvIEW49 Mandarin Oriental Macau’s executive chef Dominique Bugnand
50 APPOINTMENTS Who’s moving where
CoverphotographScottishEnterprise
4 AHCT May 2013 AHCT May 2013 5
A recent cutting and cooking seminar by chef Eddy Leung of Chef Studio by Eddy in Hong Kong attracted a lot of attention to the quality of Canadian beef.
Featuring four top Canadian beef cuts – top blade muscle, chuck eye roll, striploin and prime rib – the seminar concentrated on imaginative ways of preparation.
Chef Leung explained that wok frying can make top blade muscle very tender once the connective tissue in the
Hilton Worldwide is celebrating its 25th anniversary in China with an expansion programme – aiming to grow from 32 properties with 12,000 rooms to 150 with 55,000.
In addition to its Waldorf Astoria, Conrad, Hilton Hotels & Resorts and DoubleTree by Hilton brands, the group introduced Hilton Garden Inn to China this year.
“As one of the first international hotel chains to enter China, Hilton
Hong Kong’s long-awaited seaside hotel – Auberge Discovery Bay – is due to be fully operational this June.
With 325 rooms, substantial meeting and exhibition space, a spa and a wedding chapel, the hotel is unique in Hong Kong, not least for its location in a largely residential community on Lantau Island.
Alfresco dining with a wide array of pan-Asian and international cuisines is available at Café Bord de Mer, the hotel’s signature restaurant complete with a spectacular oceanfront terrace.
Getting Vivienne Tam to design the fan for the new Mandarin Oriental Guangzhou was both an obvious and an inspired choice.
The Guangzhou native is one of the world’s most recognised fashion designers, and she sourced the design from her own fabric collection, intending it to represent the city’s abundant and diversified offerings.
“I am proud to design this fan for Mandarin Oriental because I feel like I am part of the Mandarin Oriental family,” said the 55-year-old style guru
Encore!Regent Beijing hosted living legend Julio Iglesias – one of the world’s top ten best-selling recording artists of all time – last month. Returning to China after almost 20 years, Julio was invited to a press conference to receive two historic awards presented by Chinese pianist, Lang Lang.
To honour his extraordinary career in music – marked by global success and no.1 hits in a record number of languages – Lang Lang presented Julio with the First & Most Popular International Artist in China Award from Sony Music Entertainment, and the Guinness World Record for Best-Selling Male Latin Artist, for his more than 300 million global record sales.
Delicious!Imaginatively jumping on the popularity of the current number one downloaded game for smartphones and on Facebook, Hong Kong eaterie and bar The Salted Pig has named one of its new cocktails Candy Crush. One of a trio of rum-based summer cocktails, each a massive two litres and served in fish bowls, the other two are called Super Hurricane and freaking Mai Tai. It remains to be seen whether Candy Crush (the drink) is as addictive as its colourful namesake.
centre is removed, and that he wants to revive the once popular method of pan-roasting portioned prime rib.
“We chose these cuts because they are of high quality and showcase the advantages of Canada Beef: excellent marbling, firm muscle texture, flavourful and tender meat,” explained Stephanie Dai, senior China director of Canada Beef International Institute.
Chef Leung created five recipes for tasting at the seminar: wok-fried Canadian top blade muscle, Canadian Sterling Silver chuck steak sandwich, smoked Canadian Sterling Silver striploin with mushroom coulis, pan-roasted Canadian Angus Pride export rib with lily bulb salad, and roasted Canadian Angus pride export rib with natural jus.
who was brought up in Hong Kong.Each Mandarin Oriental hotel
is distinguished by its own unique fan, a symbol of its oriental culture that embodies the group’s luxurious image, while also being reflective of each hotel’s local charm.
“We are honoured that iconic designer and Mandarin Oriental fan Vivienne Tam agreed to design the beautiful fan for this landmark property,” said Andrew Hirst, Mandarin Oriental’s operations director for Asia.
For evening cruises and cocktail soirees, The Bounty, Hong Kong’s only European tall ship, offers the perfect opportunity to unwind.
“Auberge Discovery Bay Hong Kong is truly a unique hideaway retreat, both part of Hong Kong and yet worlds away from the bustle of Central,” said Anne Busfield, general manager. “We hope to offer guests the best of both worlds in a stunning, natural setting, while adding an exciting new dimension to the very special community in which we operate.”
Hilton celebrates its Chinese quarter century
Worldwide has been serving Chinese guests for a quarter century,” said Bruce McKenzie, Hilton’s senior vice president for operations in Greater China and Mongolia.
Having trained some 13,000 staff in Greater China, and by cooperating with many top tourism management schools, Hilton has made a significant contribution to the hospitality industry. Last year Hilton Worldwide was recognised by Zhaopin.com and Peking University as a “2012 top 30 Best Employer”.
A new discovery
Fan designed by a fanCandyCrush
HiltonShanghai
Canadian beef is a cut above
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Four renowned cheese makers were the stars of the show at the Hong Kong International Cheese Festival held at Hullett House and Armani/Aqua recently.
Philippe Marchand from France brought a selection of traditional and uniquely modern cheese; Pierre Gay exhibited a wonderful selection of cheeses garnered from his travels around Italy; René Koelman from The Netherlands showcased exquisite
Dorsett Hospitality International has formalised its exclusive partnership with Diamond Resorts International.
Winnie Chiu, president and executive director of Dorsett Hospitality International said: “Whilst we continue to pursue our ‘Chinese Wallet’ strategy, we also believe it is important to also focus on market segments in other continents. Through this affiliation, Dorsett will be able to strengthen and expand its brand presence at a faster pace as well as to increase the arrivals of US and Europe travellers into Hong Kong, by tapping into Diamond Resorts International’s existing
Sweet taste of victoryParis is calling for two chefs – Australian Deniz Karaca and Lei Fu Veng from Macau – who will be competing at the World Chocolate Masters this October.
Karaca, who is a pastry chef with Epicure Group in Melbourne, won first place at the competition’s Asia-Pacific round, while Lei, who works at Wynn Hotel, came second.
The World Chocolate Masters is an initiative by three leading gourmet chocolate brands – Callebaut, Cacao Barry and Carma.
The winner of the Japan segment – Akihiro Kakimoto – will also be competing in the French capital this autumn.
Visitors to Christchurch will be able to see the rebuild of the city from its very heart now the Rendezvous Hotel has reopened.
The Rendezvous Hotel Christchurch has 171 guest rooms and occupies levels 4 to 15 of the Pacific Tower building on Gloucester Street, opposite recently refurbished New Regent Street.
The hotel – which reopened on May 1 – was closed to the public in the wake of the February 2011 earthquake.
General manager Brad Watts said staff are excited about the hotel’s reopening and looking forward to welcoming guests again.
Shucking marvellousHong Kong’s top chefs went head-to-head for the top prize in the Hong Kong Oyster Shucking Championship 2013, co-organised by Cafe Deco and Worldwide Seafood. Held successfully at Cafe Deco last April, 25 talented chefs impressed the judges with their speed and techniques to shuck the finest Irish rock oysters.
After seven gruelling heats, the final results were:
Overall champion: Terry Ho Kai Tung of Café Express of Hotel Panorama;
1st runner-up: Li Shu Kit of The Excelsior, Hong Kong;
2nd runner-up: Li Ka Yui of Cafe Express, Hotel Panorama.
Guests unwound after the excitement with an ocean-friendly seafood buffet paired with – what else? – a Guinness.
farmhouse Dutch speciality cheeses including Remeker Puur; and Tricia Bey from Scotland, the festival’s only female cheese maker, delighted visitors with her signature Barwheys Cheddar, a rich hard cheese with long and complex flavours.
Master classes, gourmet cheese pairing dinners and a European-style cheese market were held during the three-day fest, which showcased a total of 120 artisanal cheeses.
Blessed are the cheese makers
“The hotel is looking fantastic and we’re thrilled to be in a position to reopen and again provide high quality accommodation within the city centre for people visiting either for business or for leisure,” Watts said.
Eric Teng, CEO of Rendezvous Hospitality Group said: “We are delighted to be able to welcome guests back.
“Christchurch is on track to be one of the best small cities in the world and we are pleased to be part of that.
All of our hotels work harder to provide superior value to each guest and we are excited to be able to open the doors of Rendezvous Hotel Christchurch.”
A historic reopening
network of nearly 1.4 million owners, members and guests.”
Dorsett’s first hotel in Singapore soft opened last March. Dorsett Grand Chengdu and Dorsett Tsuen Wan are scheduled to open by the end of this year. In 2014, Silka Tsuen Wan, Hong Kong and Dorsett Grand Zhuji as well as Dorsett Zhongshan are expected to commence operation. The group’s first venture beyond Asia is the Dorsett Shepherds Bush in London which is expected to be operational in 2014, to be followed by Dorsett City, London located at Aldgate in 2015.
Diamond deal-making
LeiFuVeng
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A natural venue for skinny dippingBanyan Tree Hotels and Resorts is set to be the first international hotel operator to launch a hot spring resort in Chongqing, China, embracing the natural healing waters of the North Hot Springs. Banyan Tree Chongqing Beibei will open to guests this summer and each of its 107 suites and villas will feature private hot spring pools so guests can enjoy the water’s healing benefits in privacy and comfort. The extensive Banyan Tree spa will also offer seven different outdoor and indoor hot spring pools.
Catalan dining comes to Hong KongCatalunya Hong Kong, sister restaurant to Catalunya Singapore, has opened in Morrisson Hill, the city’s newest dining district.
The restaurant is helmed by chef Alain Devahive Tolosa, while the general manager is Pol Porello, both of whom are veterans of elBulli, which was voted world’s Best Restaurant five years running.
Catalunya’s menu will include signature favourites such as Segovia-style roasted suckling pig, while the wine list features celebrated labels like Allende Calvario 2006.
An Asia-Pacific survey by Amadeus has highlighted that cross-selling add-on services are key to ensuring travel agents attract and retain customers who are pre-booking hotel rooms.
The survey found that airport transfers and sightseeing tours represent the biggest cross-selling opportunities, with travel agents increasingly offering to help travellers rent cars, purchase concert tickets, make dinner reservations and even buy metro passes.
Archipelago, formerly known as Aston International, unveiled a new self-styled ‘superior select-service’ hotel brand in October 2012, promising a “hip and new” range of properties, which provide a “light-filled, visitor-friendly atmosphere”. The first of these properties recently opened its doors in Jakarta and has now been followed by Bali’s first NEO; the Hotel NEO Legian – Jelantik.
Catering for predominantly young international and domestic guests, the new NEO features 101 ultra-modern rooms with a full set of amenities and facilities while maintaining its credo
Hip and happeningthat well-designed hotels do not need to be costly.
Archipelago plans to open a third NEO in the heart of Jakarta’s Blok M and a further three in mid-summer, one in Jakarta and two more in Bali. By 2014 the new brand will launch several more hotels in Bali and Jakarta and celebrate its arrival in other Indonesian cities such as Bandung, Medan, Palangkaraya, Samarinda and Solo. The new properties will feature between 90 and 130 rooms, eclectic all-day noodle cafes and will be completely smoke free.
Ten out of ten in ThailandInterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) recently opened Holiday Inn Bangkok Sukhumvit 22. This is the company’s third Holiday Inn in the city and its tenth in Thailand.
The 29-storey tower overlooks Bangkok’s Benjasiri Park and contains 300 guest rooms and luxury suites nestled along the city’s famous Sukhumvit Road. One of the city’s most vibrant locations, it is close to the city’s largest shopping centres and main business district.
General manager Harry Thaliwal said: “We are committed to ensuring that guests at the new Holiday Inn Bangkok Sukhumvit 22 – whether they are here for business or leisure – will enjoy a truly welcoming and comfortable stay. We are looking forward to a busy opening period.”
Shantha De Silva, director of operations, Southeast Asia added: “Every year millions of travellers stay at Holiday Inn hotels around the world. We continue to cement the brand’s presence in Thailand and have now reached a milestone with ten Holiday Inn hotels in the country.”
The hotel’s opening brings the number of IHG hotels in Thailand to 17. There are more than 1,200 Holiday Inn hotels around the world and over 240 more in the pipeline due to open over the next three to five years.
GTA signs with Jin JiangAs China’s popularity as a destination continues to grow, global travel wholesaler GTA has signed a new partnership with Jin Jiang International Hotels to offer 20 three, four and five-star accommodation options throughout Shanghai.
The deal means grater choice for businesses selling accommodation and travel in one of China’s most popular destinations, and should bring more of the world’s travellers to stay at Jin Jiang properties.
Martin Jones, GTA’s vice president for sourcing Asia-Pacific said: “GTA makes it easy for hoteliers like Jin Jiang International to successfully market and
Striking goldRosedale Kowloon Hotel in Hong Kong has been awarded one of the highest green building sustainability certifications, the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) New Construction Gold Certification from the United States Green Building Council.
This certification is the second to highest certification level attainable in the LEED certification system, and represents an internationally recognised distinguished dedication to sustainable design and operation.
The 27-storey hotel opened in 2012 and was developed by Rosedale Hotel Group, in conjunction with green building engineering consultants, BEE Inc.
sell their rooms to even more consumers worldwide.
“Our technology, privileged relationships and wealth of experience means travel businesses trust us to help them profit. As demand for fully independent travel to and within Asia increases, travel sellers around the world will surely welcome this new partnership and our ever-expanding portfolio of hotels throughout China and beyond.”
Happy about cross-sellingThe purpose of the survey was to
examine travel agents’ and travellers’ perspectives on the hotel selection and booking process.
The comprehensive hotel distribution survey was the largest ever conducted by Amadeus in Asia-Pacific and examined the views of more than 1,047 travel agents across nine countries in the region: Australia, China, India, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, Taiwan and Thailand.
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Public area i s very big team, maintaining front of house and back of house and cleaning the
internal public areas. Each individual area has its own manager; while Conrad and Holiday Inn have assistant directors of housekeeping, who manage day-to-day operations. There is also an executive housekeeper, who manages day-to-day public area operations while wardrobe and floral departments have similar executive managers. These people all have assistants, supervisors and then rank and file support mechanism in place.
It’s therefore very important to have the right structure in place. Within that structure it is essential to set standards and guidelines so that everyone knows what is expected of them.
Another critical component is training so everyone is confident and competent in what they are doing.
That is the basic foundation – once that is in place the operation needs to run like a machine every day – the systems, tools and equipment in place so everyone knows what they are doing. I know that sounds a bit impersonal!
But while these systems are crucial in order for operations to run efficiently, it is a people business from top to bottom. At briefings I tell people to be kind and treat each other with courtesy and respect. We take care in our working environment so people are happy in what they do – this
reflects in the service they supply to guests. It shouldn’t be robotic but must be genuine, as guests need to see people are comfortable in what they are doing.
There are specific challenges in an integrated resort which put a different perspective on hotel operations – where it’s not uncommon to be running 100% occupancy, with 100% in, 100% out every day.
Dai ly operat ions are therefore compressed into a much tighter timeframe than you would expect in a corporate hotel environment. In this environment you often have a six-hour time period rather than a eight-10 hour period. Guests tend to check out around 12 noon rather than 8–9am when you would already expect you’d be able to clean a significant number of rooms.
It’s time consuming and impacts on laundry cleaning, which we outsource. The logistics in ensuring we have sufficient linen in circulation is another challenge in this environment.
I often tell people that we perform at least one miracle a day!
The sheer scale is what makes this demanding – we’re dealing with a luxury brand and a very good Holiday Inn – so getting the brand standards right is always going to be challenging. As well as the two different brands there are two different guest satisfaction programmes and two quality assurance audits.
The last audits were in November last
Dina Angelucci is one of hospitality’s unsung heroes, keeping an enormous housekeeping operation running behind the scenes at Macau’s Sands Cotai Central. She is responsible for overseeing teams at Conrad Macao Cotai Central and Holiday Inn Macao Cotai Central hotels and wardrobe (uniforms) and public areas for the entire resort (not including the new 3,896-room Sheraton Macao). The floral team is also under her remit. Across the department she has more than 900 people on her team. It’s a big job. Angelucci, who began her career as a room attendant, describes her role to Daniel Creffield
‘A miracle a day’sands cota i centra l ’s d i rector of housekeeping dina Angelucci i s cons ide r ing i n t roduc ing an ‘ehousekeeping’ system which basically entails issuing room attendants with an Android device so when they log on at the start of their shift, the day’s assignments would be on the device rather than a piece of paper.
“innovation is essential in order to stay ahead in what is a very competitive industry. we’ve gone from walkie-talkies to pagers to cellphones – this represents the next logic step.”
Angelucci worked with such a system at her last property, where she was responsible for 2,200 guest rooms, the casino, 50 f&b outlets, retail space and a rooftop resort deck with a wave pool and sand beach area.
“These systems represent a forward shift in thinking – and enable better management of operations,” she says. “we would be able to monitor room cleaning sequences and inventory, would know where people are and would also be able to communicate with them.
“it would be expensive to set up but worth it.”
one manufacturer of such systems is optii solutions, an innovative company which offers hotel-specific software solutions.
opti i solutions’ opti i Keeper system, the world’s first housekeeping operational optimisation solution, claims to be able to reduce payroll by up to 15%, and has been selected by organisations such as Marriott, hyatt, shangri-la, Kempinski, ihg and others.
“housekeeping is the guardian of the hotel’s core product and the largest payroll department. it is also the only department that does not have technology at its disposal to streamline its core task: cleaning rooms effectively,” says soenke weiss, chief executive officer with optii solutions Pty in Queensland Australia.
The company has already developed products which incorporate email marketing for hotels (optii Mail) and
pre and post-stay marketing (optii Messenger).
“it really comes down to one thing – managing the labour involved,” believes weiss. “housekeeping represents the highest headcount in a typical property.”
weiss, who has recently signed projects at Atlantis The Palm hotel & Resort in dubai and Marina bay sands in singapore and has just installed systems at the new Ramada and days hotel in singapore, says room attendants are spread over the property behind closed doors.
“but there’s no way of efficiently supervising them! housekeeping is the largest department with no technology to make them better at what they do. what’s basically happening is they are manually managed with pen and paper and maybe a walkie-talkie – there’s a glass ceiling of what you can achieve in terms of managing productivity and efficiency. That’s how it’s traditionally been done at properties, whether they are 60 or 6,000 room.
“supervisors have to manage all room attendants – and when it’s busy they are checking the quality of the rooms, which takes all their time. supervisors and the management team can’t really know what’s going on – they can’t be at all places at once.”
weiss says it is ‘mind boggling’ what systems are available and how much hotels are investing in technology, while housekeeping only has cleaners.
“we are growing fast because the housekeeping industry is now waking
up to this,” he adds.“in-house we can help on an
efficiency basis, which is at the core of what we do. we optimise the time the attendant spends inside and outside the room, offering very detailed room-cleaning plans, optimised like a revenue management system optimises rate availability.
“The other key benefit for the hotel is that we can provide metrics which can break the operation right down, automatically monitoring room attendant performance. we can analyse all kinds of statistics – who cleans fast, who cleans effectively – what they are doing, where they are at any given time.”
And weiss makes other fascinating points: that room attendants only spend around 60% of their day actually cleaning; that if there is a child in the room it will typically take 20 minutes longer to clean the room.
“A whole lot of insights are revealed. but a lot of this kind of information is just being ignored.
“we meet housekeeping managers who swear they run a tight operation but within two weeks of using the system are amazed by some of the things they learn about what really happens! Most managers come from finance or f&b background and don’t know how housekeeping works.”
year and Conrad housekeeping scored 100% and Holiday Inn scored 98.99% which was incredible – these are the two largest hotels in the world for their respective brands, so to score those sort of results in an environment where we are running these kinds of high occupancy rate was a big wow moment for the hotel and me personally.
We were the first Conrad to achieve that for a post-opening quality audit. The next audit was six months later and we scored 100% again – again pretty unprecedented. That set the benchmark – expectation is now very high, as you would imagine!
But its not me or the GM achieving these results – it’s the team. I’m not making beds or scrubbing toilets – although I have done that in my time! My role is to make sure we have all the tools, systems and processes in place.
My secrets? There are a couple of things I have been doing for a number of years. I can be very tough but very fair and reasonable – when push comes to shove you have to be tough sometimes.
It’s actually something I don’t do, rather than something I do – I don’t micro-manage the managers. I give them the autonomy to get on with the job themselves. I have very competent, experienced people in their areas and they know what they need to do – if you recruit the right people you can then have confidence in their skills. It’s essential to let them know you trust them to be able to do the job.
WordtotheWeiss–Soenke’stophousekeepingtips
1) Measure performance through the introduction of metrics – whether manually or using software this will help significantly
2) where most gains will be found is in the time room attendants spend outside the rooms – i.e. the time they spend noT cleaning
3) invest in training – well-trained staff can clean rooms much better and much faster
Streamliningtheoperation
DinaAngelucci
SoenkeWeiss
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in Japan, meanwhile, is also on the rise.“There has been a tremendous upward
shift in the level of business that Tokyo is seeing due to business confidence in Japan,” Narayan says. “‘Abenomics’, as it is being termed (the economic policies advocated by Shinzō Abe, the prime minister), has led to occupancies in the city rising as much as 20% to 30% at many hotels over the last two months, and there is now great potential for rates to start rising quickly as well.”
Changing landscapeThe Japanese capital has also seen a massive influx of multinational chains over the last decade, and this is altering the face of the city’s hospitality industry.
“In the last 10 years Tokyo has changed from being dominated by Japanese hotels and chains to now having a plethora of international chain hotels that have entered the market, especially in the five-star deluxe category – for example, Ritz-Carlton, Mandarin Oriental, Peninsula, Grand
Hyatt, Conrad,” Narayan says, adding that the arrival of these multinational brands is having a spillover effect on the product and service style of the hotels that Japanese companies are building and renovating.
“You can see it in the renovation of the Capitol Hotel Tokyo, which has been rebuilt with international styling,” Narayan adds. As a result, more than 50% of its guests are now from other countries.
According to Dan Nakamura, Visit Japan ambassador and former chairman of the Royal Park Hotel, a member of Summit Hotels & Resorts, there has been a large increase in the number of arrivals from other parts of Asia, which now account for 60% of visitors to Japan.
“Last year, the biggest number came from Korea, followed closely by China and Taiwan,” Nakamura says. “There also seems to be an increasing number of visitors from Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam. The demographics are generally well mixed, with more people below middle age.”
Suguru Hirose, director of global sales at Palace Hotel Tokyo, says that some global bodies appear to be “rallying around Japan” following the triple tragedies that beset the country in 2011.
“They seem to be purposefully choosing Japan as their country of choice for hosting major international summits and meetings, and that generosity of spirit and support has very much been felt here in Japan,” Hirose says. “For example, the World Travel & Tourism Council chose to hold its annual Global Summit in Sendai, which was the area most devastated by the tsunami, and in Tokyo last spring, less than a year after the earthquake.”
Political factorsIf Japan’s challenges in 2011 were largely due to acts of nature, politics were at centre stage in 2012, with territorial disputes with Korea and China causing significant – if temporary – dips in the number of leisure travellers from the two countries. Business travel,
Tokyo is shedding its pricey image as multinationals move in and employees take command of their careers, writes Michael Taylor
Back in business
What a difference a decade makes!Ten years ago, hotels in
Tokyo had the highest room rates in Asia. Now the average cost of one night is less than that of hotels in some of the Japanese capital’s key regional rivals. It’s not that Japanese hotels have become less expensive. Their pricing has remained stable while it has risen in other parts of the region.
“With rates being relatively stagnant over the last 10 years, Japan has gone from having the highest average room rate in Asia to now being substantially lower than Singapore and Hong Kong,” says Ananya Narayan, executive vice president, Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa, Preferred Hotel Group.
Another factor affecting room rates is the falling yen, which Narayan says depreciated 25% during the first quarter of 2013, and is having a positive impact on business from overseas. While prices might be steady in terms of the yen, they have dropped when calculated in foreign currencies. Confidence
however, was not significantly affected.An even bigger challenge, according
to Jens Moesker, general manager at the Shangri-La hotel, Tokyo, is a seismic shift in attitudes toward employment.
“Younger Japanese employees want a career path,” Moesker says. “They expect a promotion. They want to be engaged in their career planning. The whole concept of life-long employment has changed.”
In response, the hotel is going to start changing the way it offers training programmes.
“We used to tell them who needed to attend what,” Moesker says. “Now it will be à la carte. We will tell them what is available,
Japan has gone from having the highest average room rate in Asia to now being substantially lower than Singapore and Hong KongAnanya Narayan, Preferred Hotel Group
when Peter carmichael took over as general manager at the AnA intercontinental Tokyo in 2012, 40% of guests visiting the hotel’s expansive executive lounge – the largest in the city – were free upgrades gaining access by way of the hotel group’s loyalty programme. This was a great perk for the guests, but it didn’t do anything to bolster the hotel’s bottom line.
with 850 rooms, the hotel has four distinct categories of accommodation, ranging from three to five stars. it was decided to phase out free access to the lounge. now, anyone staying at the hotel – regardless of room category – can gain access by paying a daily surcharge.
“we felt that by marketing the lounge individually, we could realise 5% more room revenue,” carmichael says.
The lounge was given a complete face-lift, the buffet and cocktail offerings were upgraded, and staffing was increased.
“now everyone who goes in there
ANAInterContinentalTokyo
pays for it, and that allows us to provide a quality experience,” carmichael says. “even someone in our entry-level category can enjoy all of the benefits. it has had a very positive impact on our room revenue. it is seen as a ‘best practice’ for our company.”
Pay-in executive lounge boosts room revenue
and they can decide what they want to take.”According to Peter Carmichael, general
manager at ANA InterContinental Tokyo, 2012 was the fifth best year in the hotel’s 26-year history, with the best yet to come.
“From the perspective of an international hotel, anything more than 70% occupancy and you’re doing back flips in the lobby; we’re running north of 80%, ” Carmichael says.
“We’ve had a long-term strategy of lifting our rates. With effective revenue management, effective utilisation of our meeting and convention space, and some cost-saving initiatives that did not affect our customers, we expect 2013 to be our best year ever in terms of profitability.”
CapitolHotelTokyumainlobby
ThefallingyenishavingapositiveimpactonbusinessfromoverseassaysAnanyaNarayanofPreferredHotelGroup
VisitJapanambassadorDanNakamurasaysthatalargeincreaseinthenumberofarrivalsfromotherpartsofAsianowaccountfor60%ofvisitorstoJapan
PalaceHotelTokyo
In today’s competitive hospitality industry, Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is crucial. Hotels
need to have a deep knowledge of their customers’ needs, behaviour and preferences in order to deliver the services they want, sometimes even before the guest knows they want it.
While a large number of big hotel chains have individually developed proprietary CRM systems, many small and medium-sized hotel chains still do not have a clear strategy on how to implement a CRM solution, according to Richard Wiegmann, managing director of Trust International, a well known supplier of CRM systems.
However, the awareness for the necessity of targeted and segmented marketing campaigns is increasing in the industry, he says. More hoteliers are adopting an integrated CRM solution as the prerequisite for a new approach in marketing activities.
Shayne Paddock, CIO of ZDirect, a global provider of eCRM (electronic CRM) services to the global hospitality industry, says that to convince hoteliers of the advantages of targeted marketing via CRM he asks them what they would prefer to receive, an offer personalised for them with the type of activities they enjoy, or an obviously generic email sent to all the guests.
“Our experience has shown that targeted campaigns outperform generic campaigns in the only metric that matters, revenue.”
Wiegmann says that knowing and
understanding the customer is becoming critical for hotels and a main differentiator in the competing hotel market. It is not simply a question of investing in a new system; it is also necessary to allocate resources to oversee the evolution of the CRM strategy and administer/monitor the profile management and data quality.
A sophisticated business process CRM technology helps the hotel and the hotel group accumulate valuable information in order to service the guest better. It offers the unique opportunity to aggregate the combined information from all distribution channels as it can integrate data from PMS, CRS, IDS and GDS and allows hotels and hotel chains to consolidate their yield strategy. Marketing campaigns or loyalty programmes can easily be conducted, since this provides an extremely efficient way of keeping data in sync and up-to-date.
The major challenge of gathering massive volumes of data, exchanging, and matching of records between the hotel and head office databases has become a sophisticated business process, Wiegmann says.
With the latest CRM technology, databases can be synchronised and guest data across the hotelier’s PMS and CRS systems can be combined. In this way hoteliers can analyse data from online guest preference portals, loyalty and guest
recognition programmes or improved overall profile quality, analysis of guest behaviour and business trends to run powerful marketing campaigns.
“One has to keep in mind that CRM is much more than just an email marketing system!” notes Wiegmann. While the purpose of customer relations management itself hasn’t changed much over the last decade, the technology behind it has evolved dramatically, he says.
Paddock agrees: “The core concepts of CRM haven’t changed but the available channels to reach guests are constantly changing,” he says. “At ZDirect we focus on eCRM. Our focus is on maximising guest revenue through dynamic guest marketing
and communication. We reach the guests through as many electronic channels as possible whether it’s email marketing, guest satisfaction surveys, social media or mobile.”
Social media and CRMAll the major players in the CRM area are united in saying that the use of social media is currently one of the most noteworthy trends.
Social media is growing as a successful channel to reach guests, says Paddock, noting that guests expect to ‘tweet’ the hotel when they have an issue, but to also brag about the property when the experience has been positive.
The current trend, according to Wiegmann, is the integration of CRM information about guests with social media activities. Marketing departments are enriching CRM profile data with information from guest’s social media profiles allowing them to run specific social media marketing campaigns, including rewarding ‘shares’ and ‘likes’. Combining a proven and highly flexible CRM solution with the CRS, the PMS, and data from other third-party channels is a must in order to stay at the forefront of one´s competition.
“I believe the widespread adoption of social media will help us raise the bar even higher in this area in the coming year,” Wiegmann says.
MJ Crabbe-Barberis is global CRM marketing director at Infor, a US company that supplies software to several industries, including hospitality. She too is convinced that data from social media must be incorporated into the picture.
“It’s not just the guest interacting with the resort, it’s the guest interacting with the resort and being very communicative
about their life event with friends via social networks,” she says.
“Our latest thinking as it relates to that business dilemma is that organisations need to consolidate the views of the guests, including relevant social media data, into one centralised place in order to be successful – being proactive about direct personalised responses enhances the guest experience and maximises property revenue. It is very challenging to try and do it haphazardly channel by channel any more. Rather you need to connect and coordinate all channels, including the emotive ones.
“There is a recognition and desire for organisations to bring all of the social channels together and to find ways to analyse those data, but there is not a tremendous movement forward yet to do these things because of complexity and confusion on ‘where do I start?’”
With Infor, Crabbe-Barberis says, properties can manage and analyse all of this from one central place – from email to social to direct – as well as access the data in real-time.
Mukund Mohan, Infor´s vice president for product strategy, hospitality, predicts that over the next few years hospitality companies will further the use of social CRM and real-time marketing to leverage social media as a communications channel – and in the process bring effectiveness to the social media presence via channels such as: • The use of Twitter – The property will
motivate guests to sign up to ‘follow’ it on Twitter via a promotional ‘freebie’ – some type of bonus, such as a free appetiser at the bar. Then the property will be able to leverage the private tweet functionality to send out tweets on offers and promotions to the guests.
The primary intention of Customer Relationship Management is to create customer retention and loyalty. Don Gasper looks at the current state of the CRM industry and how it is evolving
• The leveraging of the ‘like/follow’ options of Facebook and Twitter to make more targeted offers to guests. Sending offers/deals to the guests via social channels is more effective than using email as emails traditionally end up as spam, Mohan says.
He also predicts that hospitality companies will send real-time offers and promotions to guests´ mobile devices via apps, i.e. real time messaging for social engagements to recommend offers, special discounts, replies, web links to visit, etc.
Building loyalty through CRM“Personal service and effective delivery of promises by a hotelier builds guest loyalty,” says Wiegmann. “In addition, it is necessary for a hotel chain to know frequent guests’ spending patterns so it can use this information to optimise marketing activities and promote relevant offerings to targeted groups of guests. A loyalty programme that rewards frequent guests of the hotel group and takes advantage of their passion for collecting points completes the picture.”
Crabbe-Barberis says CRM systems can aid in creating a lifelong personalised relationship through a stream of connected communications and interactions that are balanced and tailored to each specific guest.
“Loyalty systems traditionally have rewarded guests for the stay,” notes Paddock. “They need to start rewarding the guest for the revenue spent. That way guests will have an incentive to eat in the restaurant, spend money in the spa or play golf on-property instead of going off-site for all of those activities which is such a lost opportunity for the property.”
Keep the customer satisfied
MukundMohanbelievesthatoverthenextfewyearshospitalitycompanieswillfurthertheuseofsocialCRMandreal-timemarketingtoleveragesocialmediaasacommunicationschannel
Experiencehasshownthattargetedcampaignsoutperformgenericcampaignsintheonlymetricthatmatters,revenue,saysShaynePaddock
MJCrabbe-Barberis–CRMsystemscanaidincreatingalifelongpersonalisedrelationship
RichardWiegmann–CRMismuchmorethanjustanemailmarketingsystem
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Hotel bars enjoy a somewhat risqué reputation. In films, they are the usual meeting places for lead characters to embark on a love affair. In terms of design, public perception is that dimmer and more intimate is better.
With the bevy of renovated and purpose-built properties in Asia over the past decade, the hotel bar’s function has expanded far beyond being merely a spot to hook up over drinks.
Today’s drinking establishments are almost as varied as hotels themselves, with some open around the clock to evolve from cafe to meeting space to casual dining to event venue within an 18-hour period. Their design has also followed suit, to push the envelopes where the best have become destination hotspots for the city.
Jean-Marc Dizerens is Shangri-La International’s director of corporate food and beverage, and is involved in the operations side across all of the Hong Kong-based hotel group’s properties.
Hotel bars and lounges have evolved to become
around-the-clock establishments where
guests and locals alike can feel at home, writes
Rebecca Lo
Speaking easy Originally from Switzerland, he has been with Shangri-La since 1999 and witnessed many changes as the brand expanded globally. He sees Shangri-La’s bars as places not only for thirsty folks, but also where travellers can connect with family or work via the internet. In China, lounges and bars are often venues for conducting business and where contracts are signed.
“The Chinese travel a lot and have seen a lot,” Dizerens says. “They have been exposed to the best places in Europe and North America. They know what a good glass of wine tastes like. We need to react to their high expectations by establishing a philosophy based on interaction. The priority is to make guests feel comfortable.”
A successful bar is a mix of its design and how the venue is communicated to the market, Dizerens believes.
“At Atmosphere, on the 80th floor of China World Summit Wing in Beijing, the view is fantastic when the city’s pollution doesn’t get in the way. As the venue itself is very new, the challenge was bringing people from the ground floor to the bar level. For Kerry Pudong, the bar there is a brewery. We hired a professional Australian brewer who created a beer for the outlet. It was the right time and right destination for the concept, and a smart, avant garde move for Kerry Pudong.”
TheBrewinKerryShanghai(piccourtesyShangri-LaInternationalbyMichaelWeber)
PhotographycourtesygreyMatters,Shangri-LaHotels&ResortsandThePeninsulaShanghai
SalondeNinginThePeninsulaShanghai,designedbyHenryLeungofChhadaSiembiedaLeung–asuccessfulhotelbarthatisadestinationinitsownright(aboveandbelow)
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Schaerer Ltd., Allmendweg 8, 4528 Zuchwil, Switzerland T +41 32 681 62 00, F +41 32 681 62 42, [email protected] www.schaerer.com
Thinking bigThe sophisticated Atmosphere, designed by New York-based Adam Tihany, has proven to be a very popular venue that is always packed despite its relatively large size. Dubai-based Stickman designed The Brew to be a contemporary space in keeping with the Kerry brand. It features extensive use of natural materials such as wood and an outdoor terrace to foster a fun and lively vibe.
Singapore-based American architect Alan Barr is no stranger to hotel bar design, as he worked for a number of hospitality firms including New York’s zeffdesign and Blink in Asia prior to establishing his own company, greyMatters, earlier this year. He is also a frequent traveller who makes ample use of hotel outlets wherever he is staying, and is therefore a reliable critic from both perspectives.
He points out that as lobby lounges supersede all-day dining restaurants for amount of time open, careful attention should be paid to how the space transitions from day to evening to night.
“Unlike a stand-alone drinking establishment, it must cater to many different types of users,” Barr states. “The atmosphere not only needs to complement the hotel’s attitude, but also needs to change moods during the long hours of service. Too moody in the daytime
is a turn off and too fresh in the evening is equally disturbing to a guest settling in for a last drink.
“Hotel bars of yesteryear were provided as pre and post-dinner establishments. But today, it has a much wider audience and expanded hours of service. The technology all around us has enabled us to detach from hard wires and the need to sit at our desks. Personally, I can set up an office almost anywhere if I have power and wifi. Spending so much time travelling, I often use the hotel lounge or bar as change of scenery from being stuck in my room all day preparing for meetings.”
Barr cites Salon de Ning in The Peninsula Shanghai, designed by Henry Leung of Chhada Siembieda Leung, as an example of a successful hotel bar that is a destination in its own right.
“It is so off the wall and different from anything else available in the market,” he says. “It was gutsy of them to put a design of that ilk in such a posh and refined hotel – quite a refreshing juxtaposition.”
A sense of balanceBarr feels that there are some key ingredients that can help contribute to a bar’s success: consistent local guests who use the outlet, its own entrance and a sense of place. “Whether modern, contemporary,
classic or heritage, I feel that there should always be sense of place that balances the concept and the design – the glue that holds the two together.”
Dizerens points out that city hotels and resorts attract different markets, leading to different designs for their bars and lounges.
“The biggest differences are length and purpose of stay,” he states. “Guests tend to stay less than two nights in a city hotel and may go to the bar once or twice after a long day working. They know what they want, how long they have to spend and what time they will leave.
“A city hotel’s bar must get the service, décor and equipment right for everything to go smoothly. In a resort, guests stay for three or four nights and want to be offered something different when they go to the bar. It’s a great opportunity to interact with them, along with provide activities to change the atmosphere of the outlet.”
“While basic needs are similar, guest habits in the two environments greatly differ,” agrees Barr. “Do I want to sit upright or am I looking to lounge horizontally for a few hours under an umbrella? The design must follow the function. Many resorts are trending to have at least one stand-alone F&B outlet on stand alone of the property. This certainly attracts outside guests and gives in-house guests an option that feels like they aren’t in a hotel.
“A few projects that I have in development in Bali right now all have stand-alone outlets. Having the appearance of an independent drinking establishment affords guest satisfaction for those looking to venture out and keeps the revenue internal to the operation. Non-resident guests perceive it to be a stand-alone operation. It’s a win for all sides.”
AtAtmosphere,onthe80thfloorofChinaWorldSummitWinginBeijing,thechallengeistoattractpeopleupfromthegroundfloor(picShangri-LaInternational)
Jean-MarcDizerensbelievesthatasuccessfulbarisamixofitsdesignandhowthevenueis
communicatedtothemarket
AlanBarr–carefulattentionshouldbepaidtohowspacetransitionsfromdaytoeveningtonight
SDI-24286 Food&Drink 290X420 WACS-AW-GK 2 19/04/2013 12:43
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No international buffet is complete without smoked salmon. As a fresh item it is as popular in Asian cuisine as in that of the West. In addition, the craze for sushi has made raw salmon increasingly sought-
after worldwide. Scotland’s Loch Fyne started in the early 1970s as a small
company of oyster growers whose guiding principles were environmental preservation and marine conservation. Despite massive growth and expansion, that foundation remains the same today.
“We have certainly seen an increase in demand for salmon from our Asian customers,” says marketing and events manager, Virginia Sumsion, “which would lead to an assumption that it is becoming more popular, especially smoked salmon at the higher end of the market, which is where Loch Fyne sits.”
All Loch Fyne salmon is farmed on the west coast of Scotland from fisheries working to criteria laid down by the UK Freedom Food scheme.
“We do not use wild salmon as we regard wild stocks as in danger of being overfished and not sustainable as a commercial food source,” Sumsion points out.
“The principle of sustainability is extremely important to our company and has been since our beginnings. Our stance on ethical fishing methods has earned us customers throughout the world.”
For Sumsion the overriding criterion for customers is freshness.
“The shorter the time from harvesting to plate the fresher the fish will be, therefore efficient and reliable routes to market are important.”
The fish should have firm flesh and little, if any, fat. “A good salmon has a sleek torpedo-like shape and minimal fat lines visible in the flesh,” Sumsion explains.
“Under the Freedom Food scheme salmon are grown in nets or cages which have a large proportion of water to salmon, leaving plenty of space to swim in to keep fit and healthy. Overstocking salmon cages can lead to unhealthy, fatty fish.”
Scottish Atlantic salmon has “the highest reputation for quality,” says Sumsion, adding that there is now a greater understanding that farmed salmon can vary considerably in quality.
“The more discerning customers are certainly getting better
informed and able to identify the quality of the salmon they are looking for.”
With salmon stocks vulnerable to climate changes and health issues, as well as being sensitive to husbandry procedures, Sumsion says environmental concerns can have a profound effect on supply.
“A few years ago problems in the Chilean salmon industry led to a fall in supply and a rise in demand from other sources. No-one involved in the salmon industry can afford to ignore environmental issues.”
On the menuIncreasing awareness of the importance of healthy eating habits is at the heart of salmon’s popularity today, according to Hong Kong Regal Oriental Hotel executive sous chef, Ken Chan.
“Salmon has always been a staple on hotel menus, but is more popular than ever because people nowadays are more concerned about their health,” Chan says.
“When compared to other meats such as beef, pork or chicken, salmon is healthier. It contains Omega 3 and other oils that balance the fatty acids in the body.”
Chan has always used salmon – fresh and smoked – on his menus, with very little change over the years.
“I like using the belly part as sashimi, and tartar; I like roasting the head and tail; I use the head and bones for soup; and also deep-fry the skin.”
When buying salmon the first thing Chan looks for is a good colour. “It has to be shiny red, and with a smooth texture. The body
The salmon market – fresh and smoked – is hugely profitable. Zara Horner looks at the latest trends and
environmental issues in the industry
Smokin’ seafoodPic:LochFyne
CuringatLochFyne
Pic:ScottishEnterprise
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www.anuga.com
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scottish salmon has long been a favourite with food lovers worldwide, who appreciate its high quality, unique flavour and the luxury appeal of this typical scottish product. so much so, that scottish salmon was recently named ‘best farmed salmon in the world’ in a poll of international seafood buyers from leading retail and food service companies.
This reputation is supported by international sales; the worldwide retail value of scottish farmed salmon now stands at over £1 billion (us$1.5 billion), as it is enjoyed in over 64 countries around the world.
scottish salmon is a highly versatile food that can be bought fresh or smoked and prepared in a variety of ways within a range of western and Asian cuisines, from whole baked salmon to sushi and sashimi – salmon recently overtook tuna as the number one fish used by Japanese sushi chefs – and the number of high-end restaurants, hotels and food stores across Asia providing scottish salmon to their customers is now greater than ever.
in fact, exports of scottish salmon to the far east are at record levels, having increased by 1,172% in the last three years. exports to china alone were worth over £23 million in 2011, just over a year after an agreement was reached to permit chinese imports of salmon direct from scotland for the first time.
Only the bestThis demand is due to Asian consumers’ and restaurateurs’ increased desire for the very best ingredients. scottish salmon mostly comes from the pristine waters of scotland’s western highlands and islands where strong currents mean that salmon get plenty of exercise from continuously swimming upstream.
unsurprisingly, this prevents excessive fat deposition and makes them leaner, thus producing scottish salmon’s distinctive firm, textured flesh and exceptional flavour.
This idyllic environment is not exclusive to salmon, as the clear fresh waters and extensive coastline of scotland also produces some of the world’s finest seafood.
comprising over 60 species of fish and shellfish, scotland’s seafood industry is also seeing an increase in popularity, with lobster, razor clams, langoustine and crab much sought after by Asian seafood lovers.
scottish salmon and seafood aim to be the produce of choice with the world’s best chefs. launched in shanghai in november, the industry has signed a landmark global agreement with the world Association of chefs’ societies (wAcs), which has 10 mil l ion members in 93 countries.
The agreement will see scottish salmon and langoustine star in some of the world’s best recipes during wAcs global chef competitions, further demonstrating scottish seafood’s versatility in creating delicacies on menus around the world.
importantly, Asian importers and premium retailers have an assurance that scotland has the natural resources and plentiful supply that can more than satisfy the demands of today’s consumers, as well as the world’s best chefs. scottish seafood workers care passionately about their industry and observe sustainable and responsible practices that ensure stocks for the future.
with global seafood consumption on the rise, most notably in Japan and china, delicious, sustainably sourced scottish salmon and seafood are in the perfect position to stand out as premium quality products to be enjoyed by the most discerning food connoisseurs in Asia.
Scottish salmon leaping in to the hearts of Asian food lovers
ExportsofScottishsalmontotheFarEastareatrecordlevels,havingincreasedby1,172%inthelastthreeyears
region,” Schwarz says, “and is in demand from virtually every kind of cuisine represented here, from Indian and Malay to Japanese and Chinese restaurants as well as the traditional food stalls in Singapore.
“The start of Chinese new year could not be without the popular salmon Loh Hei and salmon sashimi is a must on every buffet now.”
To highlight this growing demand, Schwarz quotes latest data from the Norwegian Seafood Council, which says the value of exports of Norwegian salmon in the first quarter of this year totalled 8.2 billion krone (US$1.4 billion).
“This is an increase of 22% or 1.5 billion krone compared to the first quarter of 2012,” says Schwarz. “In March, exports of Norwegian salmon totalled 3 billion krone, an increase of 12% or 312 million krone compared to March last year.”
Aquacultural advancesAquaculture methods have developed at a rapid pace over the nearly 40 years since it began, with organisations such as the UN emphasising its importance in supplying demand.
“Through close cooperation between scientists and fish farmers a growing number of other species are being tested for their ability to be farmed, including cod and halibut,” Schwarz explains, adding that strict health regulations, and close safety monitoring are the key to continued success and growth of the industry.
“Norwegian fish farmers have set side more than US$18 million annually – in addition to state investments – to fund research and development,” he says.
“Salmon are ‘herd’ animals and do not want to swim alone, so we ensure there is at least 97.5% of open water volume per pen to allow the salmon the freedom to grow to full size in a clean and natural environment.”
Another example of how the Norwegian aquaculture industry “constantly strives to reach new landmarks of environmental sustainability” Schwarz says is through responsible harvesting of the wild fish used in salmon feed.
With 75% of the Norwegian salmon sold in Southeast Asia going to hotels, restaurants and catering, Christian Chramer, regional director for the Norwegian Seafood Council based in Singapore, says, “For Norway the fresh salmon trade is very important.
“A majority of our fresh salmon products are sold to Singapore, Japan and China and we see a strengthening of fresh sales in countries like Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia.”
This has given Norway a head start in the fastest growing fast food trend in the world: sushi and sashimi.
“In the early 80s Norwegian farmed salmon was imported to Japan where salmon was of limited use for raw consumption due to fat content. Norwegian salmon took off and today you can find it all over the world and in growing demand.”
needs to be soft, the eye colour needs to be sharp. “I prefer using Norwegian salmon because it’s a more oily fish,
a bigger size and has a better colour, which means it’s fresher – a very important factor.”
Chan’s salmon tartar is finished with a dill lime dressing, while he chooses a dill lime and mango dressing to accompany smoked salmon. Another dish popular with guests is the Japanese-style salmon steak, “which is served with steamed rice and teriyaki sauce.”
Down on the farmSalmon farming, or aquaculture, began in Norway in the early 1970s with the cultivation of Atlantic salmon in direct response to the world’s growing demand for healthy seafood, says Snorre Food general manager Hugo Ernst Schwarz.
Snorre Food is a seafood importer from Europe’s largest fishing nation, Norway. With a company mission statement which promotes an internal culture of ‘thinking differently’, the company now has a wide distribution network across Asia.
“Our Norwegian salmon is available throughout the APAC SnorreFoodisdistributingitsNorwegiansalmonacrossAsia
Pic:LochFyne
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“When the room status is occupied in the hotel property management system, the minibar will cool to a certain temperature. When the guest checks out, the cooling stops, until it reaches a minimum temperature set for vacant rooms, thus cutting energy consumption dramatically.”
Bartech has produced a new 70L double-door minibar with an automatic charging side and a manual side for the guest’s personal use. Korean and Japanese guests particularly appreciate this to store their own food and drink, while it is also popular for those who need to store medications, baby food and similar items.
Bartech go one step further with a blue welcome light that is automatically switched on at check-in. This makes the minibar “immediately visible and attractive when the guest [enters] the room”, says marketing director Sophie Longevialle.
Another Bartech innovation is an e-tray that also registers charges automatically when a jar of nuts or similar item is removed. These come in single or double rows and the finish can be customised according to the hotel’s requirements, Longevialle adds. Bartech has also just launched the NEO Bar with added insulation, which offers an even lower energy consumption, points out Strijker.
Clear advantage“More and more five-star hotels are requesting glass door minibars,” says Terence Cheng, regional sales manager – Lodging Asia Pacific for Dometic Group Asia Pacific. The company supplies Four Seasons, Hyatt and Peninsula hotels, among others.
Dometic has also developed an innovative pullout minibar, the DM 50, with two refrigerated drawers – one for miniature bottles and snacks, the other for bottles and cans. This design, which can
be customised to blend in with any décor, enables the guest to see all contents at a glance.
There’s a strong case to be made for ‘free’ minibars, especially in small hotels without 24-hour room service, says Zul Rahman, director of sales and maketing, 137 Pillars House, Chiang Mai.
“The free mini bar is of course not revenue supporting for the F&B department and it’s more like added value to the service. Since we are offering free soft drinks and beers from minibar, guests tend to drink more expensive wine or liquor from our bar.”
At the Regent Bali, general manager Murray Aitken adopts a different rationale.
“Minibars are a drain on any operation in view of manpower, stock management and upkeep. Nowadays they can rarely be regarded as a revenue generating cost centre,” he says.
“Hotels invariably stock items that are not what the guests want but what they believe the guest will buy. In reality, most guests want what is down at the local 7-Eleven and are not prepared to pay more than 20% mark-up. Nowadays, guests’ needs have changed. They demand free internet and are prepared to stay elsewhere to get it, and minibars are usually never opened as they know 90% of the time they will see old stock items that have been in the fridge for months and once touched will cost them 300% upwards what they can get it for if they go outside the hotel and buy it.
“So hotels that still feel they need to charge under the ‘old’ ways of the minibar are losing their customers’ faith and loyalty by not adding value where they can. i.e. as a complimentary amenity. This will never be a high demand item like free internet, therefore it can be used merely as a tool to add value, like providing top brand soaps.”
Minibar revolutionA decade ago, during his time at Raffles Singapore, Aitken took what was then a revolutionary stand against high minibar prices. He set a new policy of using popular, recognisable brands that could be found at 7-Eleven stores, marked up by only 25%.
“We removed miniature spirits altogether and added more healthy options such as fresh juices. Our sales increased immediately three-fold and losses were minimised. Today, I believe the minibar must be treated as an amenity, like soap, shampoo and toothbrush. This will greatly enhance the overall room value and allow us to compete in the market against our competitors.”
Two new Hong Kong hotels opening this year have contrasting views about their minibars. At Mira Moon, where a personalised hotel experience is the focal point, there will be a complimentary minibar stocked with local soft drinks and beers and a cocktail tray with chargeable small bottles of various liquors together with a shaker and an original recipe that is updated regularly, says Jaly Lai, director of sales and marketing.
Meanwhile Anne Busfield, general manager of newly opened Auberge Discovery Bay in Hong Kong, admits that many hoteliers ask themselves whether a minibar makes sense when they review the monthly financial performance.
“However, it is a guest expectation and therefore, we balance off the labour and energy expense to enable us to meet our guests’ expectations,” she says.
The hotel has opted for automatic billing using innovative French brand JVD minibars, which claim to be absolutely silent as there are no compressors or moving parts. Busfield says the minibars will be stocked with organic snacks and drinks as well as ‘Best Remedy’ spray and Lavender eye masks.
While the technology continues to advance, the thinking behind the role of the minibar is also evolving, reports Jane Ram
The minibar concept did not really take off until 1974, when the then general manager of the 840-room Hong Kong Hilton installed refrigerators stocked with alcoholic and soft drinks in all rooms. A new revenue
stream arrived almost overnight and the minibar became an essential item in every hotel room around the world.
Recently, however, many hotel markets facing overbuilding, high levels of competition and declining yield have increasingly viewed minibars as a financial burden. As a result many hotel rooms, especially in North America and Europe, have no refrigerator, or just an empty one.
Now the wheel is turning again as new technology and new thinking combine to give the minibar a new lease of life. Indel B has put considerable resources into the development of their newest product line: K ECOSMART. These A+++ compressor minibars are purpose-designed for hotel rooms being eco-friendly, money saving and ultra-quiet, says Sara Berardi, Indel B’s marketing manager.
At the same time minibar design has been overhauled, says the company’s export area manager Far East, North Africa, France, Matteo Bartolini. Sleek glass doors make the contents more immediately attractive, enticing guests to ‘feel like’ having a drink or a snack.
Automatic technology has become more widely used to save energy and manpower and pre-empt disputes at checkout time as to what was or was not consumed. Bartech’s Computerised Energy Saving System decreases energy costs by 50% and can reduce staff costs by 75%, allowing hotels to reduce power used by their minibars according to the occupancy status of the room, says Jan Willem Strijker, Bartech’s managing director, Asia Pacific.
storeConvenience
BartechC32automaticminibarwithfrostedglassdoorandwelcomelight
Bartech’se-trayregisterschargesautomaticallywhenajarofnutsorsimilaritemisremoved
IndelBproducesminibarswhicharepurpose-designedforhotelroomsbeingeco-friendly,money-savingandultra-quiet
Dometic’sDM50innovativepulloutminibarcanbecustomisedtoblendinwithanydécor,andenablestheguesttoseeallcontentsataglance
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While the wine trade in Asia can appear divided on the topic of American fine wine, some
producers have been excelling in the inexact art of separating the good stuff from the merely mundane, thus exploding the old cliché that these wines are one-dimensional, overpriced fruit bombs.
The marke t l e ade r by reg ion is unquestionably California and the numbers speak for themselves – American wine exports grew in 2012 for the third consecutive year, setting a record of US$1.43 billion in revenue, according to a February 2013 report from the San Francisco-based Wine Institute, which noted that 90% of these exports hailed from California.
Volume shipments reached 424.6 million litres (112.2 million cases of wine) while traction at retail in Asia saw significant growth – in China, sales reached US$74 million in 2012, up 18% from the previous year, and two emerging markets also saw
notable improvements, with South Korea up 26% at US$16 million and Vietnam up 22% at US$27 million.
Most of the glamour goes to one particular area – Napa Valley, located a two-hour drive north of San Francisco. The vineyards produce only 4% of all California wine from a total acreage one-eighth the size of Bordeaux yet the wine industry there accounts for one-third of all wine sold in the US (currently the fourth-biggest wine producing nation after France, Italy and Spain) and exerts an economic impact of US$13 billion annually.
Napa is most famous for some iconic names – the hyper-expensive Screaming Eagle (starting at US$750 a bottle) and Harlan Estate (US$500 a bottle) yet there are better-known, marginally more affordable names such as Joseph Phelps Vineyards, with its flagship wine Insignia, of which 15% of its total production is exported (a third of this to Asia, with Hong Kong being the fourth-largest market).
Wine writer and former California
resident Gerrie Lim says Asian
sommeliers should reconsider Napa
Valley through the resonance of its new
red wines
The best areas of production can produce wines with as much finesse and elegance as other high quality production areas. In a cool vintage, telling a good Napa Cabernet from a ripe year, left-bank Medoc Cru Classé can actually be difficultFongyee Walker, Dragon Phoenix Wine Consulting
The cult of Californian Cabernet
The Napa Valley company hit the jackpot in 2005 when its 2002 vintage of Insignia was declared ‘Wine of the Year’ by Wine Spectator magazine, and the current 2009 release scored 95 points with Robert Parker’s The Wine Advocate.
Image overhaulWines such as Insignia have helped jettison the relatively poor image Californian wine once had. This is even more so the case now, given the newer vintages of the so-called ‘Cult Cabernets’, handcrafted in small quantities. One example is a new wine called Gallica, from St Helena in Napa Valley, whose first vintage was 2007. The current release is a 2009 Cabernet Sauvignon, of which only 407 cases were made.
“I am indeed thought of as making wines that are balanced and restrained,” noted its winemaker, Rosemary Cakebread, after reviews praised the wine’s aromatic freshness and deft finesse. “2009 was a cool year so it’s typical of what I strive to
make. It’s layered with cardamom, dried cranberry and black tea, and a pleasure to drink early because of its fruit intensity but also designed to age gracefully.”
New wines such as Gall ica are emblematic of where things are going, since this 2009 vintage retails in Hong Kong at HK$1,128 a bottle (US$145).
“This is a boutique wine, made in small volumes and we have a limited allocation,” noted Matthew Aylmer, marketing director at its importer Kerry Wines in Hong Kong.
“There was a perception a few years ago that California wines were overpriced but now, looking at a wine like Gallica and the general consensus on its quality, I think the pricing is very good. Our target customers are people on-trade and our private customers buying off our website, and we’re also looking at small independent retail stores. We even consider it to be markedly better than Beringer Private Reserve.”
Competing in that same price bracket
and arguably the collector’s benchmark wine, Beringer Private Reserve has been the flagship wine of Napa Valley’s Beringer Vineyards for the past 30 years and is a complex wine blended from grapes from seven separate blocks and produced only in years of acceptable harvest.
More please“Due to high demand and low production, we can never get enough supply,” notes Cressida Barnes, the wine’s brand ambassador for Hong Kong and Macau. “Our focus has always been to build the top end of our wines including the Private Reserve which truly exemplifies the high quality of Napa Valley. Our marketing focus is on letting customers know about their success, particularly with Robert Parker having scored every Beringer Private Reserve Cabernet 90-plus points for the last 15 vintages.
“Due to the small size of Napa Valley, the price points on shelf for the better
JosephPhelpsVineyardsexports15%ofitsflagshipwineInsignia,withathirdofthisgoingtoAsia
ImporterWineCulturesaysexportstoChinaofqualityCalifornianwines,suchasitsWaterstone
label,hasgrownby42%
StHelenainNapaValley
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quality wines are extremely good value for money,” she adds. “We are pleased that our fastest-growing range of Beringer wines comes from the Napa Valley and the Knights Valley in Sonoma, where they are starting to enjoy a cult following at both retail and on-premise.”
There is, in other words, an unequivocal consensus in terms of their value proposition, because enjoyment is often commensurate with price. The same has been said for other such Napa Valley producers (Stag’s Leap, Colgin Cellars, and Clos du Val for example) and this recognition has gradually moved north of the border.
“The interest in Californian wines is certainly on the increase here,” observed Cliff See, managing director in China of wine importer Wine Culture, whose Shanghai office is the exclusive distributor
of two respected California brands, Bogle and Waterstone. “Given time, I think some of the cult status brands will no doubt gain recognition.”
He spoke in light of the recent softening of the Bordeaux market in China and the fresh respect paid since one year ago, when it was reported that American wine exports to China had grown by 42% from the previous year.
In February 2012, an Associated Press report said that lower quality California appellation wines have sold well to middle class consumers in recent years, but the increasing demand for top quality vintages is evidence of China’s growing upper class.
This has also quashed the old argument about overpriced wines.
“Mid-priced wines are troublesome price-wise for all countries and not just the
US, and California is actually better off than the Australians, who are now suffering from bad exchange rates,” said Beijing-based wine educator Fongyee Walker from Dragon Phoenix Wine Consulting, after a recent trip to Napa Valley.
“Most people’s perception of fine California wine is far too simplistic. The best areas of production can produce wines with as much finesse and elegance as other high quality production areas. In a cool vintage, telling a good Napa Cabernet from a ripe year, left-bank Medoc Cru Classé can actually be difficult.”
Tell that to the fat cats who persist in paying the requisite renminbi for their Chateaux Lafite and Latour, hoping to impress their business associates. For those appreciative of fine wines with real staying power, all roads now lead to California.
RosemaryCakebread,Gallicaownerandwinemaker
NewwinessuchasGallicaareleadingthewayforqualityCalifornian‘CultCabernets’
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ShowcaveMade in France
For a free brochure containing full detail,please contact:
Alpha International Food Services909, Chai Wan Industrial City, Phase 2,70 Wing Tai Road, Chai Wan, Hong Kong.Tel: (852) 2889 2123 Fax: (852) 2889 1757http://www.eurocave-alpha.comEmail: [email protected]
Combining high quality, luxury materials, ShowCave has given the wine cabinet a facelift. Innovative, with a capacity for 180 bottles, it boasts high-tech features and a bold design.
Designed to showcase your best vintages, ShowCave will appeal to both wine professionals and connoisseurs.
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designs to merge traditional Thai dress with the sharp lines of French tailoring.”
And it’s been a hit with the staff. “They feel proud and happy with their uniforms. Moreover, all staff also feel their uniforms are trendy and unique, which they cannot find in any other place.”
Each staff member is given three styles of their uniform which they may wear as they prefer, “without any rules to control them.”
All front of house uniforms have been designed by Christian Lacroix; restaurant staff also rotate uniforms designed locally while sales, marketing and accounting staff do not have uniforms.
“We took great care with the production of the uniforms,” Thayartsuwan says. “The fabric was one of the important considerations as we needed to print the Lacroix designs on the fabric, therefore, we had to choose fabric which has a long duration, and is easy to look after.”
Basic is beautifulWhile some of the most basic uniforms are of course to be found in the kitchen, Tim Grubi, managing director at uniform manufacturer Global Chef makes the point that chefs can be very different, highlighting four categories.
“There are the ‘professional’ style chefs – TV and personality
Zara Horner finds out what’s trending with hotel and restaurant staff uniforms
Looking the pArt
SofitelSoBangkok–‘uniformsvisuallyrepresentthehotel’sfashionableanduniqueconcept’
environments and cultures to work with, Gross says.“One has to adapt to chilled out poolside beach areas on the
islands of Southeast Asia, to rooftop chic in Shanghai and Hong Kong. There are also colder temperatures in South Korea and Northern China. The most unique market is Macau.
“Chef Works and our subdivision Uniform Works collaborate with each property individually to best cater for their needs, including those hotels with highly sophisticated uniform control systems which incorporate chipping the garments.”
Sophistication is something the relatively new Sofitel So Bangkok is becoming known for, and one of the first things visitors notice is the highly unusual staff uniform.
“The uniforms really support the hotel brand,” says Chanrutt Thayartsuwan, marketing communications executive.
They have been designed by French designer Christian Lacroix and visually represent the concept of the hotel being fashionable and unique.”
Even so, easy maintenance, cost, and durability were the top three criteria given to the French fashion design house when briefed to come up with an eye-catching uniform.
It’s an eclectic approach to a staff dress code, agrees Thayartsuwan. “Monsieur Lacroix brought bold colours and floral touches into
Smart, comfortable, hardwearing, easy to clean and, increasingly, environmentally friendly. The list of requirements is long when it comes to staff uniforms.
A major purchasing decision, which impacts several budgets, the cost and quality of staff uniforms are also priorities.
Adam Gross, managing director at Chef Works China says the industry “is in a boom at the moment,” with significant growth in Asia – the result of “aggressive openings from the major groups” – and he believes this will impact staff uniform requirements.
“Industry needs are two-fold; there will always be the need for the classic looks, but at the same time the popularity of boutique style hotels, open kitchen restaurants, and the more comfortably cool traveller is resulting in demand for more fashionable, trendy uniforms.”
Chef Works’ ranges offer “affordable and durable basic sets” of uniforms as well as “the more technical and functional trendy styles,” Gross says.
Uniform approach“The whole concept is matching back of house with front of house and allowing individual brands to tell a story.”
In Asia this means understanding there are many different
Lightweightshort-sleeveclassicchefjacketwithpenpocketfromGlobalChef
Two things seem to keep different chefs united and connected like a family across the culinary world – a passion to seek the best in themselves and the chef uniform they shareTim Grubi, Global Chef
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FOR ALL YOUR CULINARY APPAREL NEEDS
Email us for a full quotation: [email protected] or visit our website: www.chefworks.com.hk
Visit our showroom: 1/F, 23 Queen’s Road EastWan Chai, Hong Kong | T: +852 25293700
types – then the classic image, the backbone of the industry, ‘brigade’ style chefs, stereotypical in their chef garb.
“Then we have the hotel chefs, well dressed, fearsome warriors in the kitchen who love tradition in every sense and demand the kitchen brigade maintains the discipline and military precision of a highly trained regiment at all times.” Grubi terms these the ‘classic’ style chefs’.
And then there is a growing number of ‘funky’ chefs, who are experimental on the plate with authentic ingredients and methods and often sport bandanas, piercings and tattoos. Grubi calls them ‘the ‘modern’ style chef.
“Over the years I’ve noticed two things that seem to keep these seemingly different chefs united and connected like a family across the culinary world,” says Grubi.
“First, most if not all chefs share a passion to seek the best in themselves and in all the work they do with food.
“Secondly, it’s the chef uniform they share.”As a manufacturer, Grubi says it makes him proud to know his
uniforms are chosen by dedicated professionals who seek comfort, durability, easy maintenance and the highest of standards.
Global Chef will introduce a new lightweight line The Epic 3 within the next few months.
Chef Works’ Gross agrees that durability and high standards are paramount to his customers.
“The main question always is ‘number of washes’. Chef Works usually runs on over 100 washes, which is well above the norm.
“There is a bit of a conflict between housekeeping and chefs, as chefs want comfortable, breathable uniforms which requires more cotton, whereas housekeeping demands a high polyester content as polyester retains more colour and lasts longer.
“We have found that a 65% poly, 35% cotton is very good blend which satisfies both chefs and housekeeping.”
Tied to the issue of laundering now are environmental concerns.“I think the attitude in this part of the world is changing
rapidly,” Gross says. “Traditionally, this would not be a concern. However, many of
To answer client demand Bragard now produces a 100% organic cotton jacket.
This year the global company is focusing its marketing efforts on the Asia-Pacific region, Dujardin says and is looking for a distributor in Hong Kong or Singapore.
“Our catalogue contains more that 500 designs,” he says, agreeing that every uniform promotes a property’s image.
“A beautiful and tidy uniform provides an image of high quality and hygiene.”
Centre of attentionWith an increasing number of open kitchens, chefs are now much more visible, Dujardin points out, adding that he has noticed an increasing demand for coloured jackets as outlets try to differentiate themselves and get exclusivity on a specific design.
“Our Bragard 2013 collection anticipated this demand and offers many new colourful designs. Chef ’s uniforms will become more and more fashionable,” he predicts.
“However, it has to first be functional. For preparation kitchens, executive teams and traditional cuisine, white remains a must. This is an image of tradition, purity, hygiene and a guarantee of fine dining.”
Advances in textile technology and production are having an enormous effect.
“Materials are always improving,” says Dujardin. “Technical fabrics offer much more comfort due to special weaving or different composition. Mechanical stretch fabrics provide the liberty for easy movement, while a mixed composition may facilitate better ways to maintain the uniforms.
As with all manufacturers spoken to, Bragard is continuously investing in lighter and longer lasting fabrics.
“We continuously develop new technologies to present new options. For example, we use Coolmax fabrics which offer an exceptional breathable comfort.”
FrenchdesignerChristianLacroixcreatedSofitelSoBangkok’sflamboyantstaffuniforms
NewcollectionsfromBragard(thispicandleft)
ChefWorksoffersaffordableanddurablebasicuniformsaswellmoretechnicalandfunctionaltrendystyles(aboveandbelow)
our customers now have green policies. As we are a California-based company, we are well ahead with understanding this concept. All our factories have to be compliant, free from child labour and so on.
“Another area we have focused on is our lightweight fabrics. Our lightweight range is 30% lighter than the regular fabric, however it is as durable as the heavier fabric. As most laundries charge by weight, our lightweight range saves our customers 30% on laundry costs as well as using 30% less chemicals, water and electricity used.
Nicolas Dujardin, Bragard’s area manager Middle East/Asia, sees the issue somewhat differently.
“Frankly speaking, environmental issues are not yet a key aspect that influences the decision process,” he says.
“However, our clients are aware that our production [centres] in Europe and North Africa are 100% controlled and managed by our production department in France, who will never disregard environmental protection.
“We take care of workers, we control the use of chemicals to avoid pollution and we only purchase natural fabrics and accessories.”
Park Life – from Spanish manufacturer Kettal – is a complete family of furniture for outdoors, whose clean-cut profile is adaptable to a wide range of situations. Lightweight, yet extremely durable, it’s easily stacked for transport or winter storage and its technical sophistication and careful consideration of ergonomics – plus a lot of care over how it looks – are all intended to ensure a long life, both structurally and visually.
Kettal also produces Village, a chair for all outdoor situations, from village house to grand cafe. The lightweight aluminium structure allows easy handling while the neutral language of its form takes nothing away from the scenery. This chair pays respect to the long standing codes of metal stacking outdoor chairs while embracing a gently refreshing look.
Formoreinformation:www.kettal.es
Quite an innovationEmploying quantum energy in products is a new concept, one which Innovasions is strongly promoting.
Innovasions claims wearing textiles or sleeping in bed sheets under the quantum duvet controls temperature, both cool and hot – so when you are hot, it cools you and when cold, it warms you.
Other benefits include deodorisation, anti-bacterial, increased moisture absorption, natural UV resistance and natural flame retardant.
Yarns are fused with energy radiating material powder containing super micro-organisms that survive even after one hour sterilisation at 700OC. The raw materials of nylon, polyester or natural fibres are mixed with the nano-powder and then produced into yarns.
Formoreinformation:www.innovasians.com
A walk in the park
Sleep easyOnefinestay, which lets guests live like a local by staying in a distinctive home while the owner is out of town, has launched a new version of its iPhone app. The only service of its kind, the onefinestay guest iPhone app is designed to enhance the experience of onefinestay guests who wish to immerse themselves in the local neighbourhood. Stocked with personal recommendations from the homes’ owners and featuring new tailored tips along with a new design, the app provides a unique way to explore cities and provides access to valuable hotel-style service for guests during their stay.
Formoreinformation:www.onefinestay.com
Coffee made simpleThe WMF 8000 S – the German company’s new premium model coffee machine – combines quality, perfection and innovation.
Its design has already won the coveted iF Design Award. With its ‘Man Machine Interface’, it guarantees that all functions are simple to understand and to use in an instant.
From pressing your selection on the display to the perfect coffee – the timing of numerous processes has been hugely improved. When it comes to equipment for milk and steamed drinks, the Active Milk version even allows the fully automated preparation of hot and cold milk and foamed milk drinks.
Formoreinformation:www.wmf-coffeemachines.com
ADA goes greenerADA Cosmetics International has become the world’s first manufacturer of hotel cosmetics to receive certification by Green Globe.
ADA began integrating sustainable practices into all levels of its business back in 2005. Since then it has developed a number of innovative concepts promoting awareness among suppliers, clients, and staff. As an example, ADA was the first German provider of eco-certified natural cosmetics in the industry. Today, the cosmetics experts offer an entire range of ecological body care lines.
“Sustainability is a learning process,” said ADA’s CEO, Wilhelm B. Könning.
“For us, Green Globe is not only
Chinoiseries Collection
Tai Ping has unveiled Chinoiseries, a new collection designed by Ramy Fischler. Having just entirely redesigned Tai Ping’s Paris flagship, Fischler has developed a subtle collection of rugs and carpets inspired by 18th-century Chinoiserie, thereby recalling how much China served as a creative model for France.
The young Belgian designer, who incorporated über-contemporary pieces and rugs into the 18th-century style of Hôtel de Livry, has followed up with a crossover collection of handmade carpets and rugs featuring a whole new realm of designs, and whose origins can be found in the ancient work entitled ‘Livres de desseins chinois’ (Books of Chinese Designs) by Jean-Antoine Fraisse.
Formoreinformation:www.taipingcarpets.com
a distinction but also a motivation to continue working on further developments.”
ADA’s next step is certification according to ISO EN DIN 14001, which is planned for 2014.
Formoreinformation:www.ada-cosmetics.comandwww.greenglobe.com
ADACEOWilhelmB.Könning
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Where’s the beef?Research commissioned by Meat & Livestock Australia shows beef attributes such as grass-fed, all natural, hormone-free and antibiotic-free are influencing patrons’ menu decisions. After evaluating the attitude and usage of nearly 500 foodservice professionals and the insights of about 2,000 consumers, results show beef remains a popular protein as operators seek greater value cuts and consumers look for healthier meal choices.
According to research findings, over half of operators serving beef indicate they are using more than three years ago
Bulgarian trufflesChallenging Italy and France with the quality of its produce, Bulgaria is the new kid on the truffle block.
Within living memory, Bulgarian farmers used truffles to feed their pigs, but global demand – and sky-high prices – have seen the country’s truffle exports take off, although there are currently only three companies involved in the trade.
In Hong Kong, Inter Cuisine Ltd sells both fresh seasonal black and white truffles, as well as a variety of processed truffle products. These include carpaccio, oil and butter.
Formoreinformation:www.intercuisine.hk
and nearly 50% plan to increase beef on their menu within the next three years. Additionally, consumers are increasingly calling for restaurants to offer a broader array of beef dishes that are healthier and more interesting.
Australian exporters state they offer a variety of beef cuts from livestock entirely grass-fed or range-fed in a healthy, natural environment, meeting operator and consumer demand. Serving as a lean centre-of-the-plate protein or as a sandwich or burger, Australian beef can be creatively utilised on restaurant menus to help attract diners looking for more distinctive dishes.
Formoreinformation:www.australian-meat.com
Inspired pastryA new pastry collection designated Bridor Une Recette Lenôtre showcases light, colourful, delicious and unusual choux.
The collection, inspired by the famous Paris-Brest, is a new twist on a classic recipe with a mousseline containing less butter, just the right amount of sugar, natural flavours, and an elegant coloured crumble sprinkled on a traditional choux pastry.
Formoreinformation:www.fbsolution.hk
Hong Kong’s Altaya Wines is sharing the success of some of the top Californian wineries such as Fishery Vineyards and Keenan Winery. These family-owned wineries have fostered the popularity of Californian handcrafted wines over the last century.
Estate-grown Fisher Vineyards features wines from single vineyards of Napa Valley Estate in Calistoga, and Spring Mountain Estate in Sonoma County, California. Its range of proprietary blends and vineyard-designated wines expresses the winemakers’ sense of complexity and balance, allowing it to speak through its terroir.
Keenan Winery, on the other hand, rose to stardom for its perfect blending of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. With nearly 14,000 cases produced annually by solar-powered, sustainably farmed vineyards, its wines have an intense taste that are often rich in character and deep
Fairtrade coffeeSince becoming a licensee of the Fairtrade mark, Boncafé has launched three fairtrade products.
They are: Colombian Fairtrade whole bean/ground coffee; Master Blend Fairtrade whole bean/ground coffee; and Freezedried Fairtrade instant coffee.
Fairtrade is a trading partnership, based on dialogue, transparency and respect, that seeks greater equity in international trade. Boncafé took the same direction by launching Boncafé Fairtrade Coffee to help the poor and marginalised.
Formoreinformation:www.boncafe.com.hk
in complexity, striking a good balance between fruits and structure.
In addition to its extensive portfolio of rare and fine wines, Altaya Wines also stocks premium Scotch whisky label Duncan Taylor, an independent bottler in northeastern Scotland, close to Speyside.
Duncan Taylor has ownership of one of the largest privately held collections of rare Scotch whisky casks. With origins dated back in 1864, the company has been laying down casks from premium Scottish distilleries for decades and has, in recent years, made its branded products available to whisky connoisseurs throughout the world.
“With the growing demand for premium brand whisky from around the world, Duncan Taylor continues to impress whisky drinkers with its rare selections,” said Moji Shand, CEO of Duncan Taylor.
Great grain and grapes
Formoreinformation:www.altayawines.com
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New from NespressoNespresso has introduced two new Italian-inspired limited edition Grand Crus.
The Trieste Limited Edition, a delicate blend of Arabica beans, is characterised by a rounded texture with notes of chocolate and fresh hazelnuts. Refreshingly fruity notes bring out an exceptional subtlety in this coffee. The Trieste has an intensity level of 9 and is best enjoyed as a ristretto (25 ml). For true coffee and milk lovers, the Trieste reveals another aspect of its character when served as a cappuccino.
The Napoli limited edition is a blend of Arabica beans with a hint of Robusta. Bold and assertive with a syrupy body, it is characterised by refined smoky notes. Its aroma has scents of dried black tea leaves. Limited edition Napoli has an intensity level of 11 and is best enjoyed as a ristretto. For a more authentic tasting experience, this limited edition can be enjoyed in an even shorter cup than a ristretto (15-20ml).
Formoreinformation:www.nespresso.com
Intensely drinkableBibbiano Chianti Classico – also known as ‘black label’ – is the result of a careful selection of grapes from all the vineyards of the Bibbiano estate in Chianti, Italy.
The grape harvest for this wine generally begins in the second half of September; maceration and fermentation, in cement tanks, lasts about 20 days.
This is followed by ageing in Slavonian oak casks for seven to 10 months, followed by a further refining in bottles for about three months.
The colour of the wine is a brilliant ruby red. It is intensely scented with a fruity note of blackberries and plums.
The mouthfeel is rather intense; nonetheless this wine is easy to drink, thanks to a pleasant acidity that makes it fresh and lively.
Formoreinformation:www.tenutadibibbiano.com
Top vodkaAbsolut has launched Absolut Elyx, which is manually distilled in a copper column still dating from 1921, and made from selected Swedish winter wheat from a single estate.
Absolut Elyx is made from locally sourced ingredients. Every part of the production, from the planting of the first seed, all the way through distillation and bottling, is performed within a 25 kilometre radius in the Åhus region of southern Sweden. This makes Absolut Elyx 100% traceable.
Absolut Elyx is distilled exclusively from single estate winter wheat from Råbelöf, a family-owned country home, delivering top quality wheat exhibiting the perfect balance of starch and protein.
The water comes from the natural underground spring upon which the copper distillery rests. Filtered though the limestone bedrock, the water is exceptionally pure, low in minerals and incredibly soft.
Formoreinformation:www.absolut.com
Not simply butterMusselman’s Apple Butter is billed as a healthier solution for chefs and operators looking to create distinctive flavours without adding cholesterol or fat. Made with wholesome ingredients including apples, sugar, apple cider, cinnamon, cloves and allspice, apple butter is lower in calories than other spreads. Ideal for any time of the day, apple butter’s signature taste can be utilised in a broad range of menu applications including marinades, dips, entrées and more.
With only 30 calories per tablespoon, apple butter is a delicious substitute to butter, margarine, jam, peanut butter and honey. Knouse Foods features smart ways chefs and operators can incorporate its smooth, velvet-like texture into a variety of dishes and condiments.
Formoreinformation:www.knousefoodservice.com
Whisky galoreChivas Regal is a leading premium Scotch whisky, renowned for its smoothness and honeyed, rich taste. Chivas Regal was the first authentic luxury Scotch whisky launched in 1909 for the American market and relaunched in 2007 after disappearing during Prohibition and the Great Depression. The Chivas Regal family includes Chivas Regal 12, 18, 25 Year Old and Chivas J&J Special Edition, selling over 4.5 million nine-litre cases in over 150 countries.
Chivas Regal 18 was created in 1997 as a unique blend of whiskies matured for a minimum of 18 years, hand-selected for exceptional richness. The result is a sophisticated Scotch whisky in the super premium blended sector.
Chivas Regal 25 Year Old Original is a rare and exclusive blend of the finest Scotch whiskies available as a limited release, with each bottle individually numbered. Carefully crafted by the multi award-winning master blender Colin Scott, using the same traditions and techniques the legendary Charles Howard used for the original, every cask is hand-selected and individually nosed.
Formoreinformation:www.chivas.com
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DAte event DetAIlS ORGAnISeR
Asia’s largest international F&B exhibition, staged in seven halls and expecting 45,000 visitors in 2013, the 14th Edition of SIAL China will continue to set the benchmarks as China’s unique meeting point in the F&B and HoReCa industries.
Connecting 1,900 global suppliers of food, drinks, coffee, wine, equipment, hospitality technology, design, and more with 35,000+ regional hoteliers, restaurant owners, chefs, importers, distributors and more, HOFEX is a premier trading platform for China and Asian markets.
THAIFEX – World of Food Asia is a premier sourcing platform for the industry. The 2013 show covers all aspects of F&B and showcases Halal and organic food, catering and hospitality services, food technology, retail and franchise. The World of Seafood will run concurrently.
Asia’s largest and longest running hotel investment event. HICAP gathers hotel investors, financiers, and leading industry professionals from across the Asia-Pacific region.
HOSFAIR Shenzhen is a platform for the industry, gathering together many professionals related to hospitality from all over the world.
FHC China is the biggest international trade show for food, wine and hospitality equipment in China. It features ProWine China 2013, Meat China 2013 and Tea and Coffee 2013 specialist areas, with Olive Oil China, Ultimate Barista Challenge China, Ice Cream University, Wine Seminars, China Sommelier Wine Challenge, FHC international cooking competition and more.
As the number one destination in Asia for modern textile care products, services and technologies, Texcare Asia International Trade Fair for Modern Textile Care is a rendezvous for thousands of professionals from a broad range of industries, including laundry, dry cleaning as well as textile management systems.
FHM 2013 will feature a series of seminars and workshops, including Culinaire Malaysia 2013, and celebrity cooking demonstrations. A one-stop-resource centre for the food, hotel and hospitality industries.
The Asian Seafood Exposition is the premier seafood trade event in Hong Kong and connects buyers with seafood suppliers from around the world. It is co-located with Restaurant & Bar Hong Kong.
Currently in its 11th year, Restaurant & Bar Hong Kong has a growing reputation as the biggest and best niche gourmet hospitality event in the region.
HOSFAIR Guangzhou has been successfully held for 10 years with 30% rate of growth every year, becoming one of the biggest and most international hospitality fairs. Attendees are related to kitchen and catering, tableware, hotel furniture, hotel textiles, cleaning and laundry, interior supplies, coffee and food, wine and market research.
Comexposium70 Avenue de Général de Gaulle, 92058 Paris La Défense Cedex, Francewww.sialchina.com
Hong Kong Exhibition Services LtdTel: +852 2804 1500Fax: +852 2528 [email protected]
Koelnmesse Pte LtdTel: +65 6500 6712Fax: +65 6294 [email protected]
HICAPc/o BHN2900 Bristol Street, Ste. D101Costa Mesa, CA 92626 USATel: +1 714 540 [email protected]
Guangzhou Huazhan Exhibition Co., LtdTower H, Building 9, No. 900 Guangzhou Avenue Middle, Guangzhou (510620)Tel: +86 20 38910875Fax: +86 20 [email protected], www.hosfair.com
Lily ZhuChina International ExhibitionsRoom A2402-03, Singular Mansion,No.318-322 Xian Xia Road, Shanghai200336 ChinaDID: +8621 6209 5209Fax: +8621 6209 [email protected]
Messe Frankfurt (Shanghai) Co Ltd Room 1503, 15/F, Taiping Finance Tower488 Middle Yincheng Road, Pudong New AreaShanghai, 200120 ChinaTel: +86 21 6160 8555 Ext: 209 / 229Fax: +86 21 5876 [email protected]
Malaysian Exhibition Services Sdn BhdTel: 603 4041 0311Fax: 603 4043 [email protected]
Diversified Business CommunicationsTel: +852 3105 3970 Fax: +852 3105 3974www.asianseafoodexpo.com
Diversified Events Hong KongTel: +852 3105 3970 Fax: +852 3105 3974www.restaurantandbarhk.com
Guangzhou Huazhan Exhibition Co., Ltd9H, Jinsui Tower, No. 900 Guangzhou Ave. Mid, Guangzhou, ChinaTel: +86 20 38910875Fax: +86 20 [email protected]
May 7 – 9 SIAL China 2013 Shanghai New International Expo Centre Hall N1-N5, E6-E7 Shanghai, China Hua Mu Rd. 3# East Lobby (near Luo Shan Rd.)
May 7 – 10 The 15th International Exhibition of Food & Drink, Hotel, Restaurant & Foodservice Equipment, Supplies & Services
May 22 – 26 THAIFEX – World of Food Asia Impact Exhibition and Convention Center Muang Thong Thani
June 27 – 29 The 11th Guangzhou International Hospitality Equipment & Supplies Fair China Import & Export Fair Complex Guangzhou China
Sep 3 – 5 Restaurant & Bar Hong Kong Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, Wanchai, Hong Kong
Sep 3 – 5 Asian Seafood Exposition Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, Wanchai, Hong Kong
Sept 17 – 20 Food and Hotel Malaysia 2013 (FHM 2013) KLCC Convention Centre Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Oct 14 –16 The 2nd Shenzhen International Hospitality equipment and supplies fair Shenzhen Convention and Exhibition Center Shenzhen, China
Oct 16 – 18 Hotel Investment Conference Asia Pacific (HICAP) InterContinental Hong Kong 18 Salisbury Road Kowloon Hong Kong
nov 13 – 15 FHC China 2013 Shanghai New International Expo Centre, Shanghai, China
nov 19 – 21 Texcare Asia 2013 Shanghai New International Expo Centre Shanghai, China
A culinary adventure
Gulfood – success all round
COMING NEXTGulfood Dubai World Trade CentreFebruary 23 – 27, 2014
www.gulfood.com
Gulfood 2013, the world’s largest annual trade show for the food and beverage industry, ended on a record high this year with an unprecedented number of visitors, exhibitors and business
deals confirmed. As a result, the show will be extended by a day next year to run for five days, in order to accommodate the exceptional trade opportunities it provides.
The show which ran from February 25–28, 2013, is the biggest exhibition to be organised by and held at the Dubai World Trade Centre, and attracted 77,609 trade visitors from over 152 countries. Additional space required to accommodate the 4,200 exhibitors participating this year necessitated the construction of the Zabeel Pavilion to take the total exhibition space for the show to a record 113,388 square metres.
Brisk business trade was reported from exhibitors across all sectors of the show, from food producers through to retailers, distributors, equipment manufacturers and service providers.
Gulfood has increasingly become the platform of choice for global launches by international companies. This year Electrolux, a leading international player in food service and laundry solutions, conducted four major global launches for their specialist food preparation brand Dito Sama during the show.
Tetra Pak, a leader in food processing and packaging solutions, unveiled a number of technologically innovative developments in their packaging and filling equipment, designed to deliver greater production efficiency and meet consumer demands for functionality and convenience.
With more than 110 countries represented at this year’s show, Gulfood’s role as a truly global platform is clear. Countries such as France have concentrated their F&B industry efforts on Gulfood, ahead of any other trade show in the world.
A record number of Australian companies were represented at this year’s show, demonstrating the importance of the region for the food producing country.
Excellent results were generated by the US pavilion which hosted 137 companies at Gulfood, the largest contingent to date. The Foreign Agriculture Service reported that exhibitors concluded on-site sales of approximately US$102 million and expect to secure an additional US$313.9 million in sales in the next 12 months as a direct result of their participation at Gulfood.
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“My dishes look like my life – very colourful!” laughs chef Dominique Bugnand.
Bugnand has been with Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group for 14 years, beginning his career with the company at the flagship Mandarin Oriental Bangkok in 1998 as executive sous chef. For the last six years he was executive chef and F&B director at Mandarin Oriental, Dhara Dhevi, Chiang Mai, Thailand.
He speaks rapidly, his obvious enthusiasm for food spilling out in every direction.
“I like to revisit the classics – make them more sexy! We use less butter, less cream so every dish is lighter and you won’t feel like sleeping afterwards! People eat with their eyes as well as their mouths, in fact all their senses ... we put crunchy bread on the plate itself, so diners need to use their hands to eat.”
Bugnand was brought up in Burgundy, 100km south of Dijon, where his grandfather had a farm. Surrounded by top quality livestock, fruit and vegetables, it was here his passion for all things culinary was ignited.
“We all ate together, 20 or 30 people sitting down around the table. Everyone had their own responsibility – bread, wine,
aperitif – then at lunch everything goes on the table.
“Onion soup reminds me of my grandfather, that and escargot, which were his specialities. The rest is my mother and grandmother – the best cooks in the world!”
Another huge influence was Norbert Kostner, executive chef at the Mandarin Oriental Bangkok for the past 38 years and one of Thailand’s most respected chefs.
“He loves what he’s doing, has so much knowledge yet is very humble ... he is an example to us all.”
Bugnand started his hospitality career in 1984 as a sous chef in the French navy and since then his career has taken him from Europe to the US and from Latin America to Asia, where he has enjoyed introducing new concepts and recipes at the many restaurants where he has worked.
Thailand itself is a particular spiritual home. Married to a Thai for almost 20 years, he clearly loves the country and its food.
“Chiang Mai [Mandarin Oriental Dhara Dhevi] is the most beautiful hotel you can imagine. Set in 60 acres of land ... it’s like 3D – incredible.
“And the fruit! Thai mango is amazing, but the king of fruit is durian, and the
Mandarin Oriental Macau’s recently
appointed executive chef brings an eclectic
approach to his food influenced by a lifetime
of travel. Profile by Daniel Creffield
queen is mangosteen!”Bugnand says that at Vida Rica,
Mandarin Oriental Macau’s acclaimed signature restaurant, he is using the best and freshest ingredients.
“The Boston lobster and spider crab come in live, and are cooked to order. The lobster is very sweet ... I serve it with cauliflower flavoured with Tahitian vanilla – I look for tastes which are complementary.”
Some of his other signature dishes include cannelloni with lobster bolognaise and lamb rack from Lozère in France with potato boulangère, eggplant caviar and black garlic.
Although Bugnand actually started at Mandarin Oriental Macau in December he didn’t launch his new menu until around a couple of months later,
“I walked around the small streets of Macau ... looking at the fresh markets, the food, the fish ... you need to understand what people like, what they eat.”
However, he stresses that he didn’t modify any of his dishes for the Chinese market, concentrating instead on simply using the best ingredients.
“The secret is to give people what they like ... then slowly ‘educate’ them to give them what we like and want to introduce!”
ElfaCleofe
MartinJones NiclasProkop
JoelFisher
CarmenLam
StephanePuverel
GaryMoran
SirinateMeenakulWatcharaGamhanghanpanich
ShaunDünhofen
DominicSherry
JackYoss’s
Fairmont Hotels & Resorts has named Carmen lam as vice president, hotel sales and marketing, Asia-Pacific. Lam, who will be based in Shanghai, joins Fairmont in this newly created role to provide sales and marketing direction to Fairmont’s hotels in Asia-Pacific and support to the group’s burgeoning pipeline of regional development.
Ritz-Carlton is pleased to announce the appointment of elfa Cleofe as director of sales and marketing for The Ritz-Carlton Bangalore, India. She will be heading the sales, catering, revenue, public relations and marketing divisions of the hotel, which is scheduled to open this summer. Prior to joining Ritz-Carlton, she opened The St. Regis Lhasa Resort in Tibet.
Martin Jones has been appointed senior vice president for global sourcing & product development at GTA. With immediate effect, he becomes responsible for enhancing GTA’s portfolio of accommodation, services and experiences in all parts of the world. He has worked for GTA for 18 years, and will continue to be based in Singapore.
Watchara Gamhanghanpanich, who has notched up 22 years in five-star hotels and private restaurants, is the new executive chef at Muthi Maya Forest Pool Villa Resort Khao Yai, Thailand. He has won several medals in culinary arts competitions, and represented Thailand at international food promotions in Europe and the US.
Indigo Pearl in Phuket has announced the appointment of Shaun Dünhofen as hotel manager. He brings over 10 years of experience in his career in operations and management at luxury boutique hotel and resorts, such as Thanyamundra in Thailand, Per Aquum Resort & Spa in the Maldives, The Fortress in Galle, Sri Lanka, and The Manor in New Delhi, India.
New Zealander Dominic Sherry is Hilton Worldwide’s new head of sales for Asia-Pacific. He will lead the sales force, manage key partnerships with third-party intermediaries and drive initiatives to increase the corporate, MICE and leisure business at Hilton’s 98 operating hotels in the region.
American Jack Yoss’s 18-year career has taken him to such diverse locales as Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas, Postrio Restaurant in San Francisco, W Hotel in Los Angeles and the W Retreat & Spa in Bali. He’s now the new executive sous chef at Indigo Pearl in Phuket as well as chef of the resort’s Rivet restaurant.
TripAdvisor has announced the appointment of Joel Fisher as director of display advertising sales, Asia-Pacific. Based in Singapore, Joel will drive the growth of the business in the region, including India and Japan. Prior to TripAdvisor, Joel was vice president at Travelzoo and Sojern, overseeing the advertising sales teams for both companies.
Island Hideaway at Dhonakulhi Maldives, Spa Resort & Marina has a new director of sales and marketing – niclas Prokop. He was previously contract manager at Thomas Cook AG for the Middle East market.
Sirinate Meenakul has been appointed global brand director for the Sofitel So label. A Thai national, Sirinate brings 20 years’ industry experience to this newly created role, including spells with Four Seasons and Peninsula. She joined the Sofitel So Bangkok in 2009.
Stephane Puverel, who hails from France, has taken up his new post as executive chef at the Shangri-La Hotel, Tokyo. He has garnered more than 20 years’ experience at various international destinations, from South Africa to Monaco and China. He joins Shangri-La from his previous position as executive chef at The Ritz-Carlton, Dubai.
Briton Gary Moran is the new general manager of Parkroyal on Kitchener Road in Singapore. Prior to joining Pan Pacific Hotels Group, he was the general manager of Mövenpick Hotel & Spa in Bangalore, India, where he oversaw the completion of the hotel which marked the launch of the brand in the country.
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