11 minute read
PEOPLE
Baber joins Cycas Hospitality
Manny Baber has been appointed general manager of the Hotel Indigo Dundee & Staybridge Suites.
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Mr Baber joins from Sleeperz Dundee, and his past experience also includes 12 years at senior operational level with Hilton Hotels & Resorts
Mr Baber said, “I’m incredibly pleased to work with this passionate team to identify opportunities for commercial success. Events including the 150th Open Championship at St Andrews next year give us an opportunity to put these hotels and our Daisy Tasker restaurant on the map as the venues of choice for leisure and the business markets alike.”
Bill Burnett, VP Operations – North UK at Cycas Hospitality, said, “As Dundee continues to demonstrate its credentials as a city embracing progression, fresh ideas and transformational change, businesses in the area must support and reflect that ideology.”
FRASER TAKES THE HELM AT GLASGOW GROSVENOR
Gordon Fraser has taken over as General Manager of the Glasgow Grosvenor Hotel on Great Western Road. The hotel, which has been rebranded since the site was acquired by MastcraftGroup, has been operated by hospitality management company 7 Hospitality since the start of the year and they appointed Fraser to head up the team, which remains unchanged.
He joins from Macdonald Hotels and Resorts and before that he was General Manager of the Crowne Plaza and Holiday Inn Express Aberdeen Airport but eight years of his career has been spent with Hilton Hotels, who previously owned The Grosvenor.
Pamela McLean has joined Glasgow Marriott Hotel as Hotel Sales Manager having spent the best part of 20 years working for Reach Scotland.
Jayne Buckley has joined Cawley Hotels as Assistant General Manager at Duck Bay. She joins from the YestoAll Hospitality Group.
GROUP HR MANAGER FOR CRERAR HOTELS
Claire Cuthbertson has joined Crerar Hotels in the new role of Group Human Resources Manager. She brings nearly 20 years of experience in management to the Scottish group and was formerly Regional HR Manager for Grand Central Hotel Glasgow, Kimpton Blythswood Square Hotel Intercontinental Hotel, The George and Kimpton Charlotte Square Hotel.
The Crerar Academy, which launched last year as part of a £1 million investment in staff recruitment, retention, and development, will also come under her remit.
Claire said, “I’m thrilled to have joined the Crerar Hotels team at such an exciting time for the company. The way the group looks after its employees is revolutionary for the hospitality industry, so to be the first person to take on the role of Group HR Manager and spearhead the offering is a privilege.
“The Crerar Academy offers ongoing opportunities to all team members, and I’m looking forward to driving the programme forward. I’m also looking forward to working on our industry-leading Graduate Programme, which will see many candidates go on to work full-time within the business.
“The employee benefits which are already in place are impressive so I’m excited to build on this whilst also looking at recruitment, which is pivotal at a time like this.”
Chris Wayne-Wills, chief executive of Crerar Hotels, said, “Claire brings an unrivalled wealth of experience and knowledge to further strengthen our human resources team.
“We have continued to invest not only in our hotels and inns, but also in our people despite the challenges we faced in recent years. Claire’s new role will further bolster our employee benefits programme, drive training and development opportunities through the Crerar Academy, support the Fair Fund and hopefully help us recruit new faces to join our growing teams.”
NEW ROLE FOR MCGREGOR AS HE JOINS RBH
Don Mcgregor has joined RBH as Cluster General Manager. He took up the role in December have spent the previous three years as Regional Operations Director with 7 Hospitality Management.
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Fentimans, the botanical drinks maker, has launched a new light soft drinks range to India’s first craft gin brand, Greater Than London Dry Gin, has been launched in the UK by Nao Spirits. Founded by Anand Virmani and Vaibhav Singh, Greater Than gin is distilled in copper pots in Goa and infused with pure botanicals sourced from India and around the world. The story of Greater Than (or ‘>’) gin began in 2015, when two young bar owners and entrepreneurs – Anand Virmani and Vaibhav Singh – noticed that while the world was going through a ‘Gin-aissance’, India was left high and meet the needs of a growing audience seeking reduced calories in premium soft drinks. The ‘light’ range includes a lower calorie version of their iconic Rose Lemonade, plus Gently Sparkling Elderflower and Sparkling Raspberry. A recent Fentimans Market report indicates that two thirds (65%) of British consumers are now proactively trying to lead a healthier lifestyle. The new recipe for the Fentimans ‘light’ soft drink range contains no artificial sweeteners. Each drink contains less than 60 calories per bottle, whilst sugar has been reduced to 4.8g per 100ml. dry. The country where the G&T was invented and where exotic gin botanicals are found in most home kitchens was still in the dark ages of gin. If they wanted gin, they were going to have to make it themselves.
They stepped out from behind the bar, got themselves a copper pot and experimented with every spice, herb and fruit they could find. With a little bit of luck and a lot of help and effort, they found a recipe they loved enough to not just want to serve at their own bar, but to take to the rest of the country and the world.
The pair travelled to Goa for a threeyear masterclass in gin-making, before recruiting Anne Brock, a board member of the Gin Guild, to work with them in setting up and refining their own distillation process. Experts in Hospitality Marketing We are a full service digital marketing xxxxxagency delivering exceptional results for outstanding clients. Feragaia is the name of Scotland’s first premium alcohol-free spirit. It has been distilled, blended and bottled in the far reaches of the Scottish Lowlands. Amber in colour, Feragaia’s suggested serve is on the rocks or topped with a light tonic. Feragaia’s process combines distillation techniques and brings together 14 responsibly sourced botanicals from both land and sea. The delicate flavours of flowers and leaves combine with the earthier notes of root botanicals and spices. Most alcohol-free spirits rely on alcohol to carry flavour in the process, which is then stripped out along with the natural flavours of the botanicals not Feragaia. It never touches alcohol and therefore retains all the natural flavours and qualities of its ingredients – a true alternative.
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The Isle of Raasay Distillery has launched its first Hebridean gin. The Isle of Raasay Gin is the first legal spirit from Raasay and its inaugural Isle of Raasay Single Malt whisky is set for release next year. Check out our client testimonials at: The Isle of Raasay Gin, which is crafted in the Hebrides, is distilled in a Frilli copper pot still using an expert blend of ten www.Click2Convert.com/case-studies botanicals and water from the well. The result, say the company, is “a complex but well balanced, zesty dry gin”.
Isle of Raasay Distillery Co-founder Alasdair Day comments, “Our new Isle of Raasay Gin puts island quality first – combining “The team at Click2Convert take the time to fully understand our carefully chosen botanicals with water from our well and triple distilled Raasay spirit. Raasay’s remarkable geology and our modern business needs and have developed a marketing strategy which ticks island distillery inspired both the creation and was established with all the boxes. We’re delighted with the year-on-year results!”support from local botanist Dr Stephen Bungard.” Allan Reich, Resort Director, Cameron Lodges
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The news that the Taylor family had sold their Chardon hotel group came as a surprise and I know that all of you who know the family will wish them all the very best going forward.
They say the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree and this is certainly the case with Nicola and father Maurice... he built the company up, and is one of the best known figures int he industry. When Nicola joined 18 years ago she helped him continue the journey and established herself as a ‘tour de force’ in the industry. Throughout the last two years she has not only navigated the company through the pandemic but also managed to orchestrate the sale and in the meantime got married. All life changing events. I look forward to catching up with her over a glass or two and hearing all about it.
What do a golf buggy and a life-sized Yoda have in common? Travelodge has just published its Lost & Found audit and this year Scotland Travelodge’s offices revealed missing items included a golf buggy, a life-sized Yoda, a necklace made of £50 notes, a 5ft wedding cake piñata and a British shorthair blue kitten called Rocky.
The kitten was left behind at Dumfries Travelodge when the kitten’s owner drove from Newcastle to pick Rocky from a specialist breeder and broke up the journey by staying over at Dumfries Travelodge. On departure morning, Rocky’s owner thought her sister had put him into her kitty car seat and they only realised when they were 50 miles into their journey back to Newcastle. They were all reunited.
In fact staff managed to reunite most of the missing items with their owners including a bride who forgot her wedding dress. She left it at Fort William Travelodge, the hotel manager had to go on a special mission to reunite a bride with her tartan wedding dress that she forgot to take to her wedding!
Plus, a professional golfer forgetting his golf buggy at Elgin Travelodge, a leading topiary artist forgetting his prized 5ft family tree piece of artwork which was due to be exhibited at Dundee Strathmore Avenue Travelodge. Plus a philatelist left his priceless collection of 55 year-old stamp collection at Aberdeen Bucksburn Travelodge.
It makes the more common items such as phone chargers pale into insignificance.
McCulloch is endeavoring to raise £1 - £5m to fund a Hospitality Rising advertising campaign to persuade more people to consider hospitality as a career. It has received the backing of UKHospitality it is well on its way to raising the first million.
Meanwhile hoteliers are also examining the recruitment issue - and looking at what difference Robots could make to the departments which are feeling the recruitment issue most acutely namely housekeeping.
It is all fascinating. It is evident that the worst thing we can all do is ignore the issue and hope that commonsense will prevail at Government level and hospitality visas will be issued. These recruitment issues were there before Brexit and before the pandemic. They have just been amplified. A long-term strategy is what is required, but we need to start somewhere and that’s exactly what forward thinking hoteliers and hospitality operators are doing. This is not a Scottish problem or even a UK one this is a global issue, and it is not going away anytime soon.
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As many of you know our sister magazine is the DRAM - which also does carry hotel news, but it primarily focusses on pubs, bars and restaurants. The distinction between the two distinct areas of hospitality maybe blurred, but I have found over the past four years, that there is definitely a real distinction about their approach to certain issues.. None more so than their response to the recruitment issue. Mark
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