Hotel & Catering Review by Jemma Publications

the nama effect: Con QuiGLeY ASSeSSeS the imPACt For the iriSh hoteL induStrY

MAY 2010

CHAmpioning TouRiSm Minister Mary Hanafin puts tourism centre stage

SoCiAL netWorKinG + ViSitor AttitudeS + neW Food SKiLLS SeCtion

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inside... May 2010

RegulARS

news tasC rebuffs Calls for abolition of JlC

10 oPinion eamonn mcKeon asks ‘are We there Yet?’ 22 Quigley the nama effect 29 maRketing matteRs targeting silver surfers 3 solutions Bes Funding for new initiatives five minutes with radisson Blu royal’s micheál stapleton

feATuReS

12 coveR stoRy mary Hanafin interview 1 visitoR attituDes tourist Feedback 19 inteRview Cornstore’s Padraic Frawley 2 confeRence rai debates

2 2 social meDia reaching out on the Web 31 baRista news from the Championship 33 fooD safety Cleaning up in the Kitchen fiRst imPRessions setting a Welcoming note

fooD & DRinK 3 tRenDs Cash in Chips 37 skills Creating the Perfect sausage 3 ReciPes Cliff House treats 0 notes Happy Heart Food

1 cocktails recipes from mixology masters

on the coveR: Minister for Tourism, Culture & Sport Mary Hanafin image: Mark Boland at Silver Image

HOTEL & CATERING REVIEW ❖ MAY 2010 3

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* VOLUME 43 * NUMBER 05* May 2010

EDITOR: Sarah Grennan COMMERCIAL MANAGER: Sarah Currey CONTRIBUTORS: Marilyn Bright, Alex Gibson, Con Quigley, Eamonn McKeon, Douglas Sadlier DESIGNER: Paul McCann PRODUCTION MANAGER: Jim Heron CIRCULATION & EVENTS MANAGER: Nicola Hickey ADMINISTRATION: Marian Donohoe, Josie Keane MANAGING DIRECTOR: Simon Grennan CHAIRMAN: Frank Grennan PRINTING: Walsh Colour Print, Kerry Hotel & Catering Review is published by Jemma Publications Grattan House, Temple Road, Blackrock, Co Dublin Tel: 01 764 2700 Fax: 01 764 2750 Email: sales@jemma.ie SUBSCRIPTIONS: Ireland 1 Year = 74+VAT Northern Ireland 1 Year = 74 UK 1 Year = 99.79 Europe 1 Year = 116.42 Rest of World 1 Year = 153.19 Note: 2 & 3 Year Subscriptions are also available Discounts: Offered on orders over 10 Rates effective: January 2010 Subscription Order Line: +353 1 764 2700 HOTEL & CATERING REVIEW’S WEEKLY BULLETIN Log on to www.hotelandcateringreview.ie to subscribe No part of may be reproduced, copied or transmitted in any form without the prior permission of Jemma Publications ISSN: 0332-4400

editor’s letter... NO SMOKE WITHOUT IRE

‘What’s next, locusts?’ was the cry from one tourism chief when discussing the plumes of smoke and ash from that volcano (we know all about it, but we still can’t figure out how to pronounce it). Indeed, one would be forgiven for thinking that it was the onslaught of Armageddon when, in the midst of the deepest recession experienced in the history of the State, we were treated to January’s freakish weather conditions, followed by the unholy mess created by Iceland’s temperamental Eyjafjallajökull. The results are not pretty, with the World Tourism Organisation estimating that the ash cloud cost the European tourism sector more than €1.7bn last month, and that’s not taking into account the knock-on effects in May when – as we go to print – Irish air travel is intermittently hit with a smattering of airspace closures. We have some time to wait before the CSO figures for April and May show the true extent of the damage, but considering the stats for the first two months of the year we are already holding our breath. January recorded a 26% decline, while February dropped 24.3% on the same period in 2009 which, let’s face it, was no picnic either. It is timely therefore that Tourism Ireland took the opportunity this month to embark on Ireland’s largest and most aggressive ever mid-season marketing see News for full details campaign (see details). Lord knows we need a shot in the arm right now, and with 60% of all our tourists traditionally coming during the months of May to September we still have much to play for. ‘We’ve never marketed this deep into the summer before but we’re trying to capitalise on the later than ever booking patterns. If we’re not out there on the shelf then someone else will be,’ said Tourism Ireland ceo Niall Gibbons, who looked like his heart sank a little when, at the media presentation announcing the new campaign, we asked him if – in light of the meteorological obstacles thrown our way since January – he was still confident of achieving the 3% growth target this year. The answer

was yes. But clearly with visitor numbers plunging by a quarter in the opening months of the year, we’re going to need a bumper summer to do so. The new Minister for Tourism, Sports & Culture Mary Hanafin was thoroughly optimistic in our interview this month, however, when she expressed confidence in returning to growth, both in tourism and the wider economy this year. She is clearly relishing her new role in tourism, which we’d hazard a guess is like a breath of fresh air after Social & Family Affairs, even taking into account the current difficulties, and the word from key stakeholders in the industry is that she could be our best Tourism Minister yet. Nonetheless, while Minister Hanafin has pledged to champion the industry at the Cabinet table (thank you kindly), hoteliers and restaurateurs may be somewhat disappointed this month to learn that there are no immediate plans to tackle the JLC system or local authority charges, while the airport tax seems set to stay in the foreseeable future, and it will be at least the end of the year before we can expect to hear from NAMA about what it plans to do with the zombie hotels. You can read our full interview with the Minister on page 12. In the meantime, here’s hoping for a less dramatic few months on the weather front, and a steamer of a good tourism summer. We are publishing our Annual Directory & Buyers Guide next month but we will be back in July with our regular mix of news, views and reviews. To keep up to date with the key issues affecting the industry between now and then log on to www.hotelandcateringreview.ie and sign up for our free Weekly Bulletin ezine.

SARAH GRENNAN Editor

Contact Us… EDITORIAL: Our editor Sarah Grennan can be reached at tel: 01 764 2700, email: s.grennan@jemma.ie or fax: 01 764 2750. She is always happy to hear your news, views and feedback. ADVERTISING: If you have any advertising queries, please contact our commercial manager Sarah Currey at the numbers above or via email to s.currey@jemma.ie SuBSCRIPTIONS: To subscribe to Hotel & Catering Review contact our circulation and events manager Nicola Hickey at n.hickey@jemma.ie or tel: 01 764 2700.

NEWS

€20m Campaign to TASC Rebuffs Promote Ireland Calls for Abolition of JLC Economics watchdog TASC has taken the Restaurants Association to task over its claims that wage cuts are needed to ensure the viability of the restaurant sector. The agency, which promotes economic equality, has rejected the RAI’s suggestion to the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Enterprise, Trade & Employment last February that the Joint Labour Committee system should be abolished, while the national minimum wage should be reduced by €1 to €7.65. In a new report A Square Deal? The Real Cost of Making a Meal in the Restaurant Sector published this month, TASC claims that hotel and restaurant workers are the lowest paid of any sector in Irish industry and argues that the proposals suggested by the RAI are based on ‘flawed analysis’ which does not take into account wider problems faced by the sector, and the economy as a whole. It claims that hospitality workers did not experience the same level of pay rises experienced by workers in other sectors in the boom years and noted that the National Employment Rights Authority (NERA) reported breaches of employment legislation in 70-80% of catering and hotel businesses inspected. The agency cited the recent Fáilte Ireland study of the cost of food preparation when claiming that a change to JLC pay scales would not impact on restaurant bills. It argued that, by abolishing JLC pay scales, restaurant bills would be reduced by just 61 cent on a €60 meal for two. ‘An across the board 8% cut in wages in the hospitality sector will cut consumer spending by approximately €170m,’ said the watchdog. TASC proposed that the Oireachtas Committee on Enterprise launch an investigation into why Ireland has high food and beverage costs. Rachel Allen is pictured with chef Glen Mullen at the Sodexo culinary masterclass in Cork.

Rachel Demonstrates

Rachel Allen joined forces with Sodexo Ireland this month, holding a masterclass for the company’s senior chefs and clients in Munster in Cork City Gaol on 14 May. Sodexo confirmed that it will spend an estimated €15-16m on Irishsourced local produce over the coming year. Producers set to benefit in Munster include local networks of beef, lamb and pork farmers; Bandon Vale Farmhouse Cheeses in Cork; Cooleeney Farmhouse Cheeses in Tipperary; Rathcooney Fruit Farms in Cork; Athea Homemade Puddings in Limerick and Belvelly Farms in Cobh, the majority of which are sourced via distributors Pallas Foods and Keelings.

Need More News?

Hotel & Catering Review has launched a new free Weekly Bulletin, packed with news from the world of hospitality and tourism. To receive this weekly ezine directly to your inbox every week, subscribe online at www.hotelandcateringreview.ie where you will also find an archive of back issues.

HOTEL & CATERING REVIEW ❖ MAY 2010

Tourism Ireland has launched the country’s largest ever midyear marketing campaign in key markets of Great Britain, the US, France and Germany in a bid to bolster tourism to Ireland in the Minister for Tourism, Culture & Sport Mary Hanafin announces a new all-important e20m marketing campaign for Ireland with Tourism Ireland ceo Niall summer Gibbons. months. Launched by Minister for Tourism, Culture & Sport, Mary Hanafin, the new €20m campaign aims to tap into the later-than-ever booking trend which, according to Tourism Ireland ceo Niall Gibbons, is more pronounced this year, and includes key value offerings devised with industry partners, including accommodation providers, visitor attractions and access carriers. ‘While 2010 continues to be a very difficult year, we still have everything to play for in terms of winning the business that is out there – over 60% of our overseas visitors arrive between May and September. We must get out there and fight for that business which is the lifeblood of this industry,’ said Minister Hanafin. Value for money is a central tenet of the campaign, explained Tourism Ireland ceo Niall Gibbons, who added: ‘Every destination in the world is vying for business and we must stand out from the crowd with compelling, attractive, value-for-money offers that will win the consumer over.’ The campaign includes: ‘Silver Surfer Summer Savings’ – a promotion of value offers for accommodation, visitor attractions, golf, horse and greyhound racing, eating out, etc for the two million ‘Sightseers and Culture Seekers’ in Great Britain aged 66 and over; New ‘value golf ’ campaigns in Great Britain and all major markets in the run-up to the Solheim Cup, which takes place at Killeen Castle in September 2011; €5m ‘Super Region’ campaigns for the West Coast/Shannon Catchment area, the Lakelands and the East regions – in conjunction with Fáilte Ireland, Dublin Tourism and Shannon Development; Car touring promotions with six key ferry operators, encouraging visitors from Great Britain, Germany, France and other European markets to bring their own cars; €5m co-operative marketing campaigns with major airlines and tour operators in all key markets, promoting great value access fares and holiday programmes. Tourism Ireland is mounting promotional campaigns with 30 major air and sea carriers in GB, Mainland Europe, North America and New & Developing markets; Value advertising campaigns will promote travel to Northern Ireland, with offers from local industry partners. A campaign will target German tour operators to increase exposure of Northern Ireland in their programmes, both on and offline; Partnership – Tourism Ireland will work with a minimum of 700 island of Ireland and market-based partners, promoting the island overseas; Locals showcase ‘hidden gems’ – a new series of online ‘travelogues’ featuring characters, ‘hidden gems’ and places to visit has gone live on Tourism Ireland’s suite of 41 websites. The Causeway Coast, Tipperary, Sligo, Cork city, Tyrone and Armagh, as well as Belfast and Dublin, feature in the short films which are being promoted right now on Yahoo! where they have already been viewed by over 200,000 people around the world.

NEWS

IHF Calls for Urgent Help on Hotel Crisis The entire viability of the hotel sector is threatened unless issues of oversupply in the sector are addressed. This was the message from Irish Hotels Federation chief John Power, in his address to the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Sport & Tourism, Community, Rural & Gaeltacht Affairs this month. Mr Power argued that the survival of established and viable hotel businesses is in jeopardy due to occupancy rates plunging to early 1980s levels (55%, down 15% since 2007) and room prices falling by over 20%, driven by chronic oversupply, weakening of overseas markets and unsustainable pricing strategies undertaken by hotels owned and supported by financial institutions. The IHF ceo once again called for the removal of the claw-backs on tax reliefs where hotels cease to operate or change use within their sevenyear tax life.

‘There must be pressure on the regulatory authorities to take into account the consequences for the hotel sector of a lack of foreclosure against fundamentally insolvent hotels. The authorities should ensure that banks fully recognise bad loans within the hotel sector and face any capital adequacy issues that might follow,’ said John Power. The IHF also urged the Government to address issues of local authority charges and the JLC system as a matter of urgency. It further called on the Government to increase the flow of working capital for businesses by introducing a guaranteed loan scheme. The scheme should have a limit of €150,000 in additional credit per enterprise, include a guarantee provided by the Government for up to 50% of the advance; guarantee a premium of an extra 2% per annum to be paid by the borrower and to last for a maximum of two years.

Harrington Promotes Ireland Golfing tourism was delivered a huge boost this month when three times Major winner Padraig Harrington was signed up to become Ireland’s new golf ambassador. The golfer will form part of a new €3.5m Golf Ireland campaign, which will include a €1.5m marketing blitz promoting Minister for Tourism, Culture & Sport Mary Irish golf overseas under the Hanafin pictured with Ireland’s new golf ambassador, Padraig Harrington. ‘Time to Play’ brand and an enhanced e-business model which will allow golfers to research their trip and book tee times online. A number of Irish golf courses have also taken part in a new national quality assurance scheme. Harrington, who has offered his services to promote Ireland free of charge, says the new role will ‘formalise what has been an informal relationship as an ambassador for Ireland. To be associated with the brand and to be associated with Irish tourism is an honour. I realise that I am only the starting point, and that it’s the people on the ground, in the pubs and in the golf clubs, who are looking after the tourists, that are doing the real work.’

New Food Innovation Team & Courses

Fáilte Ireland has established a dedicated new Food & Hospitality Innovation team. The team is working with industry partners to develop a strategy which will position Ireland as a food destination and grow food tourism to the country. Upon completion of the strategy a new Industry Working Group will be established to finalise the implementation plan and monitor progress. Last month, the tourism authority also launched a new cuisine appreciation workshop for chefs. ‘Around the World in Eight Days’ is a series of eight workshops each representing a different cuisine and enabling chefs to innovate their menus to suit changing dining trends. Each workshop will be hosted in different locations across the country and will include cookery demonstrations with recognised industry chefs, tips in menu design and menu writing to increase customer spend, food costing advice, business management tools, bespoke cocktails, and advice on boosting wine sales.

BITE SIZE Record Hits New figures released by Tourism Ireland show that visits to discoverireland.com websites and microsites last year surpassed 13 million. Brian Harte, Tourism Ireland’s head of emarketing, said that, ’while the global economic downturn has certainly impacted on Irish tourism, this record number of visits is most encouraging and illustrates a continued strong interested in the island of Ireland, despite the challenging environment.’ Liquidations Up The number of businesses placed in liquidation, receivership or examinership jumped by 34% in the first quarter of the year, according to accountancy and consultancy firm FGS. It reports that 12% of the 469 failures were in the hospitality sector. Should the acceleration in the number of firms encountering difficulties continue it is probable that some 1,800-1,900 failures will occur this year compared to 1,570 failures in 2009, stated the firm. Neven Spreads His Wings Neven Maguire is expanding his popular MacNean House & Restaurant in Cavan. The chef has acquired the neighbouring building which he is developing with extra rooms and a bar.

Sligo’s Ruby Anniversary Staff at the Sligo Park Hotel are pictured celebrating the hotel’s 40th birthday.

HOTEL & CATERING REVIEW ❖ MAY 2010

NEWS BITE SIZE Roly’s Fined Roly’s Bistro in Ballsbridge has been ordered to pay €500 in compensation to Chinese waiter Jey Lo. Mr Lo took a case to the Equality Authority when, after revealing that he was from Hong Kong, he was told by a member of staff in Roly’s that all waiting positions had been filled but when his Irish wife rang 15 minutes later to enquire about a similar job she was invited to come in with her CV. Equality officer Tara Coogan ruled that the restaurant had discriminated against the waiter on race grounds. O’Connell’s Moves Tom O’Connell has closed his award-winning restaurant in the D4 Berkeley Hotel. The restaurant, which prior to D4 operated out of Bewleys Hotel, is to be relocated to a standalone premises in the Ballsbridge area in the coming months. Kerry-Germany Link In a month of bad news about air travel, Ryanair announced some good news on the access front when it revealed it will launch a new service between Dusseldorf and Kerry, starting from 1 July. Germany is the world’s largest outbound travel market and the third largest source of visitors for Ireland. It is being targeted by Tourism Ireland as a major source for growth in 2010. Festivals ‘Last minute’ Promotion Tourism Ireland in Britain has teamed up with online travel agency lastminute.com to promote a new campaign of 10 Irish ‘not-to-be-missed’ festivals and events taking place this year. From golf in Killarney and food in West Cork to opera in Wexford and arts festivals in Belfast, Galway, Kilkenny, as well as the Electric Picnic in Stradbally, and motorcycle road racing on the North Antrim Coast, the campaign highlights Ireland as the perfect place to get away from it all this year.

Domestic Spend Falls Domestic holidaymakers cut their spend by 18% in total last year, according to end of year statistics published by the CSO this month, which show that Irish people shelled out €843m on their breaks in Ireland in 2009. The number of domestic trips taken by Irish residents remained relatively unchanged (8,340,000) from 2008, however there was an 8.2% decline in holiday trips to just over 4m. Expenditure on total travel in Ireland by Irish residents fell by 10% last year. As the recession took hold, consumers also cut their international travel last year. The number of trips taken by Irish residents overseas fell by 9.3% in 2009, to 7,292,000. Expenditure fell by close to 20%, to €5,786m.

11% Fall in ‘09 Visitor Numbers

Visits to the Republic of Ireland fell by 11.6% last year, according to figures from the Central Statistics Office. Business trips declined by 20.5% in 2009, while corporate spend fell by more than a quarter. Holiday trips from overseas visitors during the year fell by 18% and expenditure dropped by 26%. Total earnings from visits to Ireland came in at €3,879m for the year. Nights spent in Ireland fell by 11.7% to 8.1 nights, with hotel bednights decreasing by 19.7% and guesthouse/B&B nights dropping by 20.6%. The caravan/camping sector benefited most from the recession, recording an increase in nights, while more visitors opted to stay with friends and relatives.

Fitzwilliam HonourED

The Fitzwilliam Belfast has been certified as an ISO 9001: 2008 QMS hotel in recognition of its application of the principles of the International Organisation for Standardisation’s quality management system requirements. The award comes a month after the hotel was named as the only Irish property on Condé Nast Traveller’s prestigious ‘Hot List’ of the world’s coolest new hotels.

Property Moves Again

Dublin’s hotel property market received a boost last month when, for the first time in two years, a hotel was successfully sold. Chief O’Neill’s Hotel in Smithfield also became the highest priced hotel to sell in the same period, when it was bought by an ‘international company seeking representation in Ireland’ for a figure in the region of €8-€9m. The 63,290sq.ft, 73 bedroom hotel had been closed for over a year. ‘This sale demonstrates that there is demand for good quality hotel assets that are sensibly priced,’ said Paul Collins of agents CB Richard Ellis. The hotel was last sold in 2006 for €17.5m. McAllister’s Hotel in Ballinamore, Co Leitrim also sold last month, but at €225,000 it was bought for half the original asking price.

HOTEL & CATERING REVIEW ❖ MAY 2010

Gaol Break Katherina Plonka and Kenneth Lyons from the Ritz-Carlton Powerscourt are pictured at the launch of Wicklow’s Historic Gaol’s three new packages. The packages include a night-time ghost tour; interactive tour of the gaol with hog roast meal; and a tour of the Garden County with historic tour of the gaol and visits to Mount Usher Gardens and Glendalough.

HAMS to Manage Clanree Hotel Asset Management Services has been appointed to operate the Clanree Hotel in Letterkenny by the hotel’s receiver, Michael McAteer of Grant Thornton. All 78 staff at the hotel will be retained, says HAMS, and the hotel will continue to be operated by the existing management team in conjunction with Paul Dempsey, group operations manager for HAMS in Ireland. HAMS director Jim Murphy said the group was pleased to be able to facilitate the continued trading of the hotel and secure the positions of existing staff.

Thousands of Bar Jobs Lost Up to 3,000 jobs have been lost in the Irish pub sector over the last six months, according to the Vintners Federation of Ireland. It published statistics of a survey conducted among members by Ask Chili this month which indicates that 81% of publicans have recorded a drop in revenue over the last year, while 28% are down more than 30%. Some 41% of publicans surveyed had let employees go over the last six months, while 65% have reduced the working hours of staff.

NEWS

Druids Glen Goes Solo The Druids Glen hotel and golf resort in Co Wicklow is now operating independently and has ceased its management contract with the Marriott group. The hotel will be managed by its owner PW Overseas and general manager Richard Collins will continue to head up the management team at the hotel. Druids Glen is the second property to part company with the group in recent months – Johnstown House Hotel in Enfield, Co Meath concluded its franchise agreement with the company last year. The hotel is the latest in a spate of properties to go solo in the last number of months. It follows Fota Island Resort which parted company with Sheraton; Mount Juliet which did not renew its contract with Conrad when it concluded at the end of 2009; and the Harlequin Hotel in Castlebar, which was previously a Days hotel.

Michael and Kathleen Barry of Barry & Fitzwilliam with Lord Mayor Cllr Dara Murphy and Tanya Murphy at the launch of the Corona Fastnet Short Film Festival at The Bodega, Cork

Corona Supports Schull

Mexican brew Corona has signed up as title sponsor of the Fastnet Short Film Festival which runs from 27-30 May in Schull this month. Pictured at the launch of the event were Michael and Kathleen Barry of Corona distributor, Barry & Fitzwilliam with the Lord Mayor Cllr Dara Murphy and Tanya Murphy.

Practical Addition to Undergraduate Programme Following feedback from students and industry, Griffith College Dublin has reviewed and updated its three year full time undergraduate programme to include more practical focused training in hospitality skills. Students of the BA (Hons) in International Hospitality Management now have the opportunity to gain experience through practical skills training in the college’s onsite training restaurant, and students are also required to complete 500 hours of work experience before entering their final year. Modules are delivered by means of formal lectures, tutorials, practical training sessions, industrial experience and a substantial third year project. The programme focuses on introducing and preparing students for management roles in the international hospitality industry. Key areas of the programme include international hospitality management, hospitality operations, international services marketing, accounting and finance, international human resource management, information technology, management information systems and e-business. Students who have accredited prior experiential learning can also gain entry to this programme, giving them the opportunity to develop their management and professional skills.

More Judges for Gold Medal Awards In light of the overwhelming response to this year’s Gold Medal Awards we have appointed a further two new judges to the Gold Medal Awards Jury. Northern Irish TV chef Paula McIntyre joins the team alongside hotel consultant Aileesh Carew. McIntyre has worked extensively in the industry, running her own award-winning restaurant, The Undrie, in Manchester before returning home to Ireland to work as head chef in a number of establishments, including Ghan House in Carlingford and Fontana in Holywood. She regularly makes appearances on a number of TV shows, writes for newspapers in Northern Ireland, lectures in the professional cookery programme at the Northern Regional College and also specialises in private dining and event catering. Aileesh Carew is a consultant with a wide range of experience managing a number of five star hotel resorts across Europe, including hotels in Brussels and Mallorca with one and two star Michelin restaurants. A graduate of Shannon, with an Executive MBA from Copenhagen Business School and a Diploma in Marketing from the Institute of Marketing among numerous other qualifications, Carew also works with Fáilte Ireland as a business mentor in its Business Mentoring & Advisory Service. McIntyre and Carew join fellow new appointees, Rory Murphy, former general manager of Ashford Castle, and Eugene McGovern, former head of catering at Trinity College Dublin, on the Gold Medal Awards Jury. Returning to the Jury this year are: • Paul Boksberger, catering industry consultant; immediate past chair of the Food Safety Professionals Association; and past president of the Irish Hospitality Institute • Dick Bourke, board member, Fáilte Ireland; past president, Irish Hotels Federation; immediate past chair, Irish Tourist Industry Confederation; former general manager, Jurys Hotel, Ballsbridge • Marilyn Bright, food consultant; writer; Hotel & Catering Review columnist; and past chair of the Irish Food Writers’ Guild • Ray Carroll, hotel consultant; former chief executive, The K Club • Eugene McSweeney, chef and restaurant consultant; former proprietor of Lacken House, Kilkenny • Tom Mythen, restaurant consultant; past president, Restaurants Association of Ireland; former head of catering, Irish Rail • Mary O’Callaghan, president of the Irish Guild of Sommeliers; wine consultant and lecturer, DIT • Denis Tucker, chairman, the National Hygiene Partnership; former quality assurance manager, Fáilte Ireland Douglas Jordan, registrar, Fáilte Ireland; past president, Irish Hospitality Institute is a special advisor to the Jury and the Jury is chaired by Hotel & Catering Review’s editor, Sarah Grennan. Over 230 businesses entered the 22nd Annual Hotel & Catering Review Gold Medal Awards in close to 400 categories this year. The judges have now commenced their inspections, with assessments of hotels, restaurants, hotel groups and catering operations taking place over the summer months. Entrants will be notified of their progress in this year’s Awards in August, when the list of finalists in all 14 categories will be published. The Gold Medal Awards will be presented at a gala black tie event in Dublin’s Shelbourne Hotel on 20 September. For updates on this year’s Awards visit www.hotelandcateringreview.ie or subscribe to our free weekly news Bulletin on our homepage.

MICE Promotion

Pictured on the Tourism Ireland stand at the Gulf Incentive Business Travel and Meetings Exhibition (GIBTM) which took place in Abu Dhabi last month were Róisín O’Sullivan, The Westin Dublin; Donna Brogan, Dublin Convention Bureau; Francesca Monfero, Tourism Ireland; Ronan Flood, Advantage ICO; and Aiveen Ryan, Tourism Ireland. GIBTM is a key event each year for the MICE (Meetings, Incentive, Conferences and Events) industry, attracting thousands of business tourism buyers from all over the world and offering important networking opportunities for the participating Irish tourism operators.

HOTEL & CATERING REVIEW ❖ MAY 2010

OPINION

hat plaintiff cry from the back seat of the car on those journeys of yore to the countryside re-echo today, as the industry desperately seeks signs that the worst may be over and that renewed growth and prosperity are around the corner. Treats and the promise of great things at the end of the road usually made the journeys tolerable. Patience by the grown-ups was another necessary virtue for survival. And so it is with Irish tourism’s recovery today, the patience of the grown-ups will be severely tested over the coming months and the year ahead before we can confidently say, ‘whew! That was really nasty, but at least it’s behind us now’. There are some green shoots out there for sure, as economic recovery takes hold in some of our main markets. But any complacency was truly shattered by the 24% drop in overseas visitors in February, and the awful 30% fall from our main market, Britain. We know that March will also be down in double digits, though hopefully by a lesser number, and April too will show a double

in most other regions. Visitor spend, when adjusted for inflation, was also in decline. While Continental Europe showed explosive visitor growth up to 2008, the figures were favourably skewed by ‘economic’ visitors from Eastern Europe. Substantial direct air capacity was added from North America and it showed promise and some growth for a while. But once the crazy Irish shoppers couldn’t borrow any more for weekend breaks to the USA, some of these services became unviable and were either eliminated or reduced in frequency. All the evidence in recent years clearly showed that Dublin and Ireland have developed a reputation for being expensive, and in some markets we appear to have lost some of our fashionability. Thankfully our competitiveness has improved over the past year, but we have a long way to go. There is no doubt but that cheaper airfares delivered strong growth in visitor numbers to Ireland, as it has done for all other destinations

Are We There Yet? Are We There Yet? EAMONN McKEON asks a familiar question. digit decline, thanks mainly, but not exclusively, to the volcanic ash. While one month, or even two, does not a season make, nevertheless it is odds on that 2010 will record a decline in overseas visitors for the third consecutive year. We frequently bemoan the fact that CSO statistics come out too late after the event to be really useful, as many commentators from Ministers to media, to ITIC and others, rush to make profound statements about what a particular month’s numbers tell us. This is to miss the point. The real value of the excellent CSO statistics is that, if we are patient and study them, they should alert us to developing trends. And not all the trends were good before the global economic meltdown. Ninety per cent of the growth in Irish hotel bednights between 2002 and 2008 was produced by the domestic market. Did this not tell us something was askew? The overall visitor numbers looked okay, but pure holidaymaker travellers from Britain showed little or no growth since 2001. Two ITIC studies in 2005 and 2006 clearly showed that growth in overseas demand was largely focused on Dublin as bednights declined

in Europe. However, what with transaction charges, baggage charges, check-in charges, airport departure charges, is there really any such thing as low fares anymore? That’s not a criticism of the airlines; it’s the simple fact that we consumers have to get over the illusion that we can travel from A to B in a €50m piece of sophisticated equipment for €10. Airlines have to make money to survive, and the consolidation which is underway worldwide suggests that the real cost of air travel is not staying low anymore. But back to Britain – Ireland’s largest source market generating 46% of all overseas visitors last year – which appears to be in meltdown after 18 consecutive months of decline. True the currency is an issue, and true this is causing those Brits, who are travelling at all, to avoid Eurozone destinations. April will be the 20th consecutive month of decline. That’s a crisis, and particularly for Dublin. Most worrying is the apparent loss of market share of the British outbound market in recent months. But we must be patient, and forceful at the same time in getting to grips with this meltdown.

Ninety per cent of the growth in Irish hotel bednights between 2002 and 2008 was produced by the domestic market. Did this not tell us something was askew?

10 HOTEL & CATERING REVIEW ❖ MAY 2010

Tourism appears very fortunate in having snared an able and enthusiastic Minister in Mary Hanafin. She is committed to helping the industry back on its feet, and she can do that by persuading her Cabinet colleagues that, given the correct incentives, this industry can bottom out soon and get on the road to renewed growth and prosperity. In no particular order, Government must facilitate the following: • Restoration of competitiveness and concentration on service exports, including tourism, is the way out of this mess. • Shrink the public sector to a size more appropriate to a nation of four million inhabitants, and ensure it is efficient and affordable. Remember this, in a worstcase scenario, the State’s investment in the financial institutions could potentially cost the taxpayer up to €25bn over the next 10 years. That’s a very great deal of money, but if the public sector is not right-sized and made efficient, we would need to borrow up to €200bn to keep going as we are, over the same period. That would clearly be unmanageable, and even before we got halfway there, an EU/IMF rescue would be put in place which would make the current Greek rescue look like the teddy bears’ picnic. So take your pick, more pain for a few more years, or excruciation down the road. • Provision of positive leadership, which will instil confidence in the public belief that we can recover if only we eliminate the dystopian culture which pervades our political system, and our media. • An immediate review of the findings of the Tourism Renewal Group, followed by their implementation. • Removal of the destructive airport departure tax to avoid the loss of any more connectivity with our main markets. • Develop as a matter of urgency a workable business model with the car rental industry, to allow for an adequate supply of quality cars on the fleet each year to meet demand at competitive prices. • Facilitate a scheme with the hotel sector, which will allow an orderly movement in bedroom capacity to something closer to market requirements. • Lighten the bureaucratic load on small businesses to encourage start-ups and expansion. • Maintain adequate marketing budgets in our key source markets to prevent damaging loss of market share. The capacity to take the longer-term perspective is critical to achieving economic stability as the pace of change accelerates. I do believe that visitor arrivals will bottom out later this year, and we will begin to see modest growth but it will be modest, bearing in mind that estimated peak air capacity is 17% down on the levels enjoyed in 2008. Patience they say is a virtue, but I can’t but help recall a wall poster that my secretary, Rosie Moran from Foxford, had by her desk in New HAVE YOuR SAY: York all those years ago, which Do you have an opinion read: Patience my ass, I’m going to you would like to share? Email the editor, kill somebody. Sarah Grennan, at That too may be somewhat s.grennan@jemma.ie reflective of the current mood of many hard-pressed operators in the business. u EAMONN McKEON is chief executive of the Irish Tourist Industry Confederation.

New Season Lamb Now that new season lamb is plentiful, delicious and at its best, be sure to include it on your summer-time menus. Great tasting racks have never been better value. Down among the lakes and mountains Robin Kirk, Killarney Plaza Hotel of Killarney, Head Chef Robin Kirk of the Killarney Plaza Hotel confirms that “Kerry lamb is one of our trademarks. We sell racks of lamb to regular diners, as well as the coach tours that are an important part of our business”. Robin was presented with a major logistics problem when 800 German travel agents came to town – two lunches on consecutive days, with 400 at each service. It was decided that racks of lamb would showcase the signature meat to best advantage. The problem was that each meal had to be served within a 45 minute time limit. Planning was done with military precision, with 800 trimmed racks ordered well in advance from two reliable suppliers. As the time approached, the lamb went into a marinade of fresh herbs, oil, lemon and garlic. “It was all hands on deck on the day”, Robin recalls. “The racks were seared off and transferred in relays to our four combi-ovens for 12 minutes. Outside we had four serving stations with two staff at each and all the kitchen porters acting as runners”. By the end of the exercise, 800 Germans had gone away not only on time, but happy to spread the word about the excellent lamb that reflects so much of the natural countryside.

New Season Lamb, a summer time favourite www.bordbia.ie

HOTEL & CATERING REVIEW ❖ MAY 2010 11

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Tourism Champion New Minister for Tourism, Culture & Sport Mary Hanafin talks to SARAH GRENNAN in her first official interview since taking the helm in tourism. 12 HOTEL & CATERING REVIEW ❖ MAY 2010

inister Mary Hanafin informs us as we take a quick snap of her near Leinster House in between Dáil votes this month that this is not her first photo shoot for the cover of Hotel & Catering Review. Her first time to grace the front page was nearly 20 years ago, back in 1991, when as chairman of the College of Catering she was pictured with principal, Robert Lawlor, to mark Cathal Brugha Street’s 50th anniversary. Later, as we walk to her office in Government Buildings, she recalls that DIT landed the cover as it had won a monthly Gilbeys Gold Medal Award (now the Hotel & Catering Review Gold Medal Awards). While content with the monthly win, she recollects the disappointment when DIT did not land the top annual award that year, with the college missing out to the Allen family’s Ballymaloe House. Mary Hanafin’s links with Cathal Brugha Street has made her recent appointment something of a homecoming therefore, and she was chuffed to hear from DIT’s Michael Mulvey that a number of past graduates had got in touch following the Cabinet reshuffle to reminisce that the new Tourism Minister had presented them with their degrees all those years ago. And it’s not just the College of Catering connection which has warmed the cockles of hospitality operators’ hearts. A childhood growing up in her parents’ hotel in Thurles, where her Mum also ran the local tourism office, ensures that the new Minister has a good grounding in the inner workings of what is Ireland’s largest indigenous industry. It is little wonder therefore that, despite media aspersions that her move to the newly titled Department of Tourism, Culture & Sport was a demotion, the Minister is relishing her new role. ‘My move to Tourism was described as a demotion, but if it means you get to become Minister of the most important indigenous industry in the country then I’ll happily take that demotion. If it means getting tickets to the Heineken Cup, the GAA... to have dinner with Gabriel Byrne, then this is the kind of demotion that I really look forward to,’ she told restaurateurs in a rousing address at the Restaurants Association of Ireland’s annual dinner in April that had ebullient diners thumping the table in approval. Her message to restaurateurs, and to tour operators, hoteliers and other interested tourism parties at various functions recently, is clear: ‘I will be your champion at the Cabinet table’, she has reiterated time and again. And heaven knows we need a champion right now, as tourism suffers at the hands of the domestic and global recession, the freakish January weather, and the even more freakish April and May ash clouds. ‘Things have been very tough,’ acknowledges Minister Hanafin, reflecting on tourism’s tumultuous start to the new

COvEr STOrY decade. ‘But then they have been exceptional months in terms of weather, and not just for Ireland, everywhere has been bad. There were national authorities recommending to people not to travel. If you get that kind of advice you’re not going to, and that particularly impacted on the British market. The volcanic ash is also going to have a big impact on figures.’ The British market – our largest and most important – is of concern, the Minister admits, with early statistics for this year showing a fall off in January and February, Tourism Credentials: A former chairman coming on the back of what of Cathal Brugha Street, Mary Hanafin was was a difficult year in 2009. pictured on the cover of Hotel & Catering Review in 1991 with Robert Lawlor to mark the ‘But on the upside you have 50th anniversary of the College of Catering. really intense marketing that went on around St Patrick’s Day and I think that will have a long-term impact,’ she says. So too will the new summer marketing campaign she launched for Tourism Ireland a week after our interview. Incentives such as the Golden Trekker free rail pass for over 66s are a boon when attracting visitors to Ireland, she notes, hopeful that it can be extended further next year. Likewise recent challenges such as the Eyjafjallajökull ash debacle could actually work in our favour with the British, as frequent ferry access highlights how easy it is to visit these shores. While heaping praise on the industry for its response to the ash crisis, and commending Tourism Ireland for its high profile marketing campaign around St Patrick’s Day, Mary Hanafin has her own ideas for marketing Ireland. She would love to see a campaign similar to Fáilte Ireland’s domestic advertising rolled out to the UK, emphasising the fun activities available here and targeting the young British market. She is also delighted with emerging networks of young Irish professionals in the US in particular, which present whole new networking opportunities. She came across one such group, the Brehon Law Society, during her recent visit Stateside. ‘These are law professionals, from newly qualified lawyers up to judges, who network through professional bodies with an Irish interest, they’re not the guys who hang out in the Irish centres. Some people say that the old US market is gone, but these are new groups we can reach out to who can promote Ireland for us.’ Maximising on the talents and links of Irish people internationally is a key strategy for tourism and culture going forward, not least with the recent appointment of actor Gabriel Byrne as Ireland’s cultural ambassador. Sporting superstars such as Padraic Harrington, as well as young golfers Leona and Lisa Maguire, are also promoting Ireland’s appeal, notes the Minister. ‘They’re great ambassadors for themselves, and for Ireland.’ What will Byrne’s role involve, we wonder, will he just head out talking to people? ‘That will do, thank you very much,’ jokes Mary Hanafin, adding that the actor, who is enjoying renewed popularity in the

US because of the success of his show In Treatment, is ‘absolutely thrilled’ with the role. Forgive us a moment gents, as we had to ask, on behalf of our female readership, what is he like? ‘He’s a hoot! He’s just a tonic,’ says the Minister who sat beside him at dinner in Washington over St Patrick’s Day and is evidently as thrilled with his appointment as the actor is himself. (We have to agree, it was a pretty terrific call, but that’s enough gushing from us for now.)

ust as Gabriel Byrne will help to communicate all that is good about Ireland to a wider audience, Minister Hanafin is equally heartened by recent statistics that show that Tourism Ireland’s Discover Ireland site is now the top ranking country site in the US, while the agency’s suite of 41 www. discoverireland.com sites worldwide have attracted more than 13 million hits. What about industry complaints that Ireland’s marketers have eased off too much on the shoe leather, and delved too deeply into the virtual world? ‘Personal contact does make a huge difference, particularly for Ireland as that’s what people come here for. You go to Spain for the sun, you go to Paris because it’s Paris but when you dig down you see that the reason people are coming to Ireland is because we’re very friendly. I’ve quoted the Lonely Planet on all my trips to America, which puts Ireland as number one for the friendliest people. That’s what people want, they don’t want to come to a place where they feel they’re not welcome. And so I agree, personal contact is so important, you really can’t beat it, but in fairness to Tourism Ireland, you have to reach a mass market and all the personal contact in the world is not going to have you reaching 13 million people.’ Nonetheless, the Minister understands the power of her own personal contact. ‘I have offered myself to do whatever marketing is needed, at whatever level, going wherever to make personal contacts,’ she says, adding with a wry smile ‘I know that certainly in some countries having a government minister present does actually make a difference, particularly in new and emerging markets.’ With Tourism Ireland throwing its weight behind key target markets of Britain, the US, France and Germany, the NMEs are getting less attention in the current year however. ‘It’s a slow burner really,’ acknowledges the Minister, while noting there is certainly scope for growth. ‘I was in China and India on trade missions and I saw that, thanks to our educational system and culture, they’re big into Ireland. The success of Riverdance in China has opened up a whole new market, as has education. They watched the boom of the Celtic Tiger, they came here to study and the students went home with a good flavour of Ireland, they speak well about it and they have actually become ambassadors for us.’ All of which is good news, but as anyone with a passing interest in new and emerging markets such as China will tell you, the visa situation is hampering visitor numbers. ‘I would like to see an all-Ireland visa and I’ve written to Dermot Ahern to ask him to consider this, but I know Justice is always very careful about visas. It would make it a lot easier if there was the one visa for visiting Ireland, particularly as people from China can only visit designated centres, of which we are one, so there’s no reason why they shouldn’t come to us from Britain.’ 8

HOTEL & CATERING REVIEW ❖ MAY 2010 13

hile marketing efforts are continuing with gusto, on the home front the problems are mounting, not least with the overcapacity crisis in the hotel sector. The Irish Hotels Federation pleaded the case for removing tax clawbacks and facilitating the closure of zombie hotels to a Joint Oireachtas Committee this month, but Minister Hanafin believes that we will have to await the outcome of NAMA before any kind of solution to the crisis can be found. ‘The loans of the top 10 borrowers have been transferred to NAMA, with hotel loans of approximately €800m, so it’s only now that NAMA is seeing how many hotels are involved in this. Those borrowers now have to give NAMA a business plan which will cover everything they do with their loans, then there will be an independent review and negotiations. NAMA officials indicated when the NAMA board was set up that they will be talking to the hotel sector and the Department but it will be probably the end of the year before we see any movement. There are two issues here, the first is the fact that NAMA hotels are part of the problem of overcapacity and the second one was pointed out to me when I met the Irish Hotels Federation – it was a really good point that I hadn’t actually thought of – and that is that some of the hotels that have gone into NAMA are very important flagship hotels. What they’re worried about is the lack of certainty for next year. It was well put to me by one general manager who said that if a bride and groom or an events manager contacted the hotel for a wedding or conference for next year, they don’t know what to tell them, so obviously the quicker we get a decision the better.’ With NAMA set to take over a raft of new hotels, can we expect the State to get back into the hotelkeeping business or will contracts be handed to key management companies to run the assets? ‘The State will not be a direct operator of hotels ever again, that’s not the State’s expertise. No way,’ says Minister Hanafin, adding: ‘NAMA will decide what to do on the basis of a good, viable business plan. There will be hotels that will continue, but there will be others that won’t. It will be for NAMA to decide whether hotels shut down, you can’t just keep them open if they are going to continue to run a loss. If the business plan isn’t able to step up to the plate well then they will just have to close. NAMA also has a social obligation to see what alternative uses there are, but if I’ve heard one person I’ve heard a hundred people saying you can change hotels into a nursing home. There are going to be an awful lot of nursing homes then if that’s the case.’

eanwhile, while hotels are feeling the squeeze from zombie operations, businesses are also feeling the pressure of lack of credit. Minister Hanafin is hopeful that this will ease with the establishment of the Credit Review Office. ‘The figures from the Mazars report show that in the first quarter of 2009 lending to the hotel and restaurant sector rose by 2.2%, but I know that there are all kinds of accounting and it is difficult to get lending right now. The Credit Review will help, but the Minister for Finance has made it quite clear that it can only be for viable enterprises. If you’re going to the wall, there’s no one going to prop you up.’ One way businesses can stave off going to the wall when trade declines is by cutting costs, and while hoteliers and caterers have made huge inroads culling operating costs over the last year, they are hitting a stumbling block with regulatory charges. Top of restaurateurs’ wish list is changes to wage structures, in particular the abolition of the Joint Labour Committee system which governs wage rates in the catering and hotel sectors in certain areas around Ireland. Likewise, the Restaurants Association of Ireland is also seeking a reduction in the minimum wage, from €8.65 to €7.65. ‘That is not going to happen at all,’ states the Minister firmly. On the subject of JLCs, she explains: ‘The Industrial Relations Amendment Bill has gone through the Senate and is

14 HOTEL & CATERING REVIEW ❖ MAY 2010

Cover Story know why anyone would write “give us some money to buy a car”. now before the Dáil. It will modernise and strengthen the current There must be more imaginative ways of looking at it. I sent them system but the Government has decided that the JLC system will away to look at it again, and when they came back they said “give remain as a protection for low paid workers. What was announced us some money” again,’ she says incredulously. is that the inability to pay clause that exists for the minimum wage Critical of the report, the Minister and her team have done will now be applied to the Employment Regulation Orders to try their own homework on the issue. ‘I’ve spoken to Brian Lenihan and strengthen the mechanisms that are out there. That might about it and I’ve written to him to ask him to get his officials to balance things out a bit. Also, I think there is an argument in the look at it from a VRT perspective. In the meantime, we’ve asked fact that the ERO system doesn’t apply everywhere and that there them about using newish second-hand cars, but they didn’t want are different rates for different places. Maybe the inability to pay that. I also suggested bringing in cars from the UK or North of might be the way out but let’s see how it works and maybe we’ll Ireland, particularly automatic cars which Americans want, but review it again then.’ there were various issues with that about speeding fines etc. Then With the Bill currently before the Dáil, hospitality operators we spoke to two of the big car distributors to see if there was a way can expect the inability to pay clause to pass into law before the around the problem from their perspective,’ she explains. ‘It’s not summer recess. just an Irish problem, which is interesting because we’re inclined Movement on local authority charges will take considerably to blame the changes which have come about in the Budget in the longer however, with the Minister noting that local authorities last two years. It’s actually a problem in other countries as well. are not going to be in a hurry to do anything that could reduce I’m not sure if they found a solution, but what I do know is that their take right now. While the revaluing process will take ‘a very the model the industry used here as a business model doesn’t work long time’, Mary Hanafin also warns that when it does happen, it anymore. I have to talk to other people to see what the solution is, won’t be good news for everyone. ‘When there was a revaluation but it has to be more creative. If we give a subsidy that money has in Dublin the rates came down for hotels, which were delighted, to come from somewhere else in tourism. but on the other hand they went up for There’s no extra money for it out there.’ restaurants.’ ‘There will be hotels that will The pressures on public finances are Pointing out that revaluating has continue, but there will be others also set to ensure that the controversial already taken an age (new laws on the matter were introduced back in 2001) that won’t. It will be for NAMA to airport tax which vexes Michael O’Leary, others in the tourism industry, is here we cited the example oft used by the decide whether hotels shut down, you and to stay, for the interim period anyway. IHF, that a hotel is charged unfairly because of its size, while a solicitors can’t just keep them open if they are ‘The problem with the airport tax is that going to bring in €135m this year. practice, for instance, operating out going to continue to run a loss. If the it’s It’s very hard to get that kind of money of a much smaller space but turning business plan isn’t able to step up to somewhere else. It’s not a tax that as over much more could be charged for Tourism you’d want to put a fraction of the amount. Minister the plate well then they will just have Minister on, and you’d be looking to take it off as Hanafin has also heard this example. to close.’ soon as you were able to, but realistically ‘The introduction of a site valuation for the next while I don’t think we’ll tax is contained in the programme for be able to change it,’ she says. But is it a false economy, and is it Government but you can’t do that until you have a valuation done doing more damage than good? ‘I suppose you have to look at it and on the current way of working it will take nearly 20 years to in the context that tourism is being hit because of a wide range of do it. That’s the bad news.’ factors but I don’t believe so. Fáilte Ireland tells me that there are The Minister seems less enthused with IHF president Paul no stats to show that it is putting people off coming to Ireland.’ Gallagher’s suggestion that one of the big four estate agents could What is having an impact is the ash cloud crisis, and as the be enlisted to carry out the valuations to help speed up the process. plumes waft further into Ireland’s air space in the weeks following (see cover story, Hotel & Catering Review April 2010). ‘I’ve been on our interview, the Minister has met with the industry to formulate the economics sub-committee of the Cabinet for a while, as was a response, including a new customer care charter. Despite the my predecessor in this job, and local authority rates are one of the myriad of challenges facing Irish tourism, Mary Hanafin remains things that keep cropping up. In most cases they haven’t increased optimistic about the future. ‘I am hugely encouraged by the at all for this year, in fact, the hotel industry is looking for a enthusiasm of the industry. Look at what they have just come 30% decrease. The local authorities wouldn’t be able to function through with the volcanic ash, where they looked after people well with that, you see, that’s the problem. The introduction of water and went the extra mile. They’re all business people, they’re all charges – albeit a political hot potato for domestic users – will entrepreneurs, they’ve all got ideas and they’ve all come through actually support the local authorities in the work they are doing in hard times before and they’re striving ahead now.’ that regard, so that will help spread the burden.’ She seems to be relishing the new role. ‘It’s fabulous,’ she beams. ‘What I’m really glad about is not just being in charge of a nother burden – this time for our tourists – is the cost of car new ministry, but also getting the opportunity to link the tourism rental in Ireland, which has risen by a staggering 217% in the and culture and sport a bit more. They’re very distinct sectors past year, according to a new survey by Rubicon Consultants in their own rights but there’s great potential for them to work for Hertz*. The Irish Tourist Industry Confederation (ITIC) together.’ flagged the problem earlier this year, publishing a report in March And of course, the Minister is determined to place tourism which identified the 60% decline in rental car numbers as the centre stage at policy level. ‘Even if you look at the name change reason for the price spike, due, it said, to VRT and annual road tax of the Department and you say “what’s in a name?”, I think that rate changes; the elimination of the VRT rebate and the exclusion highlighting tourism as an economic ministry shows commitment of ex-rentals from the scrappage scheme. The report called for an and recognition of its value to the economy. It is a recognition that extension of the scrappage scheme to cover current year ex-rentals we should be paying more attention to this indigenous industry.’ (similar to Germany); the postponement of the elimination of the VRT refund and the introduction of a stimulus programme. We can all agree with that. u The Minister was not impressed, to put it mildly. ‘I have to say I was very disappointed that a commissioned document from an economist on the solutions to the car hire crisis came back and just * Hertz survey of seven hire companies, based on the prices for a week’s rental in July compared to those of the same period last year. said “give us a subsidy”. I could have written that myself. I don’t

HOTEL & CATERING REVIEW ❖ MAY 2010 15

vISITOr FEEDBACK

Why irish eyes are still smiling (Despite Snow Storms, Ash Clouds and a Chilly Economic Climate)

Amidst all the bleak news about ash clouds and plummeting tourism numbers last month came one happy tale – our visitors still love us. But despite the ferocious price-cutting in the industry over the last year, the thorny issue of the high cost of living is still causing headaches, while efforts to put food tourism centre stage need to be upped if our cuisine is to really resonate with tourists. Hotel & Catering Review looks at the stats from the recently published Fáilte Ireland Visitor Attitudes Survey for 2009.

et’s put the best foot forward and start with the good news shall we? Taking recommendations as a barometer, we have a near 100% approval rating among our overseas customers. Now that’s an opinion poll that many a politician would give their right arm to receive. Indeed, recent statistics from Fáilte Ireland show that of the mighty 98% of our visitors would recommend a holiday in Ireland to friends and family, 83% who would ‘definitely’ do so (up from 81% in ’ 08). The remaining 15% would do so but with some reservations, which would be the not so good news, more of which later… A third of the 5,000 visitors polled by Fáilte Ireland said their trip last year exceeded their expectations, while in 61% of cases their expectations were matched. The 5% who felt that Ireland didn’t live up to their expectations and 2% who used the old ‘No Comment’ get out of jail card follow a similar pattern for the last number of years. Why do visitors love us so much? Well it seems our people are still our trump card. This is great news for those who worried that in the heady days of the Celtic Tiger this USP was tarnished by a Wall

1 HOTEL & CATERING REVIEW ❖ MAY 2010

Streetesque ‘greed is good’ philosophy. It isn’t good of course, as we have since learned to our cost but, in one nice piece of silver lining, with this realisation has come a return to old fashioned values and an enhanced commitment to customer service. Indeed, despite the mire we found ourselves in last year and the collective depressed mood of the nation, our popularity as a people has increased. Asked why their expectations were exceeded, 44% of visitors polled cited Irish people – up from 42% in 2008 and 40% in 2007 – a stat which will no doubt cheer Tourism Ireland which has been busy pushing the ‘Shine’ agenda in a bid to bolster this all-important characteristic. Scenery took a 1% tumble however (41% from 42% in ’08 and ’07) while history/culture was cited by 11% of visitors as a reason their trip exceeded their expectations (up 2%). Amazingly, considering the disastrously poor showing of summer ’09, weather gained a 2% popularity increase, though its following is somewhat low (8%) and one can only assume that these visitors came from a hurricane-dogged region, or they have a penchant for rain. Our friendly, hospitable people are also the most important factor

when visitors consider holidaying in Ireland, though at 90% this has dropped slightly in recent years (92% in â&#x20AC;&#x2122;05 and 91% in the years â&#x20AC;&#x2122;06â&#x20AC;&#x2122;08). Hot on the heels of our people is our beautiful scenery (89%), safety and security (83%); things to see and do (82%); natural, unspoilt environment (80%) and good range of natural attractions (80%). Last on the list is â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;good all round value for moneyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;. Interestingly, when asked whether they agreed with a number of different statements about Ireland, only 26% agreed a lot that Ireland â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;has a variety of high quality foodâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;, while 34% agreed a little, leaving 21% with no views and 19% who disagreed. Food also failed to feature on the table of top reasons why visitors chose to holiday in Ireland, proving that if we wish to promote gastro-tourism we have some way to go yet. Happily, when FĂĄilte Ireland drilled down and asked visitors what they thought of the food they consumed while here the vast majority of respondents were satisfied. Food in high quality restaurants received an 88% approval rating (43% satisfied, 45% very satisfied), hotels were given a 75% food grade (47% satisfied, 28% very), while pubs and bar food also got the thumbs up (50% satisfied, 28% very). Budget restaurants recorded the lowest satisfaction ratings (69%). Food costs were also identified spontaneously by 7% of respondents as a disadvantage compared to other destinations, while 25% gave the overall cost of living a thumbs down. And so back to the old chestnut of price. Despite the savage costcutting undertaken by the industry in the last 18 months, high prices still figure as a cause for anxiety. Those who would recommend Ireland but with some reservations put prices at the top of their concerns (37%). Other qualms include the weather (13%), food costs and quality (7%), the roads/driving (6%) and dissatisfaction with accommodation (5%). Despite the odd gremlin in the system, more than half (52%) say they will return within the next few years â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 10% of which will be back later this year, thankfully. Lord knows we need them. u

ignore the net at your Peril The internet is the second most important source influencing holiday choices (48%), second only to friends and family (51%), according to FĂĄilte Irelandâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Visitor Attitudes Survey for 2009. Guidebooks are the next biggest influencer (24%), followed by films (18%), brochures and articles (17% each), ITB literature (14%), travel agents (13%), travel programmes (12%), and lastly advertising for Ireland (10%). The web is the most important tool for planning a holiday (67%), followed by guidebooks (46%) and just over a fifth (21%) of those surveyed used a travel agent to plan their trip. - ONLINE APPEAL: Read how social media can maximise your web impact on page 26.

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SPECIAL REPORT

The Right Strategy For Revenue Growth Hotel marketers who are finding it hard to grapple with the web can turn to online strategists Bookassist for a wealth of expert advice.

elebrating 10 years in business this year, online strategy company Bookassist is an Irish success story, growing from its foundation in Dublin to become a multinational hotel technology and online services provider with offices in seven countries around the globe. Highly regarded for its effective booking systems, Bookassist has expanded its services over the intervening decade since its launch, positioning itself as a leading internet strategist for the hotel industry here in Ireland and across Europe and the US. ‘We are a strategy company first and foremost and that translates into delivering an overall focused plan on how best to build a hotel’s

revenue,’ explains Paul Dooley, Director of Client Services with Bookassist in Ireland. ‘We work in partnership with hotels to drive direct business to their websites. We have the in-house knowledge and expertise to work together with hotels to increase traffic and increase the rate of conversion on their sites.’ The company offers the complete online solution, providing a host of advice and support from the initial design and development of hotel websites, through to traffic building tools which help drive business directly to your site, and Bookassist also offers a wealth of advice to help you promote your business through social media and other online platforms. As a leading

Prepare your hotel for future success by capitalising on new technology and the economic upturn. Maximise direct revenue and strategically position your hotel for future profit. TOPICS -

Strategies for success Current and future trends Evolution of search and social media 3rd party distribution versus direct Going mobile

SPEAKERS Speakers from Google, TripAdvisor, TrustYou and STRGlobal. This is an event that Hotel General Managers, Group Sales and Marketing Managers, Sales & Marketing Executives, Revenue Managers and Online Specialists within hotels cannot afford to miss. Register now at: bookassist.org/seminars Trending on twitter as: #bookassist4

Wednesday 23rd June, 2010 Conrad Hotel, Earlsfort Terrace, Dublin 2.

educator in the technology sector, it is hosting its fourth Bookassist Annual Seminar on 23 June at the Conrad Dublin, where speakers from Google, TripAdvisor and STRGlobal will discuss how hotels can capitalise on new technology and maximise direct revenue. While the rapid pace of technology development can send many hotel managers and marketers into a spin, Bookassist is well placed to chart these trends. As a beta tester for Google it keeps its finger on the pulse of online technology, identifying the key products and developments which can make an impact on hotel businesses. The company was one of the first to introduce a new iPhone app for hotels, which allows guests to navigate hotel sites clearly and book directly from the convenience of their phones. ‘It is virtually impossible for hotels to keep up with the pace of development online and that’s where, as a strategy company, we can inform and educate our clients. Every day Google and others come up with something new, but we can help hotels weed out the important things that they should focus on,’ says Paul Dooley. As a former manager with the Jurys Doyle Hotel Group, Paul also understands the pressures on hotel managers and marketers and knows how the myriad of online options can be confusing for hoteliers. ‘This is where we are very effective,’ he explains. ‘Bookassist’s account management is a key strength and our clients know that whatever the query, there is always someone on the end of the phone that they can call to ask for advice or to arrange a face to face meeting. We have technical expertise and excellent products and services which are packaged with great customer service for our clients. Our goal is to increase hotels’ business and we work in close partnership with our clients to achieve this.’ Bookassist: 01 676 2913, ireland@bookassist.com, www.bookassist.org

Products & Services As a comprehensive online strategy company for the Irish and international hotel industry, Bookassist offers a range of dedicated products and services designed to help you maximise your online business potential. Booking Engine The Bookassist Booking Engine generates the highest conversion of any web booking engine on the market, because it’s rich in Web2.0/ Travel2.0 features, it’s packed with innovation like multilingual support, multi-currency transactions, live credit card verification, packaging and the most advanced reporting available. Corporate & Loyalty Rewards Bookassist’s Corporate & Loyalty Rewards allows hotels to set up and manage multiple corporate identities and users, deal directly with agents, and offer rewards programmes. The system allows hotels to offer private rates to each user, and the system can fast-track the user’s booking process, allowing them to manage, search, alter and cancel bookings easily. Rewards points are accumulated per booking and can be redeemed against the hotel’s rewards list. Rewards are highly flexible and can be accommodation, restaurant or any other reward that the hotel chooses to offer, such as shopping vouchers. Channel Connect Concentrating on your rate strategy is a critical task and time well spent. With Channel Connect you can focus your time where it matters most, on rate decisions, and let the software handle the laborious management. Choose from three optimised tiers of access to ensure you keep your costs to a minimum. GDS Manager Bookassist GDS Manager integrates the Global Distribution and Internet Distribution Systems (GDS/ IDS) right into your booking engine administration system allowing you to reach the world with a click via Sabre, Amadeus, Galileo, and Worldspan (over 450,000 travel agents worldwide) as well as the Pegasus ODD (with 100+ major online travel portals and thousands of affiliates). Traffic Builder Traffic Builder gets your website fully search-engine optimised (SEO) for both users and search engines and also promoted through affiliate marketing. The Traffic Builder team, all Google Adwords Professionals, will analyse your online business to create the perfect online strategy for pay-per-click (PPC) search engine marketing (SEM). Site Builder Bookassist Site Builder brings you websites built from the ground up around a dynamic content management system (CMS). Entirely integrated with Booking Engine and Traffic Builder, your Site Builder website brings Web 2.0 capabilities like blogs and Twitter integration and allows you to analyse visitor traffic with ease, control e-marketing campaigns and make the most of your Booking Engine’s customer database. Multiple languages and multiple currencies allow you to target wider markets for maximum benefit.

INTErvIEW

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Padraic Frawley

ou can tell that Padraic Frawley is the kind of guy that doesn’t get a huge amount of sleep, and it’s not just the three children’s seats in the back of the car that are the giveaway. Along with three restaurant and bar operations to occupy his thoughts, his mind is positively buzzing with ideas for new ventures, while active involvement in the Restaurants Association of Ireland (of which he is a council member) as well as locally in his native Limerick, adds further to his workload. On the morning we meet in his Aubar’s Bar, Bistro & Nightclub on Thomas Street in the city Padraic is busy trying to pull together plans for an inaugural Dine in Limerick festival next month. Capitalising on the success of the Dine in Dublin weeks, and following this month’s first Dine in Cork week, the festival is planned for 14-20 June, bringing the city’s leading restaurants together to offer special €25 menus to diners in a bid to boost restaurant trade in the Munster citadel. Though the concept, which was first borrowed from the US and used in Dublin last year, has been phenomenally successful both in the capital and the Rebel County, Padraic admits that in

Restaurateur Padraic Frawley has his sights set on going national with his Cornstore brand and with successful launches in Cork and Limerick already under his belt, the next stop is Dublin. He has a few more tricks up his sleeve too, not to mention a quest to boost tourism to his native Treaty City. SARAH GRENNAN headed to Munster rugby’s heartland to find out more about the Limerick man’s plans.

Limerick, where there is a much smaller population base of just 100,000, it is something of a gamble. ‘Our concern is whether we can fill the restaurants on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. We are all filling at the weekends at the moment and getting more money than €25 so if we don’t sell midweek we’ll be down in revenue. Still, it gets people out and it’s a positive thing to do. People will come into the city centre, they’ll enjoy their meals and they’ll go to the pubs afterwards.’ Working together to put the best foot forward is high on Padraic’s list of priorities for his native city. The negativity surrounding gang violence has taken its toll on the image of his hometown but Padraic is keen to emphasise that the city has more to offer. ‘The image is unfortunate, but there’s trouble in every city. I think we all have to become better at promoting ourselves as a city. We do it so well for the rugby. For the Northampton game for instance you got a great sense that the place was alive. But Limerick as a city centre is struggling, all the retailers have moved out to the Crescent Shopping Centre and most of our hotels are half empty. We need a co-ordinated 8

HOTEL & CATERING REVIEW ❖ MAY 2010 1

INTERVIEW

The Cornstore, Limerick

Padraic and the team canvas for votes in the upcoming Irish Restaurant Awards, sponsored by Santa Rita. The Cornstore was awarded Best Casual Dining and Best Customer Service in Cork in the Munster heat of the Awards. In Limerick, Aubar’s was voted Best Gastro Pub.

approach to make Limerick a leisure destination. Co-operation between local businesses has been slow, but we’re getting there. We’re working on putting together festivals and we have great things coming up such as the Barbarians match and concerts. Thomond Park has been very good for us and now we need to be serious about promoting reasons why people should come to Limerick.’ This quest to promote tourism to the county and improve the image of Limerick is not just a matter of hometown pride, with two businesses operating on Thomas Street, Padraic Frawley

20 HOTEL & CATERING REVIEW ❖ MAY 2010

has a significant investment to protect. His first foray into the local business community came 11 years ago with the launch of Aubar’s and, after initial success with a new Cornstore restaurant and bar in Cork in early 2008, Padraic replicated the winning formula across the street from Aubar’s later that year. But the Limerick man’s sights aren’t limited to his native city. Following the success of both the Cork and Limerick restaurants, Padraic is looking at expanding the brand east and north, first to Dublin and then to Galway and Belfast. ‘Everything we’re doing now is about profiling,’ he explains of recent intiatives to run evenings with Tom Doorley in Cork and Mary Dowey in Limerick. ‘We plan to open in Dublin in the next two years. Once you’re in Dublin it is easier to get a national brand, so then we’ll look at Galway and Belfast. We want five in total.’ Padraic is currently scouting around Dublin for possible venues for his next adventure, but he is limiting his sights to premises within the Dawson Street to George’s Street vicinity. ‘George’s Street is a great street and the older, earthy buildings in the area really suit our brand,’ he muses, though explaining that he needs the banks to loosen the purse strings before he can make his move. ‘It is so difficult to get money at the moment, and we are not exempt from that, but our bankers have told me that they think they’ll be able to lend again by the end of the year, so we are hopeful that we will be able to make a move then. I am hopeful that I will have found the premises and have the deal done by the end of this year, with the target of an August 2011 opening. If not, we will miss our first Christmas as you need a good run at it.’ Despite the downturn and the current uncertainties, Padraic notes this is a good time to launch in business. ‘Three years ago we never would have been able to afford to move into Dublin. Rents have dropped by 50% across Ireland, which makes it a lot

easier to do business now.’ Even so, Padraic recognises that it would be more profitable for him to embark on a new initiative in Belfast first. He recently undertook a feasability study to examine the difference between operating North and South, and found with VAT, excise and wage rates it would be ‘50% better for my bottom line if I opened in Belfast’. The regulatory burden on businesses in the South is felt even deeper in a recession where consumers are watching every penny. ‘We’ve got to reduce costs, and we’ve been trying to, I am trimming back the chefs all the time, but it’s hard to make a big impact on costs without tackling wages and you are scarcely able to do that other than through cutting hours,’ he concedes. He would like to see the Government make a move on both the JLC and minimum wage, perhaps introducing a tiered system similar to the UK for the latter, where teenagers training could earn a little less. ‘A lot of our staff earn well above the minimum wage of €8.65 but I don’t see anything wrong with an 18 year old living at home with their parents earning a bit less than that part-time while in school or college. As a result of the current system students can’t get part-time jobs or summer work anymore as restaurants can’t afford to employ them.’ But it is not just wage rates that are taking their toll. ‘All regulatory costs have gone up and are a huge burden for businesses now,’ Padraic explains. ‘For instance, the cost of late licences have jumped from €110 a night to €410 over the last few years. In Aubar’s we are now seriously considering whether we can operate without one. We have to get a late licence for Saturday night but for the rest of the week it’s probably not worth our while. Think of the thousands of jobs that have been lost in the nightclub sector and the millions that have been lost to the Revenue in VAT and excise duty because of regulatory costs. How can businesses sustain almost a triple digit increase in costs? We’re all to blame in one sense as when the costs went up we all sat back and took it. We felt that if overheads went up by €50,000 a year then we could find a way to cover it, by adding 10c to a pint or something, but we can’t do that now.’ Indeed, one of the biggest challenges in business today is trying to strike a fine balance between covering costs and offering value. ‘A big challenge for us is that we aren’t getting any more for our food than the guy doing boil in a bag,’ sighs Padraic. ‘But we’ve got to put it down that we’re busy for a reason, people come to us because the quality is there. As long as you continue to provide value for money then you will do the business but it’s whether you do enough, that’s the question,’ he ponders.

usiness is down 25% on last year in Limerick, and 40% from the peak in Cork, 15% of which Padraic estimates is due to the council’s work pedestrianising the street which has all but obliterated walk-in trade. ‘We could sustain 25% breaking even by adjusting our costs, but the extra 15% is tough. I don’t mind breaking even for a year or two but I’m not working five or 10 years just to break even.’ Nonetheless, despite the difficult climate, little has dampened Padraic’s ardour to embark on new endeavours. But then, he has a history of getting on with things. A bottled attempt at hotel development in 2007 could have put others off entrepreneurship for life, but Padraic got straight back on the horse. He is candid when he explains how, when €2m over budget on what was to become the Charleville Park Hotel, funding was pulled by Anglo. ‘I failed miserably,’ says the Shannon graduate who had worked in hotel management

The Cornstore, Cork

in London for many years before returning home to open first Aubar’s and then try to fulfil his dream of building his own hotel. ‘It was three years of absolute torture in my life,’ he says looking back, ‘but I’m very fortunate that it happened when it did as there was a market to buy it. I sold it in December 2007 when I was a third of the way through the build. I’ll be paying for it for a long, long time to come, but it was a very good business lesson. It was a very painful lesson, but it was a lesson.’ Others who have lost businesses in recent times can take heart from Padraic’s ability to get back into the game. ‘As a person, I am very confident in my ability, but after everything that happened with the hotel I started to question myself. I knew that I had to get back on the horse. I got out in December 2007 and in January 2008 I leased a new building in Cork. My friends thought I was mad but I knew I had to get back to it.’ Three years on from those dark days in 2007, and the birth of the Cornstore brand in early 2008, Padraic is not only planning the expansion of the restaurant and bar, but he is also mulling over plans to introduce a new gourmet takeaway concept, ‘a kind of upmarket takeaway’, as well as a new line of Cornstore chutneys, relishes and soups which will help boost productivity in the kitchen and will possibly go on sale in farmers markets. (It’s not Padraic who wrote in to us on this very subject on page 43 incidentally.) At the same time, he has also been approached by accountants asking him to look at a number of distressed assets – restaurant businesses across the country which are in trouble. ‘They’re looking at us taking over either on management contracts or leases,’ says Padraic, and while he hasn’t taken on any new businesses to date, he admits that ‘anything can happen’. All this and together with his wife he is currently renovating an elegant old house in Co Limerick which they will call home, but which also comes with an extensive walled garden where he hopes to grow a range of herbs for sale. Oh, and did we mention that the three kids are all under the age of five? Like we said, we guess Padraic Frawley isn’t the kind of guy that gets much sleep. He’s too busy coming up with ideas. ‘I’m much more of a concepts person,’ Padraic concedes. ‘I’ve too much going on in my head at the moment.’ u

HOTEL & CATERING REVIEW ❖ MAY 2010 21

CON QUIGLEY ON HOTELS

The NAMA Effect CON QUIGLEY examines the impact of NAMA on the Irish hotel industry.

he Irish hotel industry continues to endure unprecedented times as trading still proves tough and new questions are raised about the outlook for the sector as it is estimated that up to 200 hotels may soon fall within control of the National Asset Management Agency (NAMA). NAMA is an essential part of the Irish Government’s response to the current global banking crisis and an unexpected potential newcomer to Ireland’s destabilised hotel market. NAMA’s principal goal is to regularise the capital position of the five participating banks by removing the riskiest loans from those banks’ portfolios. NAMA will take the place of the lender and intends to vigorously pursue all amounts owed. In turn, the banks should then be able to recommence funding for onward lending to SMEs, stimulating the Irish economy. Clearly, there are knock-on effects for the assets underpinning the debts in question, in particular hotels which represent €0.77bn of the initial tranche of loans transferred. On 30 March this year, NAMA confirmed the first transfer of loans with a cumulative book value of €16.03bn from the five participants (Bank of Ireland, AIB, Anglo Irish Bank, EBS Building Society and Irish Nationwide Building Society), with the remainder of the approximately €81bn to be completed no later than the end of February 2011. An average discount, or ‘haircut’, of 47% was applied representing a payment by NAMA to the banks of approximately €8.51bn. This amount was calculated based upon a valuation of each loan including consideration of the quality of the underlying property, the security attaching to the asset and whether the loan is performing or non-performing.

This very much reflects the wider state of affairs in Irish hospitality – in the first quarter of 2010, we have already seen hospitality services (bars/restaurants/hotels/food processing) accounting for 56 out of 469 liquidations, receiverships and examiner appointments. This represents a 350% rise on the equivalent period in 2008. Hotels continue to try and weather the downturn though the recessionary impact on both domestic and international markets and resulting fall in consumer spending has led to a market-wide battle on average daily rate (ADR) as hotels seek to hold up falling occupancies. The issue has been exacerbated by the proliferation of new hotels across the Irish market in recent years which has created an oversupply of hotel room stock, some estimate by up to 15,000 rooms (around 25% of Ireland’s total room count). The net impact has been highly challenging trading conditions with operators facing falling revenues countered by a steady or rising cost base. Adopting a policy of rate discounting has been much critiqued. The transparent nature of hotel pricing means short-term occupancy gains are quickly offset as competitors rapidly follow suit in cutting rates. This leads to a lower priced hotel market yielding lower revenues in the face of normally unchanged demand, proving that rate discounting alone does not induce additional hotel demand. The following table shows how Dublin hotels have been affected since 2008, highlighting particularly the trend of heavily cutting ADR: Year

Occupancy % (%) Chg

ADR (€)

% Chg

RevPAR % (€) Chg

2008

66.5

-10.2 105.33 -3.5

63.98

-13.4

2009

63.5

-4.6

85.61

-18.6 54.33

-22.3

YTD 55.8 2010*

+4.5

77.43

-13.4 43.24

-9.5

*Three months to 31 March 2010. Source: STR Global Ltd Geographical Breakdown of Initial Tranche

€ Bn

Ireland

4.94

Northern Ireland

0.00

UK excluding N. Ireland

3.24

Other

0.34

Total

8.51

Source: NAMA With hotel assets representing 9% of this payout, NAMA has become an overnight guardian of a significant part of the Irish-owned hotel industry in what are very troubled times.

22 HOTEL & CATERING REVIEW ❖ MAY 2010

Having now gained a vested interest in hotels, it is clear that NAMA will need to quickly gain expertise in the critical issues driving hotel performance and, in some cases, find asset management solutions for distressed assets.

The Transfer & Review Process

When a loan is transferred to NAMA, the borrower has 30 days to submit a detailed three-year business plan to the Agency. NAMA then reviews the plan’s viability and either rejects, approves or refers the business plan back to the borrower for amendment. In reviewing plans relating to loans secured against hotels, NAMA will have to be especially

cognisant of the challenges facing the industry referred to above. Where a business plan is approved, NAMA will monitor the subsequent performance of the borrower in order to ensure that targets are met. While this may seem onerous for hotel operators, it may well prompt them to recognise the challenges facing their hotel and provide a supervised road map to survival in some instances. Where a business plan is rejected, NAMA has statutory powers to take whatever steps deemed necessary to protect the interests of the Irish taxpayer including, but not limited to, appointing receivers and use of vesting orders. While this may generate scope for opportunistic investors of distressed assets, it is important to note that some of the assets rumoured to be falling within NAMA’s control, for instance Derek Quinlan’s Maybourne Group (The Berkeley, Claridge’s and The Connaught in London) are in themselves highly

in order to help stabilise both the Irish hotel market and the Irish Government’s financial position. If NAMA is successful in its aim to stimulate Ireland’s economy, consumer sentiment in the domestic market will improve which should lead to an increase in occupancy from the domestic market. NAMA may also help alleviate the issue of oversupply of hotel rooms by forcing operators to review and make changes to their operations, for instance requiring all or part of a hotel to be converted to a different use or to incorporate seasonal closures, where NAMA believes that such changes will enhance the commercial viability of the hotel. Where NAMA appoints a receiver and manager to a hotel, the receiver and manager may recommend whether a change of use would be beneficial to the commercial viability of the asset. While I and many others await keenly the fallout of

NAMA may help alleviate the issue of oversupply of hotel rooms by forcing operators to review and make changes to their operations, for instance requiring all or part of a hotel to be converted to a different use or to incorporate seasonal closures, where NAMA believes that such changes will enhance the commercial viability of the hotel. successful trophy assets which may not be in default of their loan arrangements. However, due to other investments of the borrower in question, these properties might be caught up in a wider transfer to NAMA. Other renowned properties believed to be affected include Dublin’s Shelbourne Hotel, The K Club and Wicklow’s Ritz-Carlton. The hotel investment market is vigilantly watching as events unfold for NAMA and whether its involvement will culminate in the disposal of some highly attractive and marketable hotel assets. I anticipate that, in the coming months, NAMA and the participant banks will need to either secure external hotel expertise or quickly become hotel specialists in order to gain a meaningful understanding of the borrower’s business plans presented. It is essential that NAMA grasps the complexity of achieving hotel budgets in a challenged market and questions the likelihood of proposed targets being achieved. NAMA will require knowledge of hotel fundamentals, operational structures and their implications (for instance, whether a hotel is leased, held on a management contract or franchise, or run by an owner operator), efficiencies which drive hotel performance, as well as the expertise to enhance the value of the assets in question. In theory, NAMA should become a self-sufficient operation with the interest payable on the issued Government securities being covered by the income generated from the loans and assets which NAMA has taken over. As an asset management agency, NAMA does not envisage a ‘fire-sale’ of hotel properties and has accordingly stated an intended workout period of seven to 10 years. Should this prove to be the case, NAMA will be under close scrutiny to ensure hotel assets are being managed effectively and optimum returns achieved,

NAMA’s work, I also hope that it will bring a new energy to Ireland’s troubled hotel industry and potentially remove the poorer struggling assets from the current market, either through a process of closure or sale for alternative use. However the outlook for Ireland’s hotels continues to be pessimistic, though slightly less so than six months ago, and it will need to re-stabilise before it becomes an attractive investment option once again. In the meantime, the opportunistic investor will keep watch on NAMA’s activities and the wider market in the hope of picking up distressed assets offering greatest turnaround potential. u

Horwath HTL London team (back row, l-r) Con Quigley, Alexandra van Pelt, Erlend Heiberg (front row, l-r) Karen Derrington, Bernard Deloménie and Celine Vadam

CON QUIGLEY, ACA, is the managing partner of Horwath Bastow Charleton in Limerick and the chairman of the UK Horwath HTL firm. As the partner responsible for the corporate finance activities in the London office, Con works with hotel and hospitality clients all over Europe, the Middle East and Africa on valuations, market and financial feasibility studies, business plans and strategy, project management and due diligence. conquigley@horwathhtl.com Con wrote this article in conjunction with KAREN DERRINGTON of Horwath HTL UK. kderrington@horwathhtl.com

HOTEL & CATERING REVIEW ❖ MAY 2010 23

CONFERENCE

Doing the Business

Restaurateurs from across Ireland gathered at the Restaurants Association of Ireland’s AGM and conference in Killiney Castle Hotel, Dublin last month, where the cost of doing business was under review.

‘T

here are few incentives to stay in business and indeed many disincentives and obstacles. We are weighed down with a multitude of costs, local authority charges, legislation and form filling exercises. Yet we are the economic engine rooms in every town in Ireland creating and maintaining much needed local employment. In fact, we are the largest employer within the Irish tourism sector.’ These were the words of RAI president Paul Cadden when addressing Minister for Tourism, Sports & Culture, Mary Hanafin, and more than 300 guests, at the Restaurants Association’s annual dinner in Dublin on 13 April. During his speech, he argued for a review of the minimum wage and abolition of the Joint Labour Committee system. His calls may have fallen on deaf ears with the Minister, who told Hotel & Catering Review this month that there is zero appetite to reduce the minimum wage, while the Government is also committed to maintaining the JLC system (albeit there may be scope for some adjustments – see Cover Story). While she told gathered restaurateurs that she would be interested in engaging with the industry on a number of issues raised, and also pledged to champion tourism at the cabinet table, there seems little chance that the RAI’s quest to get a euro knocked off the minimum wage will succeed. But by not tackling wage costs, the entire future of the restaurant sector is in jeopardy, argued RAI ceo Adrian Cummins. On the eve of the Association’s AGM and conference in Killiney Castle Hotel, he warned that further job losses are inevitable if something is not done to address the cost of doing business in Ireland. ‘Restaurants are facing challenging times ahead with the cost of doing business increasing on a weekly basis. We are calling on the Government to seriously address the issues that affect the restaurant sector.’ He pointed to an RAI survey which found that 75% of restaurants have seen business drop in the last year. Of these, 38% reported that business was down in excess of 30%, while 29% saw a drop of 10-30% and 8% recorded a decline of up to 10%. ‘Our results show the cost of operating a restaurant is continuously increasing with Ireland now becoming the most expensive place to do business. We pay our staff one of

24 HOTEL & CATERING REVIEW ❖ MAY 2010

Above: RAI president Paul Cadden; panel discussion with journalists and restaurateurs; adventurist Ian McKeever and Fáilte Ireland ceo Shaun Quinn

the highest wage rates within the European hospitality sector. We are obliged to charge our customers rates of VAT and excise duty which are again at the top of the EU league. Our food input costs are 24% higher than the EU average. The Irish restaurant sector cannot continue with such a regime.’ Addressing delegates at the conference, which was chaired by Hotel & Catering Review’s editor, Sarah Grennan, Fáilte Ireland ceo Shaun Quinn ran through some of the challenges facing the restaurant sector in the current environment. He pointed to emerging research from Fáilte Ireland’s Visitor Attitudes Survey which showed that the cost of food and drink in Ireland is still an issue among our tourists. ‘This recession is about getting price levels down and about becoming more competitive. We are more competitive today than we were 12 months ago, but we have a lot further to go. The cost of living in Ireland was cited as an issue by 25% of all tourists, while 7% complained about food costs.’

CONFERENCE

Darina Allen of Ballymaloe Cookery School is presented with the Mike Butt Award in recognition of her outstanding contribution to the industry by RAI president Paul Cadden.

Shaun noted, however, that a lot of costs were outside the industry’s control. ‘We have the second most expensive electricity prices in Europe, the highest minimum wage, plus high waste charges and so on... If doing

Restaurant Awards

Awards were presented to 55 restaurants and chefs at the RAI’s Annual Dinner last month when the winners of the Leinster heat of the Irish Restaurant Awards, sponsored by Santa Rita/Sunday Independent Life Magazine were announced. Along with winners in the Best Chef, Casual Dining, Customer Service and Hotel Restaurant categories, county winners were announced in the Best Restaurant category. They were: CARLOW

SHA ROE BISTRO

KILDARE

FALLONS

KILKENNY

CAMPAGNE

LAOIS

SOL ORIENS

LONGFORD

AUBERGINE

LOUTH

ROSSO

MEATH

THE FORGE

OFFALY

SIROCCOS

WESTMEATH

KIN KHAO

WEXFORD

LA DOLCE VITA

WICKLOW

CHAKRA

The Leinster winners will now go head to head with winners of the Munster, Connaught and Ulster heats, along with winners from Dublin, at the Irish Restaurant Awards in the Burlington Hotel, Dublin on 9 June. For a full list of regional winners log on to www.irishrestaurantawards.com/ regional-winners-2010.html. Dublin winners will be announced at the overall awards.

business is all about cost right now then the cost of doing business, the costs imposed on you, will have to come down.’ He described local authority charges as a ‘gas model’. ‘The local authorities are getting less money from the Government so they’re charging the industry more. If we could all do that it would be great!’ Shaun also echoed the Minister’s thoughts this month when he said that the minimum wage will be hard to change, though like many in the industry he agrees that the JLC system is out of date. Shaun was followed to the stage by his colleague Paul Keeley, director of enterprise development, who told delegates about the range of supports available to restaurateurs and chefs from Fáilte Ireland. Included is a new eight-day culinary workshop series entitled ‘Around the World in Eight Days’ (see News for more). Tony Foley, the economist and DCU lecturer, addressed delegates before lunch, talking them through the challenges facing the economy. The good news, he noted, is that consumer confidence is starting to rise, the bad news is that it will take years to sort through the mess we’ve made for ourselves. Online gurus Des O’Mahony of Bookassist and Niall Harbison of Simply Zesty were more upbeat however in their presentations detailing how restaurateurs can use the internet to promote their business (see Social Media for more on Des and Niall’s presentations), while adventurist Ian McKeever tried to energise the audience for the challenges ahead when he shared details of his quests to climb the Seven Summits, row the South Atlantic, and run the four minute mile. A panel discussion with restaurateurs Asheesh Dewan, Nick Munier and Fergus O’Halloran and food writers Ross GoldenBannon and Biddy White Lennon, included a debate on the current challenges and future opportunities in the restaurant sector. u

Honouring Darina

Ballymaloe’s Darina Allen became the latest recipient of the Mike Butt Award, when this ‘Titan of the Industry’ was honoured by her peers for her contribution to the Irish restaurant industry and food movement. Collecting her award at the RAI’s Annual Dinner in the Killiney Castle Hotel on 13 April, Darina gave a rousing speech, when she urged restaurateurs and chefs gathered to support their own and promote indigenous, local ingredients on their menus: ‘This is a very tough year for all of us. It is economically and emotionally challenging. But more than ever if we are to survive we need to have some kind of unique selling point, a reason why people travel to find a place,’ she said. ‘When I travel I don’t want to have the same menu everywhere I go. I want to have a taste of that place. There is an incredible pressure to be cheaper and cheaper at the moment and it’s very difficult not to get involved in a race to the bottom, but it’s so important to keep hold of quality, because if you don’t people will forget why they should visit you and we will end up with an incredible sameness on all our menus. ‘Many of our young chefs are becoming deskilled without us even realising it. They don’t know how to make mayonnaise, how to fillet a fish... One chef lecturer in a college even told me that he thought it was illegal to source ingredients from more than one supplier. Honestly, I think that if the vans stopped rolling there would hardly be any food in restaurants in Ireland. We rely on our local communities for business and yet we don’t expect to put a penny into the local community in terms of support for the butcher, the baker, and so on. We have to support our local businesses, it can make an incredible difference to communities.’

HOTEL & CATERING REVIEW ❖ MAY 2010 25

Reach Out With more than one million Irish people now on Facebook, and other social media sites such as Twitter and Linked In providing popular networking platforms for a growing base of web savvy consumers, now is the time to get sociable on the net. But be warned, it’s not just a matter of slapping your special offers on a variety of sites. Effective use of social media takes time and a little knowledge, but once you’ve got the basics covered it can help you stay connected to a whole new audience.

es O’Mahony, the ceo and founder of the highly successful Bookassist online strategy company which started in Ireland 10 years ago and now has offices in 10 countries, caught restaurateurs’ attention last month when he pointed out that 62% of UK diners search the web before deciding which restaurant to book. Of course, it’s not just a restaurant phenomenon, or a UK trend. Research shows the growing importance of the internet in all areas of tourism and hospitality, with latest figures from Fáilte Ireland’s Visitor Attitudes Survey highlighting that the internet is the most important tool used by holidaymakers, with 67% of visitors to Ireland last year using it as their primary source of information when planning their holiday. This is good news for hospitality operators as never has there been so much opportunity to reach out to so many, with so little investment. At a time of dwindling footfall and crippling cost pressures, social media must therefore be like manna from heaven for hospitality marketers. And yet, for many, this rapidly multiplying genre stikes them

26 HOTEL & CATERING REVIEW ❖ MAY 2010

with terror. For hoteliers who have just got their head around building their own site and choosing a booking engine, the proliferation of Web 2.0 sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Linked In, Wayn, Flickr, You Tube, Myspace, Bebo, Dopplr, Picasa, not to mention review sites such as Tripadvisor and Menupages, can be daunting to say the least. But if there’s one thing that Tripadvisor has shown us, it’s that you cannot ignore the web and what your customers are saying about you on it. At a social media conference last year one hotelier asked ‘how can we turn off Tripadvisor?’, wondering how he could opt out of online discussions. The answer is you can’t. ‘Your customers are going to talk about you whether you like it or not, so you’re better off engaging with them,’ explained Des O’Mahony at the RAI Conference in Dublin last month where he gave an address on the impact of social media on hospitality marketing. ‘You need to monitor what people are saying about your business and be part of the conversation so that you can serve your guest now and in the future. The advantage for you is that the whole world

SOCIAL MEDIA Who’s Who

Facebook – the most popular social networking site with more than one million users in Ireland and 400 million worldwide. A great place to start testing the social media water… Twitter – favoured by celebs and sports stars, this networking site is a hit with over 30s. Teens strangely never took to it. Linked In – the suits’ networking site. A great port of call if you are a business hotel hoping to lure the corporate set. Bebo – popular with younger followers. Though losing users in vast amounts in the US it is still relatively popular in pockets of Ireland and the UK. Owner AOL announced plans recently to either sell or shut down the site. Myspace – bought by Rupert Murdoch, who this month admitted to making ‘big mistakes’ with the site. Newscorp plans to launch an ‘innovative subscription model’ for the site in the coming weeks. Like the rest of his peers, the Australian media magnet is trying to figure out how to make money from operating social media sites. Dopplr – Travel planning site where members exchange tips on places to stay, eat and explore in cities around the world. Wayn – As in ‘Where Are You Now’, a travel and lifestyle social networking community website. You Tube – the broadcast yourself phenomenon which allows users to post their own video clips to share with others. Includes everything from cookery demonstrations and hotel tours to that Susan Boyle clip (watched more than 79 million times). Flickr and Picasa – image-sharing sites Tripadvisor – the mega powerful online traveller review site. If there’s one piece of advice we can give you it’s don’t ignore it. Menupages – Irish site posting consumer reviews of restaurants. is watching your interactions, you can project your customer service outside your establishment.’ So what do you need to know about social networking, and how can hotels and restaurants use the genre to promote their businesses? First the good stuff. ‘Social media provides a new opportunity to bring your existing customers and potential customers (who have no idea of your existence) closer to you so as to form a community or tribe around your business,’ explains Michelle Conaghan of Netaffinity. ‘Consider the possibility that if you had 5,000 fans on your Facebook page and 10% of those responded to an offer you posted. Hotels and restaurants are seeing the positive effects. You can too.’ Social media is a natural fit for the hospitality industry, says Michelle. Why? ‘Because we’re all about the conversation and looking after our customers. Social media is just taking the conversation and service online.’

hile many hospitality operators are now open to embracing the web, what turns them off most is the time involvement needed to make a big impact in social networking. It may be no cost to get online, but the time needed to devote one member of staff to getting your message out there is an investment many businesses cannot afford right now. 8

Getting Started

Michelle Conaghan of Netaffinity offers the following suggestions for starting a new social media campaign. Listen Find out where the customers are and where the conversations that are relevant to your business are taking place. Then you can make a strategic decision as to which is the best platform to use. How to start listening: Set up Google Alerts (www.google.com/alerts) for your business name, any common typos, your area of business and any major events that affect your business. This will monitor where, if any, conversations are taking place about your business. Then listen to where your customers are talking about what you do. As a result you will discover where your audience is hanging out online and where your business is being talked about. The main platforms at the moment are Twitter and Facebook but ultimately if you were only ever going to try one I would recommend Facebook first for the Irish market. Engage You might want to listen for a while before you engage but once you feel comfortable, start talking. It is something that comes pretty naturally for us in this industry anyway. What should you say? 1. Thank people for posting comment/review/photos about your business. 2. Answer questions or offer your advice – this can display your expertise in a particular area. 3. Contribute to the online community by posting a recipe or top tips for organising a party/event. 4. Start asking your community questions or their opinions, for example when you’re thinking of changing your menu. Ask your customers what they might like to see on the menu. 5. We can certainly do more to leverage positive experiences from our customers by simply asking. Ask the happy customers who leave your restaurant or hotel every day, if perhaps they would post a review to your Facebook page or in an online space they feel comfortable in. These people are your champions and we should make these customers our brand ambassadors online. Measure, Measure, Measure: As the famous Roy Keane saying goes, if you fail to plan then you are planning to fail. Having a social media strategy in place allows you to have a blueprint to measure yourself against and keep you on track. 1. You must measure life before your social media strategy and life after. 2. You have to be able to measure your efforts to know they have been worthwhile. 3. You first have to ask yourself what is it you want to achieve and put some goals and outcomes together so you can measure their success. 4. Your time is very valuable so you want to make sure you are spending it in the right place. Things to measure: • Site traffic • Reviews • Bookings • Referrals from social media • Number of fans/followers • Number of fans/followers who engage on a regular basis • Conversions from fan/follower only offers • Track offers, give each offer a code or a name specific to the platform used.

HOTEL & CATERING REVIEW ❖ MAY 2010 27

SOCIAL MEDIA ‘You should talk to people as you would if they walked into your hotel or restaurant. If a guest or diner walked in the door you wouldn’t shout your special offers at them, you’d engage with them and tell them a little bit about what’s going on with you at the moment. Talk to them about the cocktails on offer in your bar, share some recipes with them, tell them about any news such as winning an award.’ Ciaran Delaney of Proactive Marketing points out that, while it still takes time to engage on the web, this burden is lessening. ‘More and more tools are now becoming available which will let you publish information on more than one site at the same time. Programmes such as Hootsuite and Tweetdeck allow you to update your news on a variety of platforms at the click of a button, cutting out the amount of time you spend updating different sites with the same information. Other widgets like Tweetme allow you to click to send any info you put on your own site straight to Twitter.’ With a proliferation of different social media sites available, Ciaran encourages hotels and restaurants to select a couple or so to start, before spreading your wings further. Facebook, with its phenomenal presence in Ireland, is an obvious first choice, while Linked In is a great outlet if you have a strong corporate trade or are hoping to attract more corporate business. ‘Facebook is a good option as it allows you to talk to targeted groups, such as doctors, golfers and so on.’ Ciaran warns against using social media as a promotional tool purely for special offers however. ‘That is the biggest mistake businesses can make as people are turned off by it. You should talk to people as you would if they walked into your hotel or restaurant. If a guest or diner walked in the door you wouldn’t shout your special offers at them, you’d engage with them and tell them a little bit about what’s going on with you at the moment. Talk to them about the cocktails on offer in your bar, share some recipes with them, tell them about any news such as winning an award.’ While it’s important to integrate your social marketing strategy into your yearly marketing plan, it is also important to assign project management of social networking to the right member of the team. If negotiating your way through Twitter and Facebook brings you out in a cold sweat, chances are that there is a younger member of your team who can fly through it in a fraction of the time that you would expend on it. Remember also, to set limits on yourself. ‘Social networking can be so time-consuming, you can get sucked into it without realising,’ says Ciaran Delaney. ‘You should put guards in to stop you from spending too much time online. Set yourself 15 minutes in the morning and 15 minutes before you finish up in the evening, and have a quick check before lunch. That way you will still be in close contact with your audience, but you won’t have taken too much time out of the day job.’ u

28 HOTEL & CATERING REVIEW ❖ MAY 2010

Last Month’s TOP 20 IRISH HOTELS ON FACEBOOK Rank

Hotel/Group

Location

Fans

1st

Fitzwilton Hotel

Co Waterford

7,009

2nd

Hastings Hotels

Northern Ireland

4,087

3rd

Claregalway Hotel

Co Galway

3,426

4th

The Brehon

Co Kerry

3,169

5th

Bewleys Hotels

Nationwide

2,527

6th

Castleknock Hotel & Country Club

Co Dublin

1,921

7th

Carlton Hotel Group

Nationwide

1,911

8th

Dylan Hotel

Co Dublin

1,908

9th

Fitzgerald’s Woodlands House Hotel

Co Limerick

1,889

10th

Knightsbrook Hotel

Co Meath

1,811

11th

The D Hotel

Co Louth

1,740

12th

Temple Bar Hotel

Co Dublin

1,683

13th

Westwood Hotel

Co Galway

1,555

14th

Best Western Academy Plaza

Co Dublin

1,482

15th

Killyhevlin Hotel

Co Fermanagh

1,302

16th

Adare Manor Hotel

Co Limerick

1,247

17th

Carton House

Co Kildare

1,132

18th

Park Plaza Tyrrelstown

Co Dublin

1,119

19th

Ice House Hotel

Co Mayo

1,047

20th

The Europe Hotel & Resort

Co Kerry

1,042

Last Month’s TOP 20 IRISH HOTELS ON TWITTER Rank

Hotel

Location

Followers

TwitterGrade

1st

Gregan’s Castle

Co Clare

1,619

97.3

2nd

Travelodge Ireland

Nationwide

1,600

97.3

3rd

Claregalway Hotel

Co Galway

1,519

97.3

4th

Mount Juliet

Co Kilkenny

1,130

97.3

5th

Jurys Inns Hotels

Nationwide

864

96.8

6th

The D Hotel

Co Dublin

1,608

96.3

7th

Cliff House Hotel

Co Waterford 680

96.3

8th

International Hotel

Co Kerry

579

9th

Malmaison Belfast

Co Antrim

572

10th

Kenmare Bay Hotel

Co Kerry

680

11th

Racket Hall Hotel

Co Tipperary

658

12th

Killarney Park

Co Kerry

649

13th

Isaacs Dublin

Co Dublin

643

14th

Riverside Hotel

Co Kerry

625

15th

Ardmore Hotel

Co Dublin

591

16th

Clontarf Castle

Co Dublin

557

17th

The Beacon Hotel

Co Dublin

547

18th

Dunboyne Castle

Co Meath

511

19th

West Cork Hotel

Co Cork

509

20th

Dylan Hotel

Co Dublin

507

* Source: Netaffinity. Log on to www.netaffinity.com to see who makes it to the list of Top 30 Hotels on Facebook and Twitter every week.

ALEX GIBSON’S MARKETING MATTERS

Targeting the Silver Surfers ALEX GIBSON discusses how the hospitality industry can engage with the over-50s market.

he cruise market is one that I often ask my students to reflect on in our class discussions. Perhaps it’s the chance to discuss exotic destinations and the opulence of the product that has a certain appeal; perhaps it’s the way that the cruise holiday is now seen as being attainable by a growing number of people. Among the specific areas we discuss is the way that the cruise market has broadened its appeal beyond its traditional target market. Somewhat disparagingly the classic mainstay of the cruise market – honeymooners and older people – have been characterised as the ‘newly weds and the nearly deads’. Considering the latter group one would do well to be more respectful – as Gordon Brown would certainly acknowledge following his interaction with pensioner Gillian Duffy in Rochdale. One of the few oversubscribed conferences here this year was the ‘Business of Ageing’ conference held in March and which attracted a line-up of national and international speakers. The full attendance pointed to the growing interest in the subject of marketing to an older demograpic. A number of international speakers, including David Bloom from Harvard and Dick Stroud from 20plus30, presented the major business opportunities in targeting this growing demographic. Brian Moore of B&Q presented on the company’s age neutral hiring policy and how this has impacted on the success and growth of the B&Q business in Ireland. Conference attendees were told that the amount of declared income amongst 65+ in Ireland is €6.6bn. For hospitality organisations this group offers a huge opportunity – an opportunity that can help to counteract the squeeze being put on so many other target markets. In many markets, the over 50s are, overall, relatively prosperous. TGI analysis shows that in the UK over 45s have approximately 80% of all financial wealth. In the US, over 55s control 77% of financial wealth. Not surprisingly, then, the over-55 age group accounts for approximately half of all spend on food, drink and household products, in the US. Focalyst — a Millward Brown North American practice specialising in Boomer research — shows that 75% of the US Boomer population has some sort of investment. For so many years we’ve assumed that older people are not prime prospects for brand switching due to a lifetime’s purchasing behaviour. What’s clear from the latest research is that we should not assume that older people are ‘set in their ways’; this older target can be experimental users of

new offerings. A study conducted by Millward Brown Firefly Australia suggests that those in the over-55 age group are as open to new opportunities and experiences as the younger targets. Endorsement of the statement, ‘I am adventurous and will try new brands and products before anyone else,’ was 21% for the under 55s, and 22% for the over 55s. This was also a theme at the Business of Ageing conference where psychologist, Dr Maureen Gaffney, called on the attendees to abandon the term ‘retirement’ as it evoked a passive existence. A recent report by Focalyst revealed that older consumers are as likely as younger consumers to experiment with different brands (67% for 18–41 year olds versus 61% for 42– 59 year olds). Their analysis also suggests that brand loyalty is primarily a function of product type, rather than the age of the consumer. Of the 10 categories they studied, seven had nearly identical levels of single product loyalty across age groups, the exceptions being cars and airlines (where the older group were more likely to be loyal) and music and video players (where the older group were less likely to be loyal). Qualitative research shows that, as with all advertising, engagement is key, and relevance remains crucial. Shared history and life stage events can create meaningful connections. For instance, one common problem faced by many in this age group is reigniting love once the children have left home, but this is a life-stage problem not often acknowledged or discussed. Another factor, common to over 50s around the world, is that they like to see old age portrayed as a happy phase of life. I think that this sentiment is a powerful emotional connection that the hospitality industry is well positioned to exploit with the right messaging. When we market to the older demographic I think we need to be careful to avoid stereotypes. Personally I think the tone of some of the advertising directed at this segment can be a little patronising – thankfully we don’t see too many references remaining to ‘Golden Years’ breaks; instead we need to play to their intelligence, wisdom and confidence. In some Asian countries, such as China, the family plays an important role, and grandchildren, in particular, are viewed as the emotional fulfilment for this generation. Here in Europe these supports don’t exist to anything like the same level. Can hospitality marketers position their product to help meet this unfulfilled need? Maybe that’s stretching this a bit, but certainly we need to start thinking more strategically about this growing, and profitable, segment. u

ALEX GIBSON is senior lecturer in marketing at the School of Hospitality Management and Tourism, DIT. Alex has recorded an interview on marketing to the over 50s sector with international expert on this topic, Dick Stroud. This podcast can be accessed at http://short.ie/8eaxn5

HOTEL & CATERING REVIEW ❖ MAY 2010 29

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BARISTA CHAMPIONSHIP

Coffee Kings B

Ireland is rising up the ranks in the global coffee community thanks to the skills of some very special baristas.

arista is a profession that has never been taken that seriously in Ireland, save for in a handful of cafés and restaurants which have invested in key coffee personnel. Why the reticence to embrace the bean ambassadors? Could it be that as a nation of tea drinkers (we are the largest per capita consumers of tea in the world) we have yet to fully cotton on to the skills required for coffee perfection? Could it be that we are still relatively new to this coffee game, with the coffee revolution only really taking place in the last decade? Or could it be that the recession, which has blown a chilly gale through Irish businesses over the last 18 months, has led many businesses to cut costs, including the salaries of key coffee personnel? Either way, it is clear that we Irish don’t give baristas the credit they deserve. Yet on the international stage, the baristas that represent Ireland are recognised as among the world’s very best. First to receive international acclaim was Stephen Morrissey, who rose to the pinnacle of his career when he was crowned World Barista Champion in Copenhagen in 2008, and l-r: Colin Harmon, Victoria FitzHenry and David Walsh now hot on his heels comes Colin Harmon, a former finance professional who swapped a life signature drinks of their own creation. Along with a strict in Dublin’s IFSC for a career behind the coffee grinder. time deadline, the baristas were judged on both the Colin triumphed at last year’s Irish Barista Championship, quality and the presentation of their drinks. taking first place in his first year competing in the event ‘The Irish Barista Championships have come a and later going on to make it to the final of the World long way in many respects, mainly the standard of the Barista Championship where he came a very respectable competitors which is now very high and right up there fourth. Now, Colin is representing Ireland once with the best in the world. This standard filters out into again, heading to London for this year’s World Barista the coffee industry where the consumer benefits from the Championship in June where he will compete once again dedication and passion from Ireland’s best baristas,’ notes for the ultimate coffee crown. Jackie Malone, national co-ordinator for the Irish Chapter Colin earned his rite of passage to London at this of SCAE. year’s Avonmore Irish Barista Championship, held last How true. The event was supported by Avonmore, month at the Twisted Pepper on Abbey Street in Dublin, CMA Astoria, Twisted Pepper, and Espresso Warehouse, where he runs his 3FE café (short for third floor espresso and champion Colin Harmon says that SCAE must be in reference to his apartment where he first polished his congratulated for the time and effort it puts into running barista skills). He was followed to the stage by Victoria the event, and endeavouring to raise the standard of coffee Fitz-Henry, who for a second successive year took second service in Ireland. ‘All of the members working with place in the event organised by the Irish chapter of the SCAE do so on a voluntary basis. The fact that I won the Speciality Coffee Association of Europe (SCAE). In third event this year is not important, what is important is that place came barista amateur, David Walsh, who works fullthere is a group of people who are doing their best to raise time as a scientist and, in his first time competing, beat off coffee standards in Ireland. A lot of people don’t recognise stiff competition from some of Ireland’s leading baristas to barista as a profession and don’t put the role on the same take bronze in the competition. footing as a sommelier for instance, but it is a profession. A total of 26 baristas from across the island of Ireland Coffee is the biggest traded commodity in the world, and took part in the competition which was judged by leading as such, the popularity of the barista can only increase. As members of SCAE, and attended by coffee luminaries we start to take coffee more seriously we will start to see a including the current World Barista Champion, Gwylim lot more baristas emerging in Ireland.’ Davies from the UK. Competitors were put to the test, And judging by the quality of the baristas that we creating a total of 12 coffees in 15 minutes on stage, already have, that can only be good news for coffee including four espressos, four cappuccinos and four lovers. u

Bewleys Backs Baristas

Talented and highly trained baristas have represented Bewley’s at the Irish Barista Championships since its inception and the company, through Patrick Bewley, was instrumental in bringing the championships to Ireland in association with the Speciality Coffee Association of Europe. This year Bewley’s Grafton St Café baristas Martino Perlini and Mariuz Rybak competed to impress the judges at the prestigious coffee competition which took place at the Twisted Pepper from 6-8 April 2010. ‘The Irish Barista Championships present our best and brightest baristas with the opportunity to showcase their dedication and commitment to excellent standards in coffee. They put enormous effort into creating the best espresso and cappuccino for each of the judges but the real testament to their coffee knowledge and creative flair is in the creation of their signature drinks,’ said Maria Cassidy, barista training and standards manager at Bewley’s. ‘At Bewley’s we believe it is important to participate in and support the Irish Barista Championships and the Speciality Coffee Association of Europe, because like ourselves, they are focused on promoting first class training and excellent standards in coffee and in advancing the barista profession. The key to success in preparing excellent coffee is training. We believe that a good coffee equates to 25% machine, 25% coffee, and 50% barista. This is why we invest so much time and energy in our barista training, because coffee preparation is by far the most important link in the chain of delivering consistently good quality coffee.’

HOTEL & CATERING REVIEW ❖ MAY 2010 31

ADVERTORIAL

earth2earth Compostable Bags Provide a Solution to New Waste Laws New laws set to come into force on 1 July will require caterers to segregate food waste for separate collection. Irish company Thorn Environmental Ltd has developed an innovative new compostable bag which is incredibly strong, water proof, and heat resistant. This will enable hospitality operators to dispose of their food waste in accordance with the new legislation efficiently. Ireland’s leading producer of environmentally friendly waste packaging solutions and one of the country’s largest refuse sack and bin liner providers, Dun Laoghairebased Thorn Environmental Ltd was well placed to devise a solution to the upcoming waste laws, which oblige caterers to segregate their food waste. The company, which is a market leader in Ireland and is growing rapidly in the UK and Europe, has created a new compostable bag under its successful earth2earth brand. This new bag, which is fully biodegradable, compostable, and conforms to the European standard EN13432, is called earth2earth Compostable.

Award Winning Solution The bags, using Thorn’s multi-layer technology, are incredibly strong, clear in design with an eye-catching green motif. The earth2earth Compostable bags were awarded the Envirocom Waste Prevention (Product) Award 2009. The bags’ compostable credentials were also

tested by Cardiff University in Wales, which carried out trials to see if they were suitable for composting and found that the liners had completely disappeared within just two weeks. Kind to the environment, the bags leave only carbon dioxide and water and no harmful residues after degradation. Launched to the market this month, the new earth2earth Compostable bag has been designed as an alternative to starch based bags which have difficulties containing liquid and are not heat resistant. The bags designed by Thorn Environmental Ltd are fully waterproof and heat resistant to 75ºC, making them ideal for disposing of food waste, whether wet, dry, or hot off the plate. They are available in various sizes from small caddy liners all the way up to a 240 litre wheelie bin liner. When used in conjunction with Thorn’s new 45L brown pedal bin, users can achieve a complete solution that conforms with all Health & Safety and HACCP guidelines. Contact: Thorn Environmental Ltd at 01 280 8612, or email info@thorn.ie

FOOD SAFETY

Cleaning Up in the Kitchen

Close to 2,000 people called the Food Safety Authority of Ireland’s Advice Line last year to complain about the standard of food safety and hygiene in Irish food businesses, while to date this year, 18 businesses have been served with enforcement orders by Environmental Health Officers. The result of a food poisoning outbreak can have a serious impact on your trade, with your restaurant closed and the media alerted. One way caterers can guard against a food safety incident is through an effective HACCP system. We detail some simple steps for implementing HACCP. ‘HACCP involves identifying what can go wrong, planning to prevent any wrongdoing, and ensuring the right safety procedures are in place throughout the food preparation process. In simpler terms, HACCP involves controlling ingredients and supplies delivered and what is done with them thereafter,’ explains the Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI). A guide explaining how to implement HACCP into all types of catering operations, published by the FSAI, explains that HACCP works best when it is tailored to individual premises and takes into account the nature and complexity of that particular catering operation. Indeed, this ability to tailor HACCP to suit unique catering requirements and enterprises is one of the key strengths of HACCP. Since 1998 it has been a legal requirement for all catering businesses to operate a food safety management system based on the principles of HACCP. As such caterers have a legal obligation to understand what the principles of HACCP demand and be able to show the FSAI how HACCP is being applied in their food business. Environmental Health Officers (EHO) can assess catering businesses for compliance and it is the responsibility of the caterer – not the EHO – to develop and implement a food safety management system based on HACCP. ‘Food safety training is essential to all catering businesses in ensuring the preparation and service of safe food. It is a legal requirement that employees involved in a catering business are adequately trained and/or supervised commensurate with their work activity. The responsibility for training and supervision of employees – full-time, part-time or casual – lies solely with the proprietor of a catering business,’ states the FSAI.

Benefits of HACCP:

• Saves your business money in the long run • Avoids you poisoning your customers • Food safety standards increase • Ensures compliance with the law • Ensures the service of safe food • Organises staff and promotes teamwork and efficiency • Ensures due diligence defence in court.

Step One: Analysis

The scope of your HACCP requirements need to be decided from the start, only then can the principles of HACCP be followed correctly:

Hazard Analysis

This is achieved by looking at each raw material and following the process flow. Each step of the process, from supply to end customer, including delivery, storage, preparation, processing (mixing, cooking, cooling etc), packing and labelling, needs to be examined. Potential hazards can arise at any point in the preparation, processing and selling of food. Most likely hazards are: • Microbial – for instance, pathogenic or spoilage bacteria, moulds, and viruses, • Chemical – pesticides, antibiotic, cleaning chemicals, metals, migration of chemicals from packaging, etc, • Physical – foreign bodies including dirt, hair, fingernails, plasters, buttons, etc. All suggested hazards must be recorded (however unlikely) for further analysis and sorting at a later stage. It is important to collect as much information as possible about the product/process, including time and temperatures of cooking, cooling and storage, packaging, instructions for use, etc. A flow chart will help to visualise the sequence of events the process takes and then each point can be looked at in turn. It is important to double check that the flow chart is correct before continuing, by walking through the process from start to finish.

Step Two: Critical Control Points (CCPs)

A Critical Control Point (CCP) is any step or point in your food process where you suspect the possibility that food can become contaminated (and consequently poses a health threat), and where this potential danger can be prevented, controlled, or eliminated. When a CCP has been identified it is important to give it a critical limit by which the catering business can decide if a food is safe or not. Typically, critical limits are expressed in terms of parameters such as temperature and time, including food that has not been cooked or chilled properly. Once CCPs and critical limits have been identified it is important for the food catering business to have a way to monitor and record what is happening during the preparation of food at each CCP. Monitoring also involves measuring parameters, such as temperature and time. ‘How you monitor and how often will depend on the size and nature of your catering business. Monitoring should in all cases be simple, clear and easy to do.’ Examples include probing cooked meat to ensure correct 8

HOTEL & CATERING REVIEW ❖ MAY 2010 33

FOOD SAFETY temperature and cooking process and only refrigerating cooked food that is fully cooled. ‘When monitoring of a CCP indicates that the critical limits have not been complied with or adhered to, the catering business must have a procedure on what action should be taken to bring the CCP back within critical limits (corrective action). All corrective action procedures should be documented and be clear on the requirements for corrective action,’ explains the FSAI. Corrective action procedures should include the following: • What to do with the food

getting started

The Food Safety Authority of Ireland has reported a 50% increase in the number of people calling its advice line, looking for information on setting up a new business. Mary Daly, PRO of the Food Safety Professionals Association, offers the following advice for start-up businesses. 1. Be registered or approved with your local authority: some paperwork is required and the regulatory authorities will request documentation in advance. They are obliged to pay a visit to your premises to ensure standards have been met prior to approval. 2. Have a set of controls in place to ensure safe food, in other words, develop and implement a food safety management system (haccP) which is specific to your business. 3. Have an effective traceability system in place, which will allow you to withdraw or recall food from the market if a safety problem is discovered. 4. Ensure that everyone handling food in your business has received enough food safety training to allow them to do their job safely and that you as the owner/proprietor of the business understands HACCP. The FSPA members carry out nationally recognised training programmes in line with FSAI requirements and can facilitate in house training where necessary. 5. comply with the relevant food law – ensure the procedures in your business meet the requirements, e.g. all suppliers of the raw ingredients used by you must be approved, storage practices and procedures assure food safety and premises/structure/equipment support good practices e.g. cleaning, pest control and good waste management. On a practical level an FSPA member can help you with visits to similar types of businesses to see how they operate and work with your builder/ handyman to ensure your kitchen is suitable in terms of layout and design. It is vital that the equipment you pick is suitable for the process regarding choice and specifications. The ingredients used, food packaging, labelling, storage requirements, are vital elements of food safety. The appearance and taste of the finished product will sell your business and we can provide advice in marketing and design. For more about the Food Safety Professionals Association and its accredited members, visit www.fspa.ie.

The HigenX System is an electronic hygiene monitoring and control system which has been developed in Ireland using Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Technology. Its unique application of RFID, called ACTI/PASS™, together with its flexible reporting software, combine to deliver a powerful management tool which will prove indispensable to any organisation where hand hygiene is of critical importance.

• What to do to bring the process back under control • Which member of staff has responsibility for carrying out corrective action.

Step Three: Reviewing Results

The review, checking and updating of your HACCP solution should be an ongoing and routine element of your food operation. This allows you to verify that HACCP is working properly, as intended and, on a regular basis, a manager or supervisor should confirm that monitoring of CCP is taking place and that control is being maintained. The FSAI advises caterers that hazard analysis, identification of CCP and control procedures, be reviewed on an annual basis at the very least and again whenever a change occurs in the food business operation, for instance the delivery of new equipment, which may affect food safety.

hygiene boosters

Pallas Foods offers a complete range of Diversey kitchen cleaning and hygiene products suitable for a range of tasks such as hard surface sanitising, warewashing and floor care as well as specialist applications. The products are offered in a range of formats and systems that allow customers to choose a solution matched to their own requirements and achieve consistent, economic and efficient results. Ready to use products offer simplicity and convenience while a concentrated product used with a dosing or dilution system is suitable for those seeking controlled cost-in-use and sustainability. Established Diversey dosing systems such as the wall-mounted Divermite dispenser or recent innovations such as the portable Smart Dose system are available with Suma kitchen cleaning products.

keeping it clean

Ecolab offers a range of super concentrated products that are designed to keep restaurant and hotel operations clean, safe and efficient at lowest ends use cost. All of the company’s super concentrated products are dosed through a dispensing unit which controls the dosage and ensures that only the correct quantity of chemical is used to clean and there is no chemical wastage. The products are then dosed into a 600ml spray bottle/bucket in a ready-to-use format. Ecolab’s range of products designed specifically for kitchen hygiene include: speedcheck – measures food residues and micro-organisms wash n walk – innovative non formulation for degreasing kitchen floors, saving on water consumption and labour time spent cleaning oasis Pro 20 – sanitiser, complies with the highest EU standards for sanitising products oasis Pro 1 – kitchen degrease greasestrip Plus – heavy duty oven cleaner Ecolab has also introduced a new paper-free system of tracking each service visit to customers called the ‘360 advisor’. This enables the company to track service calls and also create a summary report of what issues have arisen in the account over a specific period. If offers the following training free of charge to customers: • Control of Substances Hazardous to Health • Personal Hygiene • Effective Cleaning • Reasons for Good Hygiene Practices • Food Poisoning & Food Spoilage

waste solutions Sales Office, Castleboy, Kilchreest, Loughrea, Co. Galway, Ireland. Tel: + 353 91 840055 Fax: + 353 91 840007 Email: mike@higenx.com www.higenx.com

3 HOTEL & CATERING REVIEW ❖ MAY 2010

Thorn Environmental has launched a new compostable bag, which conforms to the European standard EN13432 and provides a solution to forthcoming food waste laws which will require caterers to segregate food waste. The earth2earth Compostable bags are fully biodegradable and compostable and, when used with the company’s new 45 litre brown pedal bin, offer a complete kitchen waste solution that conforms to HACCP guidelines. See page 32 for more information.

FOOD SAFETY water Quality

MARTIN KNOX of Amberley Quality & Environmental Services details the laws governing water safety.

The water borne hazards presented to hotel and restaurant customers, contractors and employees depend on whether the potable water is supplied by a municipal authority, a group water scheme or is provided by the hotel or restaurant itself from a borehole for instance. In general, the responsibility for water quality and the control of risks associated with drinking water (or indeed leisure water) lie with the management of the facility. The threats arise from chemical (heavy metals for instance) or biological contaminants (cysts such as cryptosporidium and Guardia, or viruses such as hepatitis, or bacteria such as campylobacter, E. coli 0157 and others). Apart from threats to consumers, there are threats also from water to the plumbing/ heating infrastructure especially if the water is not balanced. Under HACCP, one of the prerequisite hygiene requirements must be applied to the drinking water infrastructure. the legislation: The current legislation with which all potable water must comply is European Communities (Drinking Water) (No. 2) Regulations, 2007 (S.I. No. 278 of 2007). This legislation gives effect to Council Directive 98/83/EC and Directive 2000/60/EC and is available on the Food Safety Authority of Ireland site (www.fsai.ie).

Water for human consumption is defined as: â&#x20AC;˘ all water, whether in its original state or after treatment, intended for drinking, cooking, food preparation or other domestic type purposes, regardless of its origin and whether it is supplied from a distribution network, from a private source or by tanker or similar means; â&#x20AC;˘ all water used in any food production undertaking for the manufacture, processing, preservation or marketing of products or substances intended for human consumption, unless the supervisory authority is satisfied that the quality of the water cannot affect the wholesomeness of the foodstuff in its finished form.

!$ + & + '%&+ + ( $! & *+ $ *+ * ! " * + ) + "$!( + + "$! %% ! + $ + ! + "$! ' &% "$! $ % + %'""!$& + !) %&+ + '% + !%&% + &$ + #' " & + + % $( + *+ & + $ %&+ & + ! + * %" %&% + "$!( +& +& +%'""!$&+ %'$ & &+ *!'$+ !" $ & ! + %+ "&+ + % + + &+ &+ & % + +&! *+&!+% + !)+) + +%'""!$&+*!'+ + " +*!'$+!" $ & ! + + +% & $* % + ! & &+'%+! + + +

S.I. No.278 of 2007 prescribes the quality standards which must be applied as well as the supervision and enforcement procedures related to supplies of drinking water, including requirements as to sampling frequency, methods of analysis, the provision of information to consumers and related matters. Bottled water quality is also regulated and because it is bottled doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t guarantee that it is suitable or safe. It is up to the bottled water provider to assure the product supplied for human consumption is safe and meets the relevant regulatory requirements as laid out in European Communities (Natural Mineral Waters, Spring Waters and Other Waters in Bottles or Containers) Regulations 2007 (S.I. No. 225 of 2007). S.I. No. 225 of 2007 as amended transposed the previous legislation (i.e. Directive 80/777/EEC). The Department of Health & Children is currently working on transposing the new recast Directive (i.e. Directive 2009/54/EC). MARTIN KNOX is an IEMA registered environmental assessor with Amberley Quality & Environmental Services Ltd, a water quality testing certification company which specialises in water treatment and water quality certification.

hand hygiene monitor

Galway-based firm HigenX has introduced a pioneering new hand hygiene monitoring system which uses radio frequency identification (RFID) technology to remind food handlers to wash their hands and records details of how often they do so. how it works Small tags worn by staff communicate via RFID with wall-mounted readers each time hygiene activity such as hand-washing takes place. The tags can either be integrated into staff uniforms or worn like a name-tag. This information is then logged into a software application which incorporates best practice hygiene information within its database. Management can then view reports comparing hygiene activity across individuals, groups or locations and measuring performance against pre-set goals. The system will thus facilitate efforts to achieve compliance and dramatically improve hygiene standards within restaurants and hotels. The HigenX Hand Hygiene Monitoring System has been installed by Supermacs in a number of its restaurants and has also been successfully trialled in a number of hospitals.

Amberley Quality and Environmental Services Ltd are a water management and certification company specialising in water quality certification, technical support and bespoke treatment. Water types include surface water, groundwater, drinking water, leisure water and wastewater. We provide water quality related technical support and advice for clients on water quality issues including Legionella risk assessments and controls as well as legal compliance assessments on drinking water, leisure water and wastewater. We also provide training, documentation and auditing services for companies registered to ISO 9001:2008 and ISO 14001:2004, as well as environmental consultancy in Section 4, Section 16 and IPPC waste licensing. Barntick, Ballynacally, Co. Clare, Ireland. Tel: 353-65-6838109 Fax: 353-65-6838055 Mob: 353 86-8342840 Email: info@amberley.ie

www.amberley.ie HOTEL & CATERING REVIEW â?&#x2013; MAY 2010 35

D O O

F W

C E S

N O TI

FOOD

Trends

Cash in Your

Chips The chips may be down in the economy, but on restaurant menus they’re going retro. In the first of a new column of food trends, Hotel & Catering Review’s culinary correspondent MARILYN BRIGHT reveals what makes the perfect chip.

istory does not relate the birth of the chip or who first thought of frying batons of potato in deep fat, but we do know that by the time the Victorians were hitting the high spots in Paris, entrecote grille avec pommes frites was a staple on brasserie menus, as it remains today. Long regarded as a secret vice and branded as the work of the devil by dieters, chips are no longer relegated to the late-night and takeaway sector and are back in fashion even in white tablecloth establishments. The current proliferation of chop and steakhouses along with the rise of the gourmet burger have brought chips on board as the perfect partner. Serious chefs have lost their fear of frying and are putting their own spin on the perfect chip – hand-cut, chunky, crinkle cut or allumette, double cooked or Blumenthal-style triple cooked. Kitchen facilities, staffing and storage space will dictate whether it’s more economical to produce handcut chips or opt for commercially prepped chips. Volume too will enter the equation as there are now electric peeler/chippers for around €2,000 that will cut up to 25 kilos of chips per minute. Michelin-level gastropubs like to put their own spin on in-house produced chips, such as Tom Kerridge’s cylindrical chips at the award-winning Hand & Flowers in England. They’re cut with an apple corer and the chef claims it takes one person just half an hour to cut two sacks of potatoes. With stretched resources, many establishments opt for commercial frozen or chilled chips which are offered in ever increasing variety – wedges, skinny or chunky, crinkle cut or pont-neuf, with skin or without. Carefully selected and properly prepared, bought-in prepped varieties can be difficult to tell from hand peeled and hand cut chips. Caterers who go this route have found that trials of various types of prepared chips are useful in determining which product is best suited to their business without compromising quality. The major chip processors are happy to advise on best equipment and cooking techniques as it’s in their interest to have their chips presented in the best possible light. Great chips depend on four variables – the variety of the potato, the size of the chip, the choice of the oil and the cooking technique. Virtually all commercially prepared chips supplied in Ireland come from the UK, using Maris Piper potatoes although

36 HOTEL & CATERING REVIEW ❖ MAY 2010

one of the leading processors points out that there are at least 10 varieties of this from different parts of the country. Dry matter content and sugar/starch ratio are the determining factors for potatoes suitable for chips. Dry matter of 20-25% produces chips that are crisp on the outside but fluffy inside, although some tastes go for slightly waxy, pliable chips from salad varieties like Charlotte or La Ratte – qualities useful for curlicue chips and thin frites or allumettes. For flavour, King Edwards beat Maris Pipers in chip tastings, but its less regular shape makes peeling and cutting more problematic. At Fishy Fishy Café in Kinsale, Martin Shanahan recommends all-purpose Roosters for his chunky potato wedges, steam the potato quarters for 10 minutes, then deep-frying for five minutes at 190ºC. At the Cornstore in Cork and Limerick and fellow gastropub Aubar’s, handcut chips are a feature alongside their signature lobsters and steaks with béarnaise. Experimenting to produce the perfect chip, they settled on Maris Piper which is good for about 10 months of the year. ‘Towards the end of the season, they tend to break up and absorb too much oil,’ according to proprietor Padraic Frawley, who is also interviewed on page 19 of this issue. ‘We’ve just done comparative trials and replaced them with Roosters until the new season potatoes are in.’ Initially, Aubar’s chips were cooked in lard, which gives superb old-fashioned flavour but were found to be three times more expensive with frequent oil changes. In addition, there were some issues for vegetarians, so the switch was made to pure vegetable oil, which is now the frying medium of choice throughout the catering sector. For ease of service, most kitchens either par-boil the cut and rinsed chips in salt water, or blanch briefly in oil heated to around 160ºC. The partially cooked chips will then hold until required for service, needing just a few minutes in oil heated to 190ºC to turn out as irresistibly crisp and golden chips. Finally, correct storage of chipping potatoes is essential for producing a great end result. While lower temperatures are suitable for most vegetables, potatoes stored at anything less then 8ºC will start to convert the starch to sugar, producing chips that caramelise and darken quickly, taste burnt and go soggy – not a good look for a chip. u

FOOD

SKILLS

Back to Basics

A skills’ shortage has been identified in Irish kitchens, with leading chefs and restaurateurs frequently expressing concerns that during the fat years of the Celtic Tiger many of the traditional chefs’ skills were lost. In a new series addressing these concerns, MARILYN BRIGHT will look at ways Irish chefs can up these skills and details simple DIY steps for creating the best of homemade dishes. This month she reaches for the butcher’s cleaver and tackles the meaty subject of sausages.

n the distant days preceding microwaves, vac-packs and water baths, chefs were required to have the skills needed to prepare produce from just-off-thefarm to table ready ingredients. Now much produce is delivered washed, sliced, diced and portioned according to the needs of busy modern kitchens under pressures of space, time and labour. Observers like Darina Allen feel that a younger generation of chefs is in danger of losing skills like butchery that were once commonplace when meat was delivered in whole sides and a use was found for every bit of the carcass from the oxtails to the bones for the stockpot. ‘There’s a terrible sameness about many menus because they’re all using the same prepacked cuts delivered around the country by vans.’ With consumers concerned with food provenance and buy local campaigns supported by groups like Euro-toques and the Restaurants Association of Ireland, butchering skills are more relevant than ever. ‘When your chicken and ducks are coming from farms down the road and the lamb is reared locally, you need to know how to deal with it and use all the bits to get the best value,’ Darina adds. ‘That’s when chefs can be really creative and offer something different that makes them stand out from the restaurant down the street.’ At Longueville House near Mallow, where they use their own lambs and locally reared pigs and beef, William O’Callaghan says you have to be imaginative to use every bit of the meat. While prime cuts go into their award winning menus along with patés and terrines from other bits, William has found that sausages provide an excellent – and popular – solution for the remainder. Pork sausages star in Longueville’s superb breakfasts, seasoned with sage and rosemary from the garden and a reduction of apple juice from their own orchards which gives a more intense flavour. William also makes a chorizo-style sausage using smoked paprika and fennel seed. Lamb sausages use fresh herbs and one of his spice mixes – a strong Moroccan type based on cumin or a lighter one with an aniseed and citrus base.

Garrett Byrne at Campagne in Kilkenny uses whole organic lambs from nearby Thomastown and local ducks. Pork is supplied in half-sides and he makes a variety of sausages including a coarse ground Toulouse sausage with a strong flavouring from black, white and green peppercorns as well as nutmeg and garlic. Duck sausages use the leg meat enhanced by smoked bacon in the mix. While all sorts of off-cuts can be used in sausages, it’s important that every bit of the bone and gristle is meticulously removed, as diners won’t be impressed by unexpected bits in their cooked sausages. The general formula for succulent sausages is two parts lean meat to one part fat. Pork fat is generally used, even for lamb and venison, and the hard backfat is easiest to handle. Both fat and lean meat should be chilled so that it minces cleanly and blends together evenly. For mincing, a meat grinder produces a uniform result, while all but the most powerful food processors may leave some large bits while over-processing the softer meat. Commercial sausage mixes include rusk for filler and this is where house-made sausages can score, being gluten-free. Sausage castings can be natural or commercially produced collagen ones. Both Garret and William use natural casings sourced from their butchers. Most food processors give attachments for sausage stuffing and, with a little practice, sausages can be produced to whatever size is required. Sausages without skins, French style crepinettes, can be made by wrapping the mixture in caul fat, which is available frozen from restaurant suppliers. Seasonings make all the difference in sausages and highlight the creativity of the chef. Fresh herbs like thyme, rosemary and sage complement many meats, with additions like juniper berries and wild garlic for venison, quatre-epices for continental style and robust peppers, coriander and cumin for Mediterranean flavour. Citrus, fruits like apricots and apple add extra notes, with red wine or vermouth for moisture. There’s no limit to the variety of house produced sausages that add extra menu appeal as well as profit. u

Basic Country-Style Sausage 25g coarse salt 2 tbsp dried sage 1 tbsp dried thyme 1 tsp cracked black peppercorns 1 tsp dried chilli flakes 1 kg lean trimmed pork, cubed and chilled 500g pork backfat, cubed and chilled Combine the salt, sage, thyme, peppercorns and chilli flakes and grind into a fine powder. Mix pork, fat and spice mixture and put through mincer with a medium-coarse plate. Refrigerate sausage mixture and put in a covered container for 24 hours, allowing seasonings to mellow before filling into casings or shaping as wished. NB: Experiment with seasonings and fresh herbs to create your own unique sausages.

HOTEL & CATERING REVIEW ❖ MAY 2010 37

FOOD

RECIPES

Stars on a Plate

MARTIJN KAJUITER’s Michelin star cooking at the award-winning Cliff House Hotel in Ardmore has caused quite a stir since the hotel’s launch in 2008, this year earning the House Restaurant the Republic’s only star outside the capital. The Dutch chef shares recipes for some of the restaurant’s most popular dishes in The Cliff House cookbook. Here are a few of our favourites.

Lobster with Roasted Bone Marrow Martijn says: ‘Bone marrow is incredibly easy to prepare and is absolutely packed with flavour. Marrow bones are cheap; in some cases they are free; frugal has never tasted so good.’ 8 large marrow bones Olive oil, sea salt, rosemary, garlic 1 cooked lobster 4 slices white bread 2 tbsp parsley, chopped 1 tbsp capers, chopped 1 tbsp shallots, sliced

the marrow bones with it. Sprinkle the sea salt on the top, and roast until the bone marrow is soft – 2530 minutes. Clean the lobster and slice the meat into medallions or cubes. Cut the bread into cubes, mix with the lobster, parsley, capers, shallots and garlic. Scrape the marrow out of the bones, chop roughly and combine with the bread mixture. Put the mix into the hollow centres of the bones and roast at 200°C for 12 minutes.

1 garlic clove, finely chopped

Serve on its own with mixed salad and toasted bread.

Heat the oven to 170°C. Chop the rosemary and garlic finely, mix with 2-3 tbsp olive oil and cover

Give it a twist: Prawns, shrimp or crab will do just as well as lobster, says Martijn.

38 HOTEL & CATERING REVIEW ❖ MAY 2010

Carrageen Pudding with Raspberries, Soda Bread and Basil 450ml organic milk 50g sugar 4g carrageen moss (dried) ¼ bunch basil 250g raspberries 2 slices brown soda bread 2 tsp Golden Syrup Lemon zest Soak the carrageen in cold water for at least 10 minutes. Warm the milk with the sugar and the stalks of the basil. Crumble the soda bread onto an oven tray and sprinkle with the Golden Syrup. Place in the oven at 170°C until slightly caramelised. Remove carrageen from the water and squeeze

the water out. Add to the warm milk mixture and let it simmer with a lid on. After 15 minutes, strain the mixture and push the carrageen through a fine sieve. Put aside three raspberries per person. Mix the remaining raspberries with some small basil leaves and divide between four glasses. Pour the carrageen mixture on top. Set in the fridge for at least 45 minutes. Slice the rest of the basil leaves finely and mix with the soda bread crumbs. Spread the crumb mixture over the surface of each pudding and grate over some lemon zest. Top each with three raspberries and a basil leaf to serve.

FOOD

Monkfish with Smoke, Potato, Broad Beans and Oregano 4 monkfish fillets, 180g each 4 large potatoes 20g prawn dust (tail and head shells dried in a dehydrator or a very cool oven and ground in a coffee grinder) Olive oil, lemon zest, sea vegetables, salt and black pepper Foam 200ml potato cooking water 1.8g soy lecithin Zest of ½ lemon Oregano leaves 10ml olive oil Seasoning Garnish Broad beans, podded, skinned and blanched

Martijn says: ‘The cherries can be replaced by strawberries, raspberries or other fruit but nothing works quite like cherries.’

Heat the potato water and add the oregano, lemon zest, olive oil, and season. Add the lecithin and mix thoroughly with a hand blender. Strain and taste. Foam up, using a spoon behind the turning area of the blender to create maximum turbulence. Heat the broad beans and some of the potato water and season.

100ml white wine

Borage flowers and oregano Pre-heat the oven to 170°C. Marinate the monkfish fillets with a splash of olive oil, lemon zest, salt, prawn dust and pepper.

For the smoke: Catch some smoke under a glass dome and put on top of the dish. When presenting, lift the dome for a dramatic effect.

Black potato galettes: potato purée with squid ink, dried to make small discs Potato cubes, blanched in salted water

Irish Cherry Olive Oil Cake, Yoghurt and Mint

Make spaghetti of the potatoes using a Japanese vegetable turner. Wrap the monkfish fillets in a thin layer of potato spaghetti. In a non-stick frying pan heat some oil and cook the monkfish until golden brown on all sides. Add the potato cubes, then put in the oven for eight minutes.

To serve, cut the monkfish in medallions and arrange the broad beans and potato cubes around them. Skim the frothy foam and spoon on and around the monkfish. Garnish with borage flowers and oregano and serve directly.

RECIPES

500g cherries 50g jam sugar Orange zest 70g sugar

90ml olive oil 110g flour 2 eggs 1 tsp baking powder Pinch of salt Crushed pistachios 125ml organic yoghurt 6 mint leaves

Preheat oven to 185°C. Butter four ramekins or a big pie dish. Stone the cherries and toss them in the jam sugar and add the orange zest. Transfer these to the ramekins or pie dish. Mix wine, olive oil, eggs and sugar with a pinch of salt. Mix the flour and baking powder and add to the other ingredients and whisk to a smooth batter. Continue whisking until the mixture becomes fluffy. Cover the cherries with the mixture and sprinkle with the crushed pistachios. Bake for 12-14 minutes if using ramekins or 20-25 for the big version. Slice mint into the thinnest strip possible and add to the yoghurt. Serve with a scoop of yoghurt. u

Cliff House Hotel, The Cookbook is written by Martijn Kajuiter, edited by Tom Doorley and published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

HOTEL & CATERING REVIEW ❖ MAY 2010 39

FOOD

NOTES

LOvE YOUr hEArT Next month is Happy Heart Eat Out Month, and to mark the occasion the Irish Heart Foundation, Safefood and the HSE are encouraging diners to go for small portion sizes, as well as choosing healthy options from menus. ‘For a Happy Heart… Think Small’ is the theme of the campaign, and to this end the Irish Heart Foundation has produced a recipe booklet packed with recipes from leading chefs such as Kevin Dundon (Dunbrody House), Neven Maguire (MacNean House & Restaurant) and Garrett Byrne (Campagne). Hundreds of participating restaurants and catering businesses across Ireland will be offering additional healthy options throughout June to mark the Happy Heart month and a range of promotional material is available to participants. To get involved visit www.irishheart.ie. }}}

For a Happy Heart .....Thin

k Small

R E C I P E S

Delicious dishe s, low in fat, full of fruit and vegetables

Chicken Skewers with Dried Fruit Couscous from Brooklodge Hotel & Wells Spa

FrOZEN SCONES FrOM YELLOW DOOr Yellow Door Deli in Armagh has expanded its range of handmade breads and patisserie products to include a selection of frozen scones for bake-off in restaurant kitchens. The scones are available in Raspberry & White Chocolate, Rhubarb & Custard, Apple & Cinnamon, Plain, Blueberry & White Chocolate and Cherry varieties and savoury variations are also in development. The company, which supplies to The Merrion Hotel in Dublin, McAteer’s Deli & Restaurant in Dundalk and Tankardstown House in Slane among others, spent eight months carefully developing the new range. ‘The result is, we believe, ideal for the foodservice operators, such as cafés, delis, pubs and hotels, enabling them to produce freshly baked, top quality scones just as you would from scratch but without the hassle or wastage of actually doing so, as they can be baked off from frozen in just 20 minutes,’ says owner Simon Dougan. Along with the frozen scone collection, Yellow Door Deli has created three new patisserie products – a caramelised Armagh bramley apple upside down cake and pudding, the Yellowman cheesecake and banoffee mousse. The firm delivers to the Republic of Ireland six days a week, leaving Armagh at 5.15am in order to deliver in Dublin before 7am.

red Tractor for Fivemiletown Northern Ireland’s Fivemiletown Creamery has landed the Red Tractor Assured Food Standard for its range of speciality cheeses. The company gained the quality standard following an extensive and independent audit of its milk suppliers, who are based in the Clogher Valley in Co Tyrone, under the scheme’s Farm Assurance – Assured Dairy Farms – category. A farmer-owned co-operative formed in 1898, Fivemiletown sources fresh milk from 60 dairy farms and is the first food business in Northern Ireland to earn the Red Tractor quality mark. Cheeses handcrafted by the company include Mervyn McCaughey, managing Cooneen, Irish goat’s cheese; Ballyblue, an Irish director, Fivemiletown soft blue cheese; Ballyoak, an Irish soft smoked Creamery, celebrates achieving Red Tractor accreditation. cheese; Ballybrie, an Irish soft cheese; Oakwood, Irish smoked cheddar; Boilie, marinaded goat’s and cow’s milk cheeses; and O’Reilly’s Irish goat’s cheese. Red Tractor-certified food must come from an assured production chain in which producers, processors and packers meet rigorous standards at every stage. The audit takes into account traceability and integrity, training systems for the company’s staff and those employed by contractors and suppliers, environmental protection, documentation and procedures, animal health and welfare, animal medicines and biosecurity, feed and water supply, housing shelter and handling, and calf rearing processes.

0 HOTEL & CATERING REVIEW ❖ MAY 2010

Under the Kush

Kenmare’s Kush Shellfish has become the first producer of organic mussels within Ireland and the UK, launching a new range of organic rope mussels. The range was granted organic status by the Global Trust, the international body responsible for awarding organic certification within the seafood sector. The company’s location off the South West coast of Ireland has been instrumental in its success, says Kush Shellfish managing director, John Harrington. ‘Mussels and oysters are filter feeders which means they feed on phytoplankton in the water. Therefore, the quality of shellfish is only as good as the quality of the water they’re grown in. Our location in Kenmare Bay provides the cleanest, purest and best possible shellfish-growing conditions,’ he explains.

COCKTAILS

Martin Shakes Up the Competition D

ylan food and beverage manager Martin Meade proved he was a force to be reckoned with in mixology circles recently when he triumphed at the National Cocktail Competition at Hospitality Expo in the RDS. The event, which was organised by the Bartenders Association of Ireland and sponsored by Edward Dillon & Co, saw 44 bartenders from across Ireland put their cocktail skills to the test as they battled for the crown of Ireland’s cocktail champion. Martin, who is no stranger to mixology competitions and was voted World Irish Coffee Champion in 1999, will now represent Ireland at the World Cocktail Championship in Singapore this November where he will compete with bartenders from 50 countries around the globe. Recipes for Martin’s winning Apple Jack pre-dinner cocktail, plus the three additional category winning cocktails are listed below. Now that summer is finally approaching it’s time to get shaking…

Mixology champion Martin Meade showcases his skills at the National Cocktail Competition

Overall Winner & Best Pre-Dinner Cocktail: Apple Jack Created by Martin Meade, Dylan, Dublin 4

5cl Jack Daniels Single Barrel 1cl Benedictine Liqueur Dash of Orange Bitters 0.5cl Gomme syrup 1cl apple juice (unsweetened) Add all the ingredients to a mixing glass with ice and stir. Strain into a chilled martini glass and garnish with an orange spiral and apple fan.

Best Fancy Cocktail: Finnish with Passion Created by Patrick Thomas, SamSara, Dublin 2

5.5cl Finlandia Grapefruit Vodka 1.5cl Green Chartreuse 4cl cranberry juice 3.5cl passion fruit syrup Dash egg white 1cl fresh lime juice Add all ingredients to a cocktail shaker with ice. Shake and strain into chosen fancy glass. Garnish with mint leaf and a decorated passion fruit cup served on a plate.

Best After-Dinner Cocktail: Crumble in the Jungle Created by Shane Quigley, Long Island Bar, Cork

3cl Finlandia Grapefruit Vodka 2.5cl banana chip infused rum 1.5cl Bols Natural Yoghurt Liqueur .5cl Monin Gomme syrup .5cl Monin Mango syrup .5cl vanilla cream Add all ingredients to a cocktail shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a martini glass. Garnished burnt digestive biscuit.

Best Long Drink: The Grape Escape Created by Szabi Sandor, Octagon Bar, The Clarence Hotel, Dublin 2 3cl Bombay Sapphire Gin 3cl elderflower liqueur 1.5cl fresh lemon juice 2cl mango juice 5-6 fresh grapes 2cl soda water Muddle the grapes in the glass of a Boston cocktail shaker then add all other ingredients (except soda). Add ice and shake. Fine strain into a highball glass and add soda. Garnish with fresh fruits and vegetables. u

HOTEL & CATERING REVIEW ❖ MAY 2010 41

PRODUCT NEWS icemakers which are designed to produce large amounts of ice while occupying small spaces. Easy to clean, maintain and operate, the machines are built for reliability and are designed to perform in the harshest of environments. Catering for all requirements, there are five models in the range. The smallest, the compact J35 can produce 32kg of solid, clear, cubed ice every 24 hours and has the capacity to store 10kg, meaning ice will always be readily available. Slightly larger and more popular, the J50 icemaker can produce 48kg every 24 hours and has big bin storage of 25kg (55lbs). Built to the same exacting standards, the J80 icemaker is the largest model with a maximum daily output of 78kg, and it can hold 45kg of ice until needed, thanks to high density insulation. All three units have both a removable filter and a durable front lift door. The two largest units in the range, the J120 and J220 can produce 110kg, and a massive 220 kg per 24 hours respectively, and despite having a huge integral storage bin, take up very little space.

p The Dyson Airblade hand dryer is the first hand dryer to be awarded the Carbon Reduction Label from the Carbon Trust. To secure the Carbon Reduction Label, the machine’s total carbon footprint - the amount of carbon emissions (CO2 and other greenhouse gases) produced from its materials and manufacture, transport, in-use and end of life - were measured and certified by the Carbon Trust. As part of the certification, Dyson has committed to reducing the Airblade hand dryer’s carbon emissions further in the next two years. The footprinting process revealed that the Dyson Airblade AB03 hand dryer emits 1,200 kg/C02e total emissions during its lifetime or 3.2 g/CO2e per dry. Each dry is equal to the carbon emissions created by watching two minutes and seven seconds of television.

t: 094 937 4500 w: www.cfequip.com

t: 01 401 8830 e: martine.du-toit@dyson.com w: www.dyson.co.uk/environment/

p Katerbay offers the Jetice range of compact

p Convotherm has launched a new energy efficient ecoCooking mode for its combi steamers. The ecoCooking system, which cuts energy use by up to 25%, was presented with the Gulfood Award for the best environmental initiative during the Gulfood Fair in February. EcoCooking includes an integrated ACS (Advanced Closed System) for all Convotherm combi steamers which keeps almost all the heat inside the chamber and won’t let it escape while cooking. The food continues to cook by using the residual heat giving perfect results, even in the shortest amount of time. All Convotherm combi steamers with easyTouch option produced since December 2009 have been equipped with ecoCooking. t: +49 884760 e: info@convertherm.de w: www.convotherm.com p Mulcahy Technical Services is offering the Wexiodisk WD-6 hood dishwasher. Easy to use, the dishwasher includes the unique hood concept and auto-start function. By sliding in the basket, the hood closes automatically and the machine starts. When the wash programme finishes, the hood opens automatically, allowing steam to escape at the back of the machine and the washed items dry. As an alternative to the Auto-Start model, the dishwasher is available with an automatic hood or a manual hood. t: 01 450 4755 w: www.mulcahytechnical.ie

p New Zealand’s Sileni Cellar Selection Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc has earned international acclaim. The wine, which was recently awarded 90 points by Wine Spectator magazine, has picked up a prestigious Blue Gold Award in the Sydney International Wine Competition. Produced with semillion from Hawkes Bay in New Zealand, the Sileni Sauvignon Blancs are designed by the winemaker to be ‘food friendly’. Sileni wines are distributed exclusively in Ireland by Dalcassian Wines & Spirits. t: 01 293 7977 e: info@delcassianwines.com w: www.dalcassianwines.com p Bushmills Irish Whiskey struck gold in San Francisco last month when the blended whiskey swept away competition at the prestigious 2010 San Francisco World Spirits Competition. Winning ‘Best Irish Whiskey in the World’ the Bushmills range also picked up two double gold and four gold accolades, making Bushmills one of the few international spirit brands ever to scoop 100% gold in the global competition. This comes only months after winning three World Whiskies Awards in London. Colum Egan, Bushmills master distiller, called the win ‘an incredible achievement for Bushmills’. He added: ‘We like to think that we make the world’s finest Irish whiskey – it’s great to hear that the experts share that opinion and the team at the distillery are absolutely thrilled. We’ll definitely be cracking open a bottle and raising a glass to celebrate our victories.’ t: 01 453 6700 w: www.bushmills.com

If you would like to promote your products or services within this section please call Sarah Currey on 01 764 2700.

42 HOTEL & CATERING REVIEW ❖ MAY 2010

SOLUTIONS

Funding a Food Range

Q&A Got Something On Your Mind? Do you need some expert advice? Email your question in complete confidence to hcrsolutions@ jemma.ie. Names and identifying details will be withheld in published queries.

Q: I read with interest your recent article about developing brand extensions, such as a range of food products, to maximise brand potential and increase kitchen productivity in the recession. (See Hotel & Catering Review, December 2009.) I am very interested in creating our own food range which I would like to promote through our restaurant and guesthouse as well as separately through the retail sector and in farmers’ markets. I believe that we may be eligible for a business expansion scheme to help fund this. Is this the case and, if so, how does it work? Are there any alternative ways of securing credit other than going to the banks which don’t seem to be lending to anyone at the moment? A: BES Relief

The business expansion scheme was designed to provide risk capital to certain sectors. It grants tax relief of up to 41% to individuals who invest in a qualifying company. In order to qualify, investments must be made in companies engaged in certain manufacturing; service; tourism; R&D; plant cultivation activities; in the construction and leasing of advance factories; or, in certain music recording activities. The investment must be maintained for five years.

How it Works: Example, Tasty Food Company Limited

Tasty Food Company Ltd needs €100,000 to commence a new range of food products. It applies to Revenue for outline approval that its proposal qualifies for BES relief. Approval is given on the basis that it is a manufacturing company. Tasty Food Company identifies a wealthy investor Bill and his wife Maura who pay significant tax each year. Bill and Maura invest €100,000 in respect of B Ordinary Shares in the company. These shares are non-voting. An option agreement is in place which allows Bill and Maura to sell back their shares to Tasty Food Company Ltd after five years at a capped price of €110,000. Once Tasty Food Company Ltd begins to trade Bill and Maura can claim tax relief of €41,000 (assuming that €100,000 of their income is taxed at 41%). This means that the actual cost of the investment is €59,000 and if the company succeeds over the next five years then Bill and Maura should be able to recover €110,000 as an investment return. The cost of finance for Tasty Food Company Ltd works out at 2% per year (although it may need to offer a better rate to attract investors). Also, there are legal costs in setting up the structure.

BES – Rules and Regulations

Unfortunately BES is a convoluted tax relief involving a myriad of rules. For example, tourism-related BES requires approval of Fáilte Ireland. These rules are readily available on the Revenue website (leaflet IT55). A company should be able to work within these rules and ensure that the investment qualifies for BES as long as it carries on the trades mentioned above. As regards the facts of this case, BES relief generally does not apply to the operation of hotels, guesthouses and self-catering. This means that in this case it may be necessary to operate the food manufacturing business from a separate company.

Raising BES

In practice businesses will prepare an investment memorandum setting out their business plan and how they

propose to repay investors. This is circulated to potential investors, accountants and BES funds. As with any fund raising it is difficult to convince investors to part with their funds. One condition of BES relief is that no guarantees for an investment can be given which operates as a disincentive to investors. Therefore investors need to be convinced that a business plan is viable before investing their funds. Also, it will be easier for a company with some resources to attract investors.

Other Means of Securing Credit Here is a short synopsis of other ideas:-

1. Seed Capital Relief. This operates in much the same way as BES relief but provides a tax refund in respect of employment income for past five years. For example a person who has worked as a solicitor for the past five years and paid tax of say €100,000 would be able to apply for a refund of up to that amount in the event that he or she started up and invested in a new business in, say, food production. The new business would need to be in the same sectors as for BES relief. 2. Loss Relief. A company or sole trader may be entitled to loss relief refunds in respect of other business (upon cessation or generally) which could help to fund the new business. 3. Employee participation. We have established schemes where employees purchased new shares in their employer company and obtained tax relief. This has the benefit of motivating staff to increase the share value of the company and also provides a cash fund for the company. 4. Enterprise Ireland Investment. Usually Enterprise Ireland will invest by way of cumulative convertible redeemable preference shares. This investment has a very low interest rate with a deferred payment. However, if the company is successful, Enterprise Ireland can convert their shares to ordinary shares with the benefit of a heavily discounted price. Also, Enterprise Ireland imposes strict compliance requirements which can prove burdensome for investors. 5. Fáilte Ireland or local enterprise board grants/share participation may be available depending on the size and nature of the trade. Where cash can be raised from sources other than bank finance the bank may be more willing to extend higher ranking credit to the business. A brief consultation with a professional adviser with regard to the type of business proposed and the list of options above should provide you with guidance as to whether or not it is viable to proceed. – DOUGLAS SADLIER Solicitor, Registered Tax Consultant, Notary, McGuire Desmond Solicitors Douglas.Sadlier@mcguiredesmond.com

HOTEL & CATERING REVIEW ❖ MAY 2010 43

Putting Your Best Foot Forward When we quizzed our expert judges from the Gold Medal Awards Jury about what they look for when they visit a hotel or restaurant to inspect it, the one thing they all agreed is that first impressions count. Just like the way you handle the bill or serve breakfast or coffee at the end of a meal leaves a lasting impression when your guests depart, the vision that greets your diners or guests on arrival sets the tone for the whole visit. So what are the important factors to look out for? Well, they’re pretty simple really... 1. Booking

‘Please train people to answer the phone,’ was the call from Food & Wine editor Ross Golden-Bannon, who took part in a panel debate with restaurateurs and food writers at last month’s Restaurants Association of Ireland conference in Dublin. Ross’s point was that the phones in Irish restaurants often ring off the hook, and he griped about the lack of customer service when they are answered. Your first impression starts with the booking – whether it is a phone call to a restaurant or hotel, or an online reservation on a website. Naturally, efficiency and friendliness are the two most important characteristics when taking a booking over the phone and extra information goes down well, particularly in hotel reservations, whether it’s an upskilling opportunity (room upgrade, spa offers) or details of local festivals and events. Online the rule of thumb is less is more. You

44 HOTEL & CATERING REVIEW ❖ MAY 2010

should make it as easy as possible for your guest to book online. Place your booking engine on your home page (near the top is good, so potential guests don’t have to scroll through it) and try to limit the amount of hoops the consumer has to jump through. No one wants to click through pages and pages of a site before finally getting to the price. Those of you who still don’t offer online reservations, please be aware that you simply cannot put this off anymore. Research shows that 34% of bookings online are made between the hours of 10pm and 9am – today’s consumer wants an immediate response, they will not wait to check for availability.

2. Signposts

Poor signposting on Irish roads is the pet hate of any tourist, although we must admit, it is getting better. While finger-pointers may be an expensive

FIRST IMPRESSIONS cost thanks to local authority charges, if you can afford them it is worth the effort, particularly for hotels where they’re pretty much a necessity. No one likes getting lost on the home stretch after a long drive across the country for a weekend away. When you have them, remember to check that some scurrilous little hoodlum in your locality hasn’t twisted them in the opposite direction for a ‘laugh’. There are plenty of us who have got caught that way in the past, and it leaves guests in a stinker of a mood if they take a trip around the universe to find you.

3. Car Parks

Adequate car parking for hotels is another essential and, where you don’t have the facilities yourself, then you need reasonably priced valet parking – even in luxury hotels. The days of paying megabucks for chauffeured parking are behind us. Needless to say, if you offer a valet service speed is of the essence, and your drivers need to handle the vehicle with kid gloves. Two visits to a five star Irish hotel left us disheartened recently. In the first, the porter dinged the car, and the second time we were left standing for half an hour waiting on the pavement. Not good. Those with car parks remember, cleanliness is next to godliness. Those of you who read Tom Mythen’s comments in our article on the judges’ feedback from the Gold Medal Awards last month will remember his complaint about a four star hotel which got the automatic thumbs down because the car park and entrance to the hotel was steeped in litter. It’s a poor impression to start with.

4. Lobby/Reception

Just as the car park should be spotless, so should your arrivals area, whether a hotel foyer or a restaurant reception desk. In these straitened economic times, guests will forgive a cut back on porters, but they will not overlook poor hygiene. Few have the resources available for a full refurb at the moment, so if your reception needs a bit of a facelift, try a few new cushions, the odd tea light or some fresh flowers (cut from the garden, or bought in a local supermarket if budget is an issue. One restaurant we know slashed its florist bill dramatically by going to M&S). If you must use plastic flowers – in many cases you’d be better off with nothing – make sure they are dusted regularly. This is a big problem area in the Gold Medal Awards, as are withered flowers on restaurant tables. If you can’t replace, go without – try a tea light or long lasting LED lamp instead. There are great candle-lookalikes on the market at a reasonable price.

5. Smell

In Chapter One, chef Ross Lewis placed the pastry section in his new kitchen next to the Chef ’s Table so diners in the kitchen, and those passing the kitchen’s open doors, could be

There are few things more irritating than arriving in a hotel or restaurant and being left to stand around for what seems like an eternity because staff are busy. Taking 10 seconds to pause, look up, and say, ‘sorry for the delay, we’ll be with you shortly’ can make the world of difference.

seduced with the waft of sweet treats. Smell is a powerful sense and Ross is not alone in capitalising on its power. For years supermarkets have used smell to subliminally encourage shoppers to buy more, and in Vegas’s casinos, smell is an integral part of the armoury, helping to keep gamblers indoors for longer. The smoking ban opened our senses to more smells than ever (some not so good) so make the most of it, through baked goods in your café or scented candles, flowers or air sprays in your hotel.

6. Smile

As indicated by several of the judges last month, there are few things more irritating than arriving in a hotel or restaurant and being left to stand around for what seems like an eternity because staff are busy. Taking 10 seconds to pause, look up, and say, ‘sorry for the delay, we’ll be with you shortly’ can make the world of difference. Guests and diners understand if you’re busy, they just don’t want to be left standing there like a lemon.

7. Knowledge

As the old saying goes, knowledge is power – so use it. Your staff are your ambassadors. By telling guests about specials (scallops hand dived locally, cheese from the farm up the road) not only are they giving customers a sense of place, they are also capturing a valuable opportunity to upsell. In a hotel, staff should always explain about late availability or special offers in the spa or encourage guests to book for dinner when they arrive after a long journey. Likewise, your guests want to know about the locality. Tell them about the great local walk, the farmers’ market in the neighbouring park, the must-see tourist attraction. It’s all about creating an unforgettable experience for guests, and connecting with them that bit more rather than simply going through the motions. Remember, it is the simplest of little things that makes a guest feel welcome, and a smile goes a long way. No one wants to start a break away, or an evening out, on a bad note. u

Coffee on the Go Options

Robert Roberts has released a new compact To Go unit. At a mere 55cm wide, it has the ability to provide huge revenue in a small space. The milk urn and water boiler are situated under the counter, two stainless steal taps on the counter supply the water and milk to the consumer. The To Go Unit has a Bean2Cup Machine (coin mechanism option available), water boiler, milk urn, condiment section, cup dispenser and bin shoot. This eloquently designed sleek unit is perfect for a variety of locations. The same width as an ATM machine, it can be located in a hotel reception. This can be utilised by residents and non-resident of the hotel, capturing extra revenue. In the current environment many hoteliers are using ‘room only’ price promotions, this has led to loss in breakfast trade. The unit will prevent losing custom by providing a grab and go convenient breakfast offer.

HOTEL & CATERING REVIEW ❖ MAY 2010 45

FIVE MINUTES WITH...

Micheál Stapleton We caught up with the new general manager of the Radisson Blu Royal Hotel in Dublin.

As we speak, Irish airspace has been closed again as another plume of volcanic cloud wafts in our direction. Were you affected much by the events of last month? We were €50,000 down in room revenue, which is a real shame as April was looking like a fantastic month. Just think what we could have done with that money! Most of our guests flying in this morning managed to get organised on later flights so hopefully we will be okay this time, but it’s too early to tell.

Between the snow storms and ash clouds the weather has had quite a damning effect on the tourism sector this year. So far, how is 2010 shaping up for you? This year as a whole is looking better. Our meetings and events business is up 24.5% to date and we have a 14% increase in conference bookings for the rest of the year. We’re getting a lot of returning guests coming back again and again and we’re getting a huge amount of inquiries for our Sky Suite now, which is our executive meeting and reception room on the top floor. Last year that was pretty much dead so there’s definitely an improvement in confidence. There is business out there, it’s just a matter of getting it.

‘In the longterm it’s not good to cut your rates too low, otherwise you’ll never get them back up. You have to be brave enough and say no sometimes.’

How are rooms? Occupancy is well up, but rates are down 10% on last year. We managed to hold our rate pretty well last year so it’s not too bad. In our competitive set, our room rate is third behind the Conrad and Fitzwilliam Hotels. They are five star hotels, but that’s the set we’re benchmarking ourselves against. We don’t want to be going down the €89 route. In the long-term it’s not good to cut your rates too low, otherwise you’ll never get them back up. You have to be brave enough and say no sometimes. It’s very easy to operate a hotel at breakeven but the problem is that in two to three years you’ll have no money for a refurb.

Are you confident about the prospects for the Irish hotel industry this year? I am, but I think we’re going to have

46 HOTEL & CATERING REVIEW ❖ MAY 2010

to wait and see what happens with NAMA. The NAMA hotels will have the biggest influence on the market this year. Will they operate on pure cash flow, or will they be centrally managed? Will they be sustained? We’ll have to wait and see. I am hopeful that this year will be better than last year though. It will be interesting to see what will come about when the Convention Centre opens. We’re already getting some bookings on the back of it, which is good.

What’s new with the hotel? We’re about to relaunch the restaurant, with a separate entrance from Chancery Lane. The food in the restaurant is excellent and we always get fantastic feedback to it, but it’s a matter of getting the diners in. People have a preconception about eating in a hotel restaurant, no matter how good it is, so the new entrance should help. We will have a big PR launch to promote it. We’re also looking at tweaking the menus in the bar and changing things around a bit there too. We have a lot of regular customers who stay midweek but during the matches recently we’ve noticed a lot are eating in their rooms, even though we have a big screen in the bar. For a match the other day we had 43 room services – I’d rather that was in the bar. We want people to come down for a bit of craic, so we’ve organised corporate drinks and other things to help people get to know each other. We see them greeting each other at breakfast now which is good. It’s working.

Are you doing much cost-cutting at the moment? Radisson introduced Hedging for Turbulence 18 months ago. It’s a costcutting plan which helped us get our costs in line which was hugely beneficial over the last year and helped us get our profit ratio right. In the past we all focused so much on the topline growth, we probably all took our eye off the ball in terms of costs.

A number of international companies have moved out of Irish hotels recently. Does Radisson have any similar plans? We’re still holding strong, and if anything we have plans to grow in the future with our sister Park Inns brand. We have one in Shannon and there were plans for another three or four but they were put on hold when the recession first landed, however I think, if anything, that part of the business will grow. With 11 Radisson Blus around the country we are the biggest hotel brand in Ireland, and our brand recognition is growing all the time. We are getting a lot of business from our Gold Points Plus rewards programme for instance, including a lot of Irish business. The only place we don’t have a presence is Wexford, but I’m not sure if there are plans to go there... One of our forefathers in the hotel industry made a comment recently about international brands not being part of what Irish tourism is built on, but I think that was unfair. All of our 11 hotels are managed by Irish general managers, we have a lot of Irish staff and we are committed to the Irish tourism industry. We have a lot to contribute. u

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