HOW HOTEL INN SALLAND IMPROVED PROFITABILITY BY PARTNERING UP WITH PROCUREMENT EXPERTS

Written by Dominique & Nicole Hutten Owners Hotel Inn Salland

Starting a new business is a challenge. And as sisters Dominique and Nicole Hutten discovered when they took on the Hotel & Brasserie Inn Salland in Raalte, Netherlands, starting a new hospitality business during the pandemic proved even harder.

They spoke with us about their journey and how their hotel is now a big success, thanks in part to the operational support provided by the Trinity Purchasing team.

Background

In September 2020, we saw great potential in a local hotel that was up for sale, so we took it on. With 41 guest rooms on the edge of Raalte in the Netherlands, it's something of a local landmark.

The building is constructed in a distinctive timber-framed farmhouse style, contrasting with the local Dutch architecture. Our first year was what I called 'the year of survival', as we had so many challenges.

Partnering with Trinity

A visit from one of the Trinity team opened our eyes to the potential of benefiting from their purchasing power as part of a larger group. It sounded interesting, but our focus then was on many other projects. However, Trinity promised to do all the work for us.

We began working with Trinity Purchasing at the end of 2021. We started small, and they were able to negotiate savings with some of our existing suppliers.

Time and cost savings

We started to broaden our range of suppliers as the partnership continued. We trust Trinity to only work with quality suppliers, and we saved a lot of time not having to find them ourselves.

By doing so, we've been able to achieve more cost savings. For example, we've achieved 28% savings across non-food lines, 38% on cleaning chemicals, 16% on waste removal and 24% on fruit juices - all without compromising product or service quality.

We value quality products for a good price. Combining these two is essential to us, significantly when prices are rising and delivery times are getting longer.

Further support

We're currently working on remodelling parts of the hotel with the help of Trinity. We are now redoing our kitchen, so it was great to have access to a list of reliable partners to provide supplies for our upgrade works.