 Sally Rowlands - General Manager/Proprietor - The Castle Hotel, Neath
The training provided by HBIM has had a huge impact on our business. As an independent, family run hotel, we were finding it increasingly difficult to compete with the chains and to cope with ever increasing costs. The course was quite intense and sometimes gruelling and it certainly left the weak by the wayside - Peter does not suffer fools gladly. Peter has developed our skills and given us the tools to run the hotel profitably. We now have a strong and highly motivated team capable of driving the business forward and achieving the desired results.
David & Rachel Hume - Proprietors, Wainstone’s Hotel
Having been part of the management team of the Wainstones Hotel for a number of years, we purchased the hotel outright in April 2008 with a high level of bank borrowings. While over our years as managers we had grown the turnover to around £1 million this never seemed to convert into greatly increased profits.
As a large element of our business is corporate based we quickly felt the effects of the recession and were aware that our profit levels were not enough to survive a downturn. During a chance meeting with Peter Nannestad, he was immediately of the opinion that we would gain hugely from the four day economic programme he offered.we weren’t fully convinced as we already felt we had a good, hard working management team who were all well qualified.
By the end of four days with Peter they were transformed from a group of people who got on well and worked hard to a completely focused management team with structure, targets and a high level of economic skill. The mangement duties were restructured, they learned the potential profits of the business, they learned to budget, forecast, review accounts and identify and correct weaknesses. All without cutting our levels of service (in fact in many areas they have improved). While sales was not a specific part of this programme, peter gave us great advice throughout which has helped us start to grow the level of trade despite the recession.
The team now lead their own management meetings and drive sales and profits. They celebrate achieving their targets and are hugely disappointed if they miss any.
Looking at the first five months accounts since we started the programme in August 2009, our net profits have increased by 90% over the same period the previous year, our food costs are down from 41% to 30% and our wages from 39 % to 31%.
This is not to say for a second that it has been easy, but we now have the skills to achieve our potential profits and to ensure that they grow as we move forward.
For the first time since we bought the business (and in only six months since Peter’s first day with us), we are not thinking about how we will survive but about how we will expand.
The HBIM economic programme has had an enormous impact on the ownership and accountability of heads of department to effectively manage their parts of the business.
Through an understanding of budgeting, costs, daily analysis and financial review managers have learnt how to set targets, analyse performance and implement activity to achieve the potential profit of the company. This has been achieved in a very short time and has had a major impact on the profitability of the business.
It has been a fascinating and at times painful journey but one that has already strengthened the company and allowed us to look to the next stage of business development
Glyn and Menna Heulyn, Harbourmaster Hotel, Aberaeron, Wales
We had been running our hotel successfully for over five years when we decided to bring in HBIM with a brief of giving us, as hands-on owners, a better work life balance. The course entailed a lot of work, effort and commitment. Peter Nannestad is a one-off, but by pushing us and the staff out of our comfort zones he got results.
The outcome of the course, not only to us, but to all of our team has been extremely worthwhile. The course has empowered staff, and given us the discipline to manage the business effectively. Evaluating performance against industry benchmarks has given us the confidence and knowledge to expand and grow the business.
The course has turned our successful hotel, into a prospering sustainable business.
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