Hotel and Restaurant Times Aug/Sept 2018

AUGUST/SEPTEMBER ’18

€3.65

T H E B U S I N E S S P U B L I C AT I O N F O R T H E H OT E L A N D R E S TAU R A N T I N D U S T R Y

Eoghan O’Mara Walsh Why 9% matters

Apprenticeships The Smart Solution

Pricing ourselves out of the market No lessons learned

Patton Interiors 50 Years in the business

www.hotelandrestauranttimes.ie

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COVER: Eoghan O’Mara Walsh - ITIC

Contents

P. 36

Editorial 4 News

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Appointments 10 Save the Nine?

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Chef Network

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Bookassist

16

Fáilte Interview

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The Date Genie Code

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Tourism Ireland

9 Reasons why 9% matters

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Apprenticeships - The smart solution

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Fáilte Industry News

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Java Republic

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IFSA Membership

34

Patton Interiors

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CATEX 2019

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Who made wine the whipping boy?

Pricing ourselves out of the market ITIC

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IT Tallaght

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Euro-toques Chef of the Year

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Crowe Accountancy

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IFSA 50 Seafood on the Menu

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Letterkenny IT

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P. 46 Hotel & Restaurant Times, Ireland’s longest established trade publication, is circulated on subscription to Chief Executives, Directors and Proprietors of Hotels and Restaurants in Ireland along with Architects, Interior Designers and Suppliers to the Hotel and Restaurant Industry.

Managing Editor: Cyril McAree (01-6285447, cyril@hotelandrestauranttimes.ie) Contributors: Pavel Barter, Dr Des O’Mahony, Susan Clarke, Chef Network, Tourism Ireland, Frank Corr, Conor Power, Fáilte Ireland, Leslie Williams, Sarah Gallagher, Eoghan O’Mara Walsh, Annette Sweeney, Holly Lenny, IFSA, Marilyn Bright.

Graphic Design: Tara Mccormack Printing: Turners of Longford

ALL CONTENTS OF THE MAGAZINE ARE COPYRIGHT OF HOTEL & RESTAURANT TIMES. H&R HOUSE, CARTON COURT, MAYNOOTH, CO.KILDARE TEL/FAX: 01 6285447 EMAIL: editorial@hotelandrestauranttimes.ie WEB: www.hotelandrestauranttimes.ie

All paper used in the production of this magazine comes from certifiably sustainable forestry.

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editorial

Yes Minister, start taking tourism seriously All the indicators are showing that this year has been fantastic for job growth and creation within tourism. Increased tourist numbers travelling here, and spending more, is good for the economy and the exchequer. Tourism Ireland and Fáilte Ireland have worked hard to achieve this success. With such accomplishments in mind, you would hope Shane Ross, the minister in charge of this brief, would be focused and on the ball. Alas, that is not the case.

editorial

The contentious issue of the retention of the low VAT rate for hospitality, chef shortages, and employment issues are never far from the news. Yet at a recent Tourism Ireland half-year review, the minister’s performance was shambolic.

When asked if hospitality VAT was to be retained or increased, he became flustered and incoherent. He waffled on about increasing the VAT on hotels in Dublin, but not in the country. Maybe restaurants would be included, he suggested, maybe not. When asked if the cabinet had resolved the issue of VAT retention, he said the matter was still being discussed.

Minister, the budget is in October.

In my humble opinion, it is a bit late to be “discussing” something of such vital importance to the hospitality industry. If this is the level of engagement the sector can expect, I won’t hold my breath in regard to funding and support for the sector in Budget 2019.

The minister also apparently snubbed two important agencies, Fáilte Ireland and ITIC, who had arrived for a previously agreed photo shoot to highlight an award event. What I witnessed was disappointing. The minister refused to partake in the photo shoot and walked away. Perhaps he was unhappy with questioning over the VAT issue at the media briefing?

Staff shortages, meanwhile, have to be tackled from a number of viewpoints. Our secondary level educators need to understand and engage with the industry.

Hospitality is often viewed as a stop-gap situation. “Get a job waiting tables until you get a real job”. The reality is that working in the hospitality sector is a passport to the world. Just look at the number of foreigners working in Ireland. The French, Italians and Swiss encourage their students from early age to attend college and become proficient in the discipline of their choice.

The industry has to consider how it looks after its employees and how it ensures favourable working conditions. Calling on the government to fix the chef shortage isn’t helpful. It just creates a negative view of the industry. The sector must be more proactive and engaging.

Next year will a number of new hotels come into the mix. The obvious challenge, apart from ensuring the industry remains competitive, will be finding and retaining staff.

So let’s see what happens.

Cyril McAree editor

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news

NEWS Poetry in motion

Whole world in our hands Global Irish Festival Series, a joint initiative between the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and Fáilte Ireland, aims to encourage our diaspora to return home to visit Ireland.

In Limerick, the Global Irish Festival Series is supporting I.NY which runs Oct 7-14, exploring the connection between Ireland and New York City and the Richard Harris International Film Festival which takes place Oct 25-29.

In Donegal, the initiative is supporting a Genealogy and Traditional Music Weekend which runs from Oct 20-21, and an Inter-generational Sporting Weekend, Oct 27-28.

Pictured is Ciaran Cannon, Minister of State for the Diaspora and International Development, and Ciara Sugrue, Fáilte Ireland’s Head of Festivals.

The National Library of Ireland has launched Seamus Heaney: Listen Now Again, a major exhibition that celebrates the life and works of one of Ireland’s greatest writers. It draws on the NLI’s Heaney archive, donated to the Library by the poet and his family in 2011. The exhibition was officially launched by President of Ireland, Michael D Higgins. Listen Now Again will run in the Bank of Ireland Cultural and Heritage Centre until December 2021. Bookings can be made via www.nli.ie/seamusheaney.

Catering for all occasions Pictured: Amy McLoughlin, Arron Kearny, Ruairi Boyce, Richard Li and Peter Hanley (Director of Hanley Events). Aramark took home the award for Best Event Caterer at the 10th annual Event Industry Awards held recently in Citywest Hotel, Dublin.

Five-Star Hospitality Jobs at Titanic Belfast Shannon Johnston is pictured as Titanic Belfast serves up new hospitality roles. For more information visit www.titanicbelfast.com/ careers.

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news

Molly Malone Speaks Out

The green scene

Molly Malone’s voice will echo over the streets of Dublin as the Molly Malone statue on Suffolk Street becomes the latest addition to the Fáilte Ireland Talking Statues initiative. The statue will be given a voice by Michaela McMahon, a US student who won an open public competition to pen the words spoken by the Molly Malone statue. Her winning script is narrated by actress and singer, Maria Doyle Kennedy.

Trevor Cochrane, presenter of The Garden Gurus, during filming in the walled garden at Bloom 2018.

Images of Dublin were beamed in to the homes of around 1.16 million people across Australia over the weekend, when an episode of a popular TV show, The Garden Gurus, aired on Channel Nine.

Ride in style The five-star InterContinental Dublin has partnered with Lexus Ireland and received a new 182 Lexus LS 500h hybrid to enhance the hotel’s offering for suite guests. InterContinental Dublin in Ballsbridge has over 50 suites and claims to have the largest Presidential suite in Dublin. For more information: www.intercontinentaldublin.ie

New craft beer too hot to handle?

FIRE Restaurant and Lounge, on Dublin’s Dawson Street, have launched a new Irish craft lager that sends temperatures soaring.

FIRE 1864 is a light maltbased lager with biscuit flavours and hints of pear and lemon. The lager is produced in collaboration with St Mel’s Brewing Company in Co. Longford.

Brand new role for Lucy Kennedy TV personality Lucy Kennedy is in love: with Eddie Rocket’s City Diners! The relationship has been made formal with the appointment of the Living with Lucy presenter as a brand ambassador for Eddie Rocket’s.

Just Ask for Truffles Truffles Restaurant & Wine Bar in Kilkenny has been awarded Just Ask Restaurant of the Month for August. Selected by renowned food writer Georgina Campbell and Bord Bia, the Just Ask Restaurant of the Month rewards eateries across Ireland that exhibit best practices in showing transparency in the sourcing of the food on their menus.

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news

Ireland says Nı̌ hǎo!

Chinese travel writers with tour guide Min Lin Siew (left) and Vanessa Yang, Tourism Ireland (second left), at the Cliffs of Moher. The group of writers, from the Pearl River Delta region in southern China, were visiting Ireland as guests of Tourism Ireland, Fáilte Ireland and Tourism NI. They flew to Dublin on the new Cathay Pacific flight from Hong Kong – the first ever direct flight from the Asia-Pacific region to Ireland.

Out with the old, in with the Nua iNua Hospitality, one of the largest regional hotel groups in Ireland, has secured investment of €40m to support the future growth of the group.

The newly formed entity, iNua Hospitality PLC, now owns and operates seven hotels including Radisson Blu Hotel, Little Island, Cork; Radisson Blu, Limerick; Kilkenny Hibernian Hotel, Kilkenny; Muckross Park Hotel and Spa, Killarney; Radisson Blu Hotel and Spa, Athlone; Hillgrove Hotel, Leisure and Spa, Monaghan and the latest addition to the group, the Radisson Blu Hotel & Spa, Sligo.

Gateway to Galway Tourism Ireland has created a new online film to highlight some of the festivals and attractions international visitors can enjoy in Galway. Top Things to do in Galway features places like the Spanish Arch, Salthill, and Galway City Museum, the Galway Races, Galway International Oyster and Seafood Festival and Kai Café and Restaurant.

Stars of excellence Pictured are Chef Derek Reilly, Culinary Director, Ireland, and Eric Foss, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Aramark. The two employees of Aramark Northern Europe have been recognised for their contribution to the company, at Aramark’s third annual Star of Excellence Awards in Dallas.

5* Welcome The five-star InterContinental Dublin is delighted to welcome Russell Hadley to its team as Director of Operations. Russell has over 20 years of experience within the hospitality sector. Prior to joining the five-star team, Russell was General Manager of Ireland’s top tourist attraction, Guinness Storehouse, and has previously held senior positions within the luxurious Doyle Collection.

The Ivy grows on you The Ivy Dawson Street, the first international brasserie from The Ivy Collection, has opened its doors in the heart of Dublin’s city centre. The restaurant and bar accommodates up to 200 guests and features breakfast, weekend brunch, lunch, afternoon tea, light snacks and dinner.

London calling Dalata Hotel Group has exchanged contracts to acquire the long leasehold interest of a hotel under development at Aldgate, London, for £91m (€10m).

The hotel will have 212 rooms, with a restaurant, bar and access to a fitness centre. It will be located adjacent to Aldgate East Underground Station and close to the new Liverpool Street and Whitechapel Crossrail stations, which are scheduled to open in December 2018.

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news

Top marks for Clonabreany House At a formal reception in Clonabreany House, the European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) awarded Clonabreany House, Crossakiel, Co Meath, the International Accreditation of EFQM: Committed to Excellence. Tony Lenehan, EFQM, presented the award to Mary O’Neil, General Manager of Clonabreany House.

Ryan makes waves The Ryan Tubridy Show joined forces with Fáilte Ireland, as part of its Embrace the Wild Atlantic Way of Life summer marketing campaign. Ryan broadcast live with RTE Radio 1 from the Village Green in Malin Town and in front of the main beach in Bundoran, as part of Tubs on the Wild Atlantic Way.

The world is a stage

Ireland’s food story

An article highlighting the Abbey Theatre and Dublin appeared in a recent edition of Traveller in Australia, profiling the theatre and the city to around 409,500 readers, or potential Australian holidaymakers for Dublin and Ireland.

Pictured during filming at Ballyknocken Cookery School were Antoinette Reilly, Fáilte Ireland, Irish celebrity chef Catherine Fulvio, and award-winning producer Lisa-Renee Ramirez, Entertainment Studios USA. Ireland’s food story will be beamed into 25m homes throughout the US in two TV programmes: A Taste of Ireland (Recipe TV) and Discovering Ireland’s Ancient East (My Destination TV).

Cycle of life Pictured is Eoin O’Flynn, marketing manager, Flogas Ireland, with brand ambassador, world champion Louth cyclist Eve McCrystal.

Flogas is extending its brand ambassador agreement with Eve for a further 12 months.

€3m goes into Sligo property Sligo Park Hotel is investing more than €3m in a comprehensive redesign and refurbishment. Much of the work has already been completed with the hotel, which is located on the entrance to Sligo town. The owners of the four-star hotel have already invested €2.25m refurbishing the entire ground floor of the hotel, including the lobby, Jack B’s Bar, the Hazelwood restaurant and the Hazelwood and Mespil conference suites. As part of a three-year strategy, a total of 90 bedrooms have also been refurbished.

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news

Ways and beans

More room in Maldron

Java Republic has partnered with Ballyseedy Home & Garden Centre, which is located in Co. Kerry. Grace O’Shaughnessy, Managing Director of Java Republic, said “Ballyseedy pride themselves on producing quality food from local sources, similar to our own commitment to ethical sourcing, and providing aid to the farmers that produce our coffee beans.”

Dalata Hotel Group has announced a multi-million euro investment throughout its Maldron Hotels in Ireland. The upgrade includes the completed extensions of two existing hotels, and the opening of two new hotels in Dublin and Cork. In addition to 418 new hotel rooms across four of its properties, Maldron Hotels has upgraded many service offerings throughout its network including Grain and Grill Restaurant and own brand Red Bean Roastery.

Boffins descend on Shannon Fáilte Ireland and the Shannon Region Conference and Sports Bureau have recruited academics to help bring more international conferences to the Limerick and Shannon region.

Experts in the fields of sports, science, engineering and medicine, met in Limerick’s Medieval Quarter to discuss how they can help bring more major international events and conferences to Ireland, through Fáilte Ireland’s Conference Ambassador Programme.

To find out more, visit: https://www.meetinireland. com/conferences/ambassador-programme

First class at Farnham New Manager at the Radisson Dublin Clodagh Pryce, Agata Zawrotniak & Sheila Crowe from Farnham Estate Spa and Golf Resort receiving their awards at The 2018 World Luxury Spa Awards.

Hannah Cunningham has been appointed as the new Sales & Marketing Manager at the Radisson Blu Royal Hotel, Dublin City. Hannah joined the Radisson Blu Royal Hotel, Dublin in July 2016 as Sales & Marketing Executive, while completing an honors degree in Business Studies in Marketing at Griffith College, Dublin. Hannah’s role as Sales & Marketing Executive was varied as she gained valuable experience in the areas of lead generation, marketing and PR. She was key to securing some of the hotel’s most high profile events and has built fantastic relationships with both clients and colleagues, to achieve revenue targets and increase brand awareness. In her new role, one of Hannah’s key objectives is to focus on new business opportunities and account management. Prior to her time at the Radisson Blu Royal Hotel Dublin, Hannah worked as a Sales Advisor in a number of Dublin’s luxury retailers while studying full-time. In May 2017, Hannah was awarded Host of the Month at the Radisson Blu Royal Hotel, Dublin. Hannah is looking forward to applying her knowledge and skill base to her new position.

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appointments

Ellen pops a Cork over promotion Clayton Hotel Cork City has promoted Ellen Cahalane to the role of Corporate Business Development Executive. Ellen, a Kerry native, completed her BBS in Hospitality Management at Cork Institute of Technology and gained hospitality experience working for Hilton in the UK, Parknasilla Resort and Spa and as Sales Executive in the Cork Airport Hotel. In January 2017, Ellen joined the team at the Clayton Hotel Cork City.

Selling the joys of Radisson Blu Niamh Kenny has been appointed as Corporate Sales Manager of Radisson Blu Hotel Athlone. Niamh joins the team from Eventhaus, a Dublin based event management firm, where she held the role of Event Sales Executive and Show Manager for the last three years.

Ballygarry gets down to business The family-owned, four star, Ballygarry House Hotel and Spa has announced two senior appointments: Tadhg McGillicuddy has been appointed Deputy General Manager, and Elaine Courtney is Sales and Marketing Manager.

Tadhg has been with Ballygarry since 2013 as Assistant Manager and Food & Beverage Manager.

He gained experience in Dublin’s 5 star Merrion Hotel, in the 5 star Chateau de Brindos in Biarritz, and in the 4 star Killarney Plaza Hotel.

Prior to joining Ballygarry, Elaine worked in Sales and Marketing positions in the 4 star Great Southern Hotel, Killarney, The Clayton and Glenlo Abbey Hotel, Galway, and the University of Limerick Conference and Sports Campus as Business Development Manager.

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Wexford man in operation at Conrad Dublin Conrad Dublin has expanded its management team with the appointment of Kevin Brennan as Director of Operations.

Kevin, who hails from Wexford town, held the same title at Hilton London Wembley and DoubleTree Burlington Rd.

New lodger at Ashford Castle Peter Fergus has been appointed Hotel Manager at the Lodge at Ashford Castle. His resume includes positions at the 4-star Lough Rynn Castle, L’Horizon Beach Hotel and Spa in Jersey, and the 5-star Lough Eske Castle in Donegal.

Let the light shine in Luna, on Dublin’s Drury Street, continues to evolve its signature take on New York style Italian dining with the appointment of Vish Sumputh as Head Chef.

Born and raised on the east coast of Mauritius, Vish was immersed in cooking from an early age and strongly influenced by family and in particular, his aunt. Prior to joining Luna Restaurant as Head Chef, Vish spent six years at the Michelin starred Chapter One, starting as chef de partie before moving up to a Sous Chef position. Vish has won a gold medal and a Young Chef Award at the World Association of Chefs’ Societies competition.

The only way is Galway Andrew Drysdale has taken the helm as General Manager at the award-winning five star g Hotel & Spa in Galway. A Shannon native, Andrew is no stranger to Galway, having completed his hotel training in GMIT and undertaking the roles of Operations Manager and most recently, General Manager at Radisson Blu Galway.

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Intercontinental Bedroom

Intercontinental

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Trinity City Hotel

Croke Park Business established in 1962

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Budget

Save the Nine?

- Frank Corr asks if Tourism VAT can survive For three years now the concessionary rate of VAT for tourism services has been under fire from the Department of Finance, and each time it has been given a reprieve on Budget Day. It is increasingly unlikely however that ‘9% VAT’ can emulate the Dubs and achieve ‘four in a row’.

The Department has certainly stepped up its campaign. In a pre-Budget report it calculates that the concession has cost the taxpayer €2.6bn since it was introduced in 2011, including €490m in tax foregone in 2017 alone. In the context of a burgeoning tourism industry and a profitable hotel sector, the Department claims that the concession is no longer needed.

The industry, naturally, does not agree. ITIC, the industry umbrella lobby body, argues that the 9% rate is in line with the EU average.

Belgium, the Netherlands and Portugal have a 6% rate, Germany is on 9% and France, Italy and Spain are on 10%. In that scenario the Irish rate does not seem to be excessively low.

The Department says that increasing the rate would not damage tourism or employment and the industry claims that it would.

Only on Budget Day will we know which argument Minister Paschal O’Donoghue accepts, but several Ministers have already dropped heavy hints that VAT on accommodation will rise to 13.5% while the 9% VAT will remain for other tourism services.

Tourism Minister Shane Ross however, has another ‘bright idea’. He claimed at a Tourism Ireland press briefing in August, that some hotels who are still experiencing financial difficulty, could retain the concessionary rate. When asked how this highly novel scheme might work, the Minister floundered, became somewhat rattled and failed to turn up at a subsequent ITIC photo-call.

With just weeks remaining to Budget Day, it will be very difficult for hoteliers to convince the Minister for Finance to once again ‘Save the Nine’. A succession of published accounts show that hotels are making substantial profits while surveys reveal record room rates in the cities and tourism ‘hot spots’. The IHF argues that all hotels are not profitable and that many still suffer from a debt overhang and a concentration of visitors in Dublin, Galway, Killarney and other popular visitor destinations. It may be of course that some of these ‘struggling hotels’ are not well managed and that others are the ‘zombie hotels’ which Peter Bacon (in an IHF-commissioned report) wanted to be taken out of the market in the post-crash period.

The case for restoring the 13.5% VAT rate to restaurants, attractions and other tourism services, is less clear. Certainly the rise in visitor numbers is creating more demand for restaurant meals and there seems to be no shortage of entrepreneurs entering the sector. It is unlikely that big operators like Press Up Group would plough millions into new food outlets unless they offered the prospect of a handsome return. Many restaurants of course are small family businesses and margins on food are nothing like those which can be achieved from letting hotel rooms. The sector is also quite pricecompetitive and the large number of outlets probably helps keep down prices to visitors who now view Ireland as better value for money than it was a decade ago. These factors, plus the undoubted lobbying skills of the Restaurants Association of Ireland, may stay the Ministerial hand on this occasion.

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While tax movements are likely to grab the Budget headlines, capital allocations are also vital to the tourism industry. ‘Sir Humphrey’ in the ‘Yes Minister’ series, observed that a Minister has just two jobsto increase the budget of the Department and to act as its public relations officer. Under those criteria, Minister Ross has not fared well.

The Tourism allocation to the Department stood at €153m in 2008, but had fallen dramatically to €128m by 2011. This spending cut was seen as prudent in the post-crash period, but there was a reasonable expectation that the allocation would be restored gradually once the economy recovered. This did not happen and Minister Ross was able to secure only €114m for tourism in 2018. ITIC has argued that at least another €50m is needed if the growth of tourism is to be sustained.

Tourism infrastructure needs to be modernised and new attractions created. A yawning gap exists in industry training and new marketing regions such as ‘Ireland’s Ancient East’ and ‘Ireland’s Hidden Heartlands’ require substantial funding. Marketing resources must also be increased if Ireland is to remain competitive in the international tourism marketplace.

Then there is Brexit.

Although the final outcome of the negotiations between the EU and the UK remain uncertain, a harder or a ‘no deal’ Brexit is increasingly likely. So too is a further decline in the value of sterling which will make holidays here by British visitors more expensive. The industry argues that concessionary VAT and other financial supports may be needed to enable Ireland to compete for visitors from Britain- which despite recent decline, remains our biggest tourism market.

A clear tourism plan on dealing with this scenario has yet to materialise, but whatever emerges will certainly cost a lot of money, and the industry will be looking to the Budget for an indication that these funds will be forthcoming.

The position of Tourism within the Government structure may also be an issue. Despite the economic importance of the sector which employs 237,000 people, generates €8.7bn in sales and pays €1.9bn to the Exchequer in taxes, it has never been given the status of a stand-alone Department. Instead it has been bundled with Transport, Arts and Sport and Trade in various departmental configurations. A stand-alone department, headed by a senior Minister would have more influence on Budget allocations- but this seems an unlikely occurrence.

An alternative (suggested by ITIC) might be the inclusion of Tourism in a big-budget Department such as Enterprise and Employment where its people could interact with other job-creation agencies such as Enterprise Ireland and the IDA. Such a Department would be more likely to be headed by a Ministerial heavy-hitter who could loosen Department of Finance purse-strings ‘in the national interest’.

In addition to the role of funding provider and departmental pro, the Minister for Tourism can also play an important role as an Ambassador for the industry at overseas travel fairs and trade missions. An ability to charm significant buyers and perform well on tv and radio is ideally part of the Ministerial CV. Nothing much can be done about this in the Budget, apart perhaps from a petty cash allocation for a Ministerial semester at Charm School.

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Industry

KITCHEN CULTURE Meet the chefs & teams of Ireland’s professional kitchens, with Chef Network The Chef Network community brings together chefs at all levels from all sectors across Ireland. In a Hotel & Restaurant Times regular column we will meet some of those members and hear from them what inspires and motivates them, their career challenges and opportunities, and how they believe we can improve the industry.

In this edition, we meet Darina Brennan, Group Executive Chef for Dalata Hotel Group & member of Chef Network’s Chef Advisory Council

Why did you become a Chef?

My grandmother was an amazing cook, she made these amazing meals for her 9 kids. She did slow cooked dishes and there was always dessert; I was fascinated at how she fed so many kids and did it so well. She bought everything daily in small batches, there was no fridge. So, I always kind of had an interest in it, but I was a bit afraid of it, I didn’t really consider it professionally.

After that I was at Fire in the Mansion House for five years, where I had a great time, I loved it. Then I joined Dalata as Head Chef in the Ballsbridge Hotel. At first, I found it strange to go from a restaurant to hotels, there’s so many different departments, everyone has their little bit to make it all work. But I have found that hotels are actually more flexible for work-life balance and time off – because it is a 24/7 operation, they need to have big teams, so they can be a bit more flexible.

I went to study tourism and languages in college, but I always knew that I wasn’t going to be a nine to five person in an office. I like buzzing around, doing something a bit different.

I really love my role with Dalata, I absolutely love it because it involves a bit of everything. I do lots of staff training, oversee the menus, meet and work with suppliers very closely, look for new suppliers. I try to work with smaller suppliers by linking them in with the distributors we work with, it can give them great spread and volume. And I get to do the new openings…. we’ve opened 2 new hotels already this year and have 4 more to go.

I worked in a restaurant on the floor while in college. I realised pretty quickly that I wasn’t great front-facing with customers. I was very nervous. I used to look in at the kitchen, I could see the buzz and was fascinated by it. Then one summer I was asked to step into the kitchen when they were down staff and that was it, I never left.

What was your path to where you are today?

What is the most important ingredient in your success to date?

Discipline, I’m very disciplined. I think you have to be a good listener too and very willing to learn. It is important to understand that with this

So, I spent a couple of years in the kitchen at Wolfman Jacks in Rathmines and then I went to Eddie Rockets when it first opened in Ireland; everything was made from scratch there at the time. But what I learned there was the management side of it, the systems. That is something that has really stood to me.

I moved on to Johnny Cooke’s, then Luigi Malone’s – and was involved with opening them in Temple Bar, Stillorgan, Cork.… that’s when I really got into the buzz of new openings, going from a building site to putting in a kitchen to an open restaurant or hotel. There is something about getting that very first day and week of service over, getting the systems in place, seeing the team work together for the first time.

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Darina’s team

Industry

career, yes there is a good bit of pressure, but there is absolutely nothing that beats the feeling after a busy service. There is just something about it. I find that buzz really addictive, I love it. A successful new opening is similar, there’s a huge feeling of satisfaction, but you can only do it with a good team behind you.

How important is the team you work with?

Our motto is ‘our people, our fairness, our values’, and we mean it, people come first. We know we have to invest in them, so we have a lot of development programmes and training. We have a Head Chef Development programme that we have just completed the first year of with IT Tralee – it covers communication, finance and people management.

The first 18 head chefs have all qualified through this - some of these chefs left school without their leaving cert and they were nervous about it, but they had the skills and they all worked hard.

It’s really important that we develop our people, it is key to any business by developing our chefs in this way and giving them the personal and professional skills, they need to progress we will have chefs ready to promote from within.

Have you seen a negative side to the industry?

I have thirty-nine head chefs working in the Dalata group and only two of them are female. It is definitely a male dominated world and I have come across people with the attitude ‘you are only a woman’. I would like to see more women in kitchens because I think it brings balance and a different atmosphere.

I did see aggression in the kitchen when I was coming up. I don’t see it now, and I have no doubt that things are a lot better. I can’t say I suffered from it personally. I think I’m a strong enough character to stand up for myself. And I kind of love a challenge – I was determined to learn more and learn quicker.

The motto inside my own head was always; ‘never let anything beat you, always keep going’.

How can we create a positive culture in their kitchen and in the industry as a whole?

It’s all about your people. If you have a happy team, you have a happy kitchen.

We do need to give more training and development – not just cookery, but mental health and well-being, personal development. The team’s input is so important - listen to your team, everyone should be involved in menus, in creativity and progression. Have meetings with your kitchen and get their input. Try to get the most out of people, bring out their positive points and strengths.

I don’t like the chefs to call me ‘Chef’. I say, ‘call me Darina, that’s my name’. I think this is one of the changes we can make to break down the old barriers.

There are hierarchies and structures in a kitchen as in any workplace, but we are all people, and all have equal value.

In terms of the industry, I believe the most positive thing every chef can do is join Chef Network and get involved. It is such a movement for positive change.

Be a voice and add your voice to it.

BEING A CHEF….

What I love most is… the variety, the people I have met over the years, the adrenaline of a great service. I just love everything about it, no two days are the same. Just getting the job done and the buzz of the kitchen, there is something very special and unique about it.

The biggest challenge is… as an industry, how we attract people into it. I think Chef Network will go a long way in helping this. Older chefs all need to give a little back to the industry, if we did that we would have a better more positive future.

I have learned…

To be better person, how to listen, how to bring people along and see them develop…that feeling is brilliant How to motivate, how to be good leader. I’ve learned you have to develop yourself in order to develop others. You have to be consciously developing your own personal skills to be better at what you do and better at bringing others along. Don’t be afraid to learn what your weaknesses are and tackle them.

Respecting each other is key. We’ve got to remember we are all human and we will make mistakes. Keep a nice calm kitchen. Give respect regardless of whether the other person is the kitchen porter or the head chef.

Creating a Better Industry

This Autumn Chef Network will host industry seminars and round tables on Future-Proofing our Industry, Creating a Charter for Better Kitchen Workplace and Kitchen Culture.

We want YOU to BE PART OF IT. Be the change you want to see in your industry.

Sign up Free at www.chefnetwork.ie

UPCOMING COURSES NATIONWIDE

Leading & Managing People (QQI Level 6) |Best Practice Visit to Copenhagen | Cost Management & Profit | Wild Food Forage & Workshop | Hands-On Sourdough Workshop | Fish & Seafood Masterclass

CHEF NETWORK SKILLNET

Subsidised Professional Development Training for Chefs Leadership | Business | Culinary

Be Part of the Network. Visit www.chefnetwork.ie to keep up to date on all upcoming events

Join CHEF NETWORK free today at www.chefnetwork.ie to connect, communicate and collaborate with your chef community H&RT AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2018

15

Bookassist

The Four Pillars of Digital Marketing Success

By Rumenigo Fernandes, Jason Kelly, Sara Santos García and Samantha Salazar

both potential customers and search engines. It’s important to keep both these audiences in mind as the ease with which they reach and navigate your site, combined with the frequency and length of their interactions, are what define an authoritative website.

First, it’s critical to have high-quality, accessible content and to provide a great user experience on your website. A good structural layout will help a user get to the end product with ease while high-quality content helps both people and bots recognize your website and its relevance.

We know that getting the basics right for search engine optimisation directly enhances your efforts in email marketing, social media and paid advertising by providing users from these channels with a better website experience. And we know that delving into the data from your paid advertising and email marketing campaigns will provide excellent insights into what content brings users to your website and the type of content users engage with on your website on your social media channels.

An effective and successful digital marketing strategy for your hotel is therefore built on four separate yet intrinsically-linked digital marketing pillars: search engine optimisation (SEO), paid advertising, social media and email marketing. Each one of these four pillars has an important part to play in the quest for direct business but the real magic happens when they all work together.

While OTAs continue to assist in generating overall hotel revenue, they are only a segment of the diverse digital ecosystem that customers now explore and engage with.

Establishing and strengthening all four digital marketing pillars gives hotel brands the opportunity to connect with customers at multiple stages of their online journey and reinforce the brand from the moment they research their destination to the time that they book their stay. Let’s look at each pillar in more detail.

Pillar One | Search Engine Optimisation

SEO is one of the main foundations for website success as it drives bookings at the lowest CPA1 (Cost Per Acquisition) and therefore helps maintain profitability.

Over time, we have seen how Google has made changes to the Search Engine Results Page (SERP) with the intent to monetise it as much as possible. Increased number of ads placed above organic search results, greater integration of Google Hotel Ads within the SERP, and demotion of organic search results show that pay per click (PPC) is their priority. However don’t think SEO is dead – it remains equally relevant, if not more so. A study conducted in 2018 found that 70% of link clicks from search still go to organic listings2 (see figure 1a).

Our own figures in Bookassist support this research finding. Based on data from our partner hotels, organic drives 38% of overall website traffic and accounts for approximately 45% of all bookings and revenue we handle for our clients (see figure 1b). SEO is most definitely alive and thriving.

Figure 1 (a) Data on SEO adapted from http://www.searchenginejournal.com/24-eye-popping-sestatistics/42665/ , (b) data from Bookassist partner hotels.

Getting SEO Right – The SEO Pyramid

For a hotel website to gain a high volume of SEO traffic, the site needs to be listed on page one of the search engine results page (SERP), as most users don’t look beyond first page results (especially on mobile). Unlike PPC where you can pay to be seen on page one, with SEO search engines will only list organic website links if the website is seen as an authoritative site. To be regarded as an authoritative site takes considerable time and effort.

Understanding the SEO Pyramid3 is the key to building an authoritative site (see figure 2). Good SEO begins with a website that is designed so that it can be easily read by 1 3

https://www.searchenginejournal.com/why-seo-is-important-for-business/248101/ https://seocustomer.com/how-to-use-the-seo-pyramid-strategy//

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Figure 2 The SEO Pyramid (adapted from https://seocustomer.com/how-to-use-the-seo-pyramid-strategy/) 2

https://neilpatel.com/blog/seo-dead

Bookassist Second, you need to focus on keyword research and on-page optimisation. Keywords for a hotel can be broken into two main categories: brand and non-brand terms. Non-brand terms can be further broken down into key hotel selling points such facilities, local attractions etc. These segmented terms should form the basis of page content that can be further optimised to ensure that your site ranks organically on search engines.

Third is link building, which involves getting a backlink from another relevant website with a key term or phrase related to your brand, e.g. “hotels near Dublin airport”. Every backlink you get is like a vote for your site on that specific term. The more backlinks you have, the more votes you have, the more recognition your site gets for that term. The more backlinks your site has, the higher a search engine will rank your site4.

Google does not rank every backlink in the same way. You will be penalised if you get a backlink from a site with low quality content, a site that is not relevant to your users, or for buying links. So build relevant links from high authority websites and target those that add value to your customers.

Fourth and finally, the use of social media builds social authority.

Social media does not directly impact your organic ranking on Google or other search engines but it does give a boost to your ranking5.

Follow the principles of the SEO Pyramid for a structured and long-term SEO strategy. With 70% of clicks still coming via organic channels, a focus on SEO will lower your direct CPA significantly. It’s a no-brainer for digital marketeers.

Pillar Two | Paid Advertising

It’s easy to be cynical about paid advertising on search engines, which today is almost like a visibility tax that you have no option but to pay. We’ve already seen how Google is monetising the SERP more and more, but the bottom line is that paid advertising still works. Aggregated data from Bookassist indicates that traffic from paid sources accounts for 35% of hotels’ website revenue. What’s more is that when used together with SEO, paid advertising can actually help SEO6.

Paid Advertising and SEO - The best of friends

There is a common misconception that paid advertising, particularly on brand search terms, can cannibalise organic traffic.

Bing published a study for the travel sector in 2015 on the value of running search ads on brand name terms7. The key findings from this study were: • An increase of 27% in overall clicks (paid and organic combined) when a brand ad was present.

• Competitors received almost 40% of clicks when no brand ad was present.

• Competitors received just 12% of clicks when a brand was present.

Clearly, you need to be present for brand paid advertising.

Paid advertising, particularly search campaigns, also works as an excellent keyword research tool for SEO. The data you receive from search campaigns is invaluable for your SEO strategy. We can get a very clear idea of what phrases people are using to search for hotels, the size of the market for particular niche search terms and more importantly, what search phrases are leading to conversions.

This data can then be used to optimise content on your website for terms with high conversion potential, i.e. focus your content on answering the questions people tend to be actually asking.

First things first. Where to start with Paid Advertising?

With an ever increasing number of paid channels, it may be difficult to know where to spend your digital marketing budget. At its most basic level, paid advertising should be used to convert users who have shown strong intent to book a room at your hotel; for example

they have searched for your hotel’s name on Google or viewed your listing on Trivago or TripAdvisor. This is where you need to start – your brand name.

Running paid campaigns on your brand name should be the cornerstone of your paid advertising strategy. OTAs, used correctly, can be used to create awareness but if you do not have a presence in the final stages of the customer’s journey, you will lose out on direct bookings, no question.

Expanding your reach. Creating awareness of your brand and acquiring new users Paid channels should not merely be considered as a tool for converting people who have already made their decision about where they want to stay. Campaigns on search engines and metasearch platforms allow hotels to be present in any and all stages of the customer journey and can help reduce hotels’ dependence on OTAs over time for creating awareness.

The amount of money you invest in each stage of the customer journey is dependent on your goals and the extent to which you have mastered the basic essential elements of a direct booking strategy - an attractive, responsive and fast website, optimisation for desktop and mobile, pricing and channel distribution. There’s little point in investing in brand awareness through display campaigns for example if you have severe rate parity issues.

But if you have mastered these essential steps, paid advertising, particularly at the stage where there is commercial intent, can bring a new audience to your website that may have only discovered you on an OTA website.

Pillar Three | Social Media

About 30% of all time spent on the internet is spent on social media, an average of 2 hours each day per person8. As of July 2017, Facebook was the most popular social networking site with an impressive 2 billion active daily users9. The potential to tap into this number of active online customers and to seed influence cannot be ignored, and social media channels should be a key pillar of any hotelier’s marketing strategy.

The use of social media by your business builds social authority. It does not directly impact your organic ranking on Google or other search engines but it does give a boost to your ranking. As mentioned above, a recent independent study suggests that paid or organic social media promotions gives a slight boost to your SEO5.

Social media can be a powerful channel for hoteliers if utilised correctly. It should work alongside your SEO and paid advertising strategies in order to create awareness, increase interactions with your brand, engage, delight, and therefore help increase bookings for your hotel. Hoteliers need to understand that using social media in conjunction with all of your other online strategies in a coordinated fashion is what makes it so powerful10.

Social media works best in an “assistive” capacity, a perfect tool for the upper level beginning of the sales funnel. But it can also provide prospective customers with insights about where to stay and gives hotels a great opportunity to put their best foot forward in terms of their public image online. It is also about you being present during the buyer’s journey to purchase, reinforcing their decisions, influencing the user throughout the different touchpoints and ensuring their experience with your brand throughout the buyer decision journey is as easy and simple as it can possibly be.

Paid Social Advertising

Organic social media is a cost-effective and long-term solution for you business. But don’t forget that paid social media advertising can additionally offer immediate results that are worth paying for. Facebook has ramped up their advertising capabilities in recent years and features very strong segmentation that can suit the hospitality business very well.

Facebook-owned Instagram also has progressed its advertising platform and can also be quite effective depending on the message you are seeking to push. Creating a strategy for organic and paid social media marketing is something that every hotelier should explore11.

Why include Social Media as part of your Digital Strategy?

Social media is (of course) highly personal. It helps you communicate who YOU are through your photos, videos and direct customer engagement. It

5 https://searchengineland.com/how-to-use-the-marketing-funnel-for-seo-inbound-marketing-173663 https://blog.hootsuite.com/social-media-seo-experiment/ 7 on search engines and on metasearch platforms https://www.slideshare.net/bingads/brand-term-bidding-an-offensive-defensive-strategy-travel-edition 8 https://www.socialmediatoday.com/marketing/how-much-time-do-people-spend-social-media-infographic 9 https://techcrunch.com/2017/06/27/facebook-2-billion-users/ 10 https://www.e-marketingassociates.com/blog/everything-you-need-to-know-about-why-social-media-is-important-for-hotels-pt2 11 https://medium.com/@the_manifest/how-to-create-strategies-for-organic-vs-paid-social-media-marketing-ce4e754606f7 4 6

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Bookassist helps to create realistic expectations of what to expect when a guest stays at your hotel and can therefore be used to reduce negative feedback due to false expectations. Most importantly, it builds relationships and connects with your audience and gives your business a personal identity and voice. Having a dedicated Social Media team will also ensure a strong framework for your overall online reputation management.

You may not see the real impact that social media is having in your business at first, but over time, and with a commitment to creating regular content, responding to customer queries, and engaging with your target audience, there can be great implicit and explicit returns. “Be sure to dig deeper into Google Analytics to see how social media is playing an assisted role in your online conversions12.”

Figure 3 How different marketing channels affect customer purchase decisions according to Google (adapted from http://fredericgonzalo.com/ en/2013/05/27/the-customer-journey-to-online-travel-purchase/ )

Pillar Four | Email

In 2017, there were 3.7 billion recorded global email users. This number is predicted to grow to up to 4.1 billion users by 202113.

It’s been 40 years since Ray Tomlinson sent the first email and it continues to be one of the most effective digital media channels, surpassing social media marketing according to research conducted by SmartInsights14.

While customers may be more proactive on search engines or social media, they are more likely to be reached and willing to interact with a brand through email. This is why email is still the preferred method of communication between brands and their audience, and a key pillar of digital strategy. It simply engages recipients in a way that other platforms cannot. Customers are able to read messages in their own time and respond at their convenience. It keeps better record of conversations and access to email content is not restricted to a particular device or region.

It can also be easily forwarded and used to reach groups of people simultaneously.

Email also continues to have a wider reach than social media.

Only two percent of people may see a post on their social media feed, but ninety percent of emails reach their intended inbox15.

And in a post GDPR setting, where many marketers have seen their email lists significantly reduced, it is important to remember that customers voluntarily sign up to a brand’s email list, allowing email marketing to reach those who have already expressed brand consideration and purchase intent.

With an average return on investment (ROI) of $38 for every $116 spent, email maintains its relevance as an accessible and affordable digital marketing channel and lead nurturing tool.

Make Your Emails Matter

Post GDPR it’s critical to consider the type of email communication that can make the most impact. Transactional emails or emails that are a result of an action on the customer’s part such as downloading a brochure, completing a booking, or filling a form, have become significantly more important17.

Not only do they give you a valid (and GDPR compliant) reason to reach out to your customer, they also prompt you to communicate with your customer just as they’ve recently interacted with your business, while your hotel brand is still fresh in their minds.

Why Make Email Part of Your Marketing Mix?

First, email tells you a lot about your target market. The way that your recipient list responds to your business gives you indispensable market data. Email allows you to gauge user interaction and segment this data to create detailed buyer personas18. These personas can, in turn, be used to flesh out the rest of your marketing mix, e.g. to optimise PPC campaigns, to generate social media material and website content, resulting in higher quality leads.

Second, email works well with mobile - Mobile internet traffic is continuously poised to overtake desktop and, as of April 2018, already accounts for 51.2% of webpage views worldwide19. Emails can be easily adapted for multiple mobile devices thanks to its minimal formatting options. This makes it easier for you to reach your target audience on their preferred device.

Third, email is easily personalised. Because email can provide you with a lot of information about your target market, it also makes it easy to create a personalised experience for them. Automated behavioural trigger emails can be used to keep your readers engaged with your business20 while landing pages on your website customised according to your buyer personas can more successfully prompt users in your email lists to engage with specific aspects of your brand. These activities help strengthen your site’s online presence through customer engagement and retention, resulting in a more authoritative website.

The Bottom Line

No area in digital marketing operates in a vacuum. Paid advertising and organic traffic will bring new users to your website but social media and email marketing will allow you to develop relationships with these new users and create a genuine conversation. The performance of your business online is dependent on the strength of each of these digital marketing pillars. Strengthening one of these areas will help strengthen the others but strengthening them all so that they work in unison is where the magic really happens.

Rumenigo Fernandes, Jason Kelly, Sara Santos García and Samantha Salazar are specialists in the Digital Marketing team at Bookassist (www. bookassist.com), the multi-award-winning technology and digital strategy partner for hotels worldwide.

Bookassist is The Direct Booking Expert™ and is a Google Premium Partner.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/255080/number-of-e-mail-users-worldwide/ 14 https://www.smartinsights.com/email-marketing/state-email-marketing-infographic/ https://www.campaignmonitor.com/blog/email-marketing/2016/01/70-email-marketing-stats-you-need-to-know/ 16 https://www.salesforce.com/products/marketing-cloud/best-practices/ecommerce-marketing/ 17 https://marketing.toolbox.com/blogs/peterkowalke/5-ways-gdpr-changes-marketing-071318 18 https://sleeknote.com/blog/buyer-personas 19 https://www.statista.com/statistics/306528/share-of-mobile-internet-traffic-in-global-regions/ 20 https://www.smartinsights.com/email-marketing/behavioural-email-marketing/triggered-email-campaigns-infographic/ 13 15

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INFO@DALCASSIANWINES.COM WWW.DALCASSIANWINES.COM TEL: +353 (0) 1 2937977 H&RT AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2018

19

fáilte interview

Fáilte Ireland’s new Senior Management Development Programme International tourism is undergoing a transformation in how it is developed, marketed and managed – driven by rapidly changing visitor expectations. Forward facing business tourism organisations require their management teams to possess real leadership qualities and have a greater in-depth understanding in key areas of their business - including Strategy, Leadership, Sales & Marketing & Finance to take their business to the next level.

Fáilte Ireland’s Hospitality and Tourism – Strategic Management Programme is designed to allow tourism managers adjust their business strategy to meet their future needs, tailor the experiences they offer to match prevailing customer trends and focus their marketing activity to create a competitive advantage for their tourism business.

The success of any development programme can be measured by the opportunities it provides to those who undertake them. Since this programme started last January, many of the 2018 graduates have already progressed their business performance and also their own careers.

Watch testimonials from 2018 Hospitality & Tourism Programme graduates here.

This Strategic Management Programme provides ambitious managers with these essential skill sets to take the next step forward for their business but also their own professional development.

Hospitality and Tourism Strategic Management Programme

Who should apply?

This programme is designed for owners, General Managers and Senior Departmental Managers across the hospitality and tourism sector and in particular those in Hotels, Visitor Attractions & Activities, Restaurants etc. www.failteirel and.

ie

Those who are interested in completing the programme are required to firstly complete Fáilte Ireland’s Programme Suitability Barometer to assist Fáilte Ireland & the IMI Programme Team to help determine if this high level programme is suitable for their needs.

Fee

The cost of the Strategic Management Programme is subsidised by Fáilte Ireland. Normally a course of this nature with the IMI would cost €5,500 but with the Fáilte Ireland subvention, the net cost for applicants is €3,000.

Location

Irish Management Institute, Sandyford, Dublin.

Seeking more information?

For further information on the Programme, please contact: Michael Brady, Enterprise & Hospitality Development Officer with Fáilte Ireland at michael.brady@failteireland.ie For industry to register their interest, please go to Fáilte Ireland’s Trade Portal here.

Module

Date Duration

Programme Launch & Introduction to Business Diagnostic Framework

4th December 2018

Strategy & Business Planning

8th & 9th January 2019

1.5 days

Financial Management

5th & 6th February 2019

1.5 days

Leadership & Managing Change

26th – 27th February 2019

1.5 days

Sales & Marketing

25th & 26th March 2019

1.5 days

Project Implementation & Applications of Learning

30th April 2019

1 day

Capstone Module

29th May 2019

1 day

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www.imi.ie

1 day

fáilte interview John O’Neill

GM & Owner of The Hamlet Court Hotel, Co. Meath

What prompted you to enrol onto the Hospitality & Tourism Strategic Management Programme?

I have always had a positive experience from completing previous development programmes with Fáilte Ireland, such as the Cornell University programme. But after the recession I felt I was stale and I needed something to motivate and re-invent myself so that I could get back to what we would consider ourselves here at The Hamlet Court as ‘leading as opposed to following’ the crowd.

After seeing a circular from Fáilte Ireland and speaking with Stephen McNally from Dalata Hotels Group, who strongly supported the Programme, I felt that if it was good enough for Dalata – then its good enough for John O’Neill!

What Aspects of the Programme did you find most engaging & relevant?

The Finance Module was very good and informative.

One aspect of that module was that we got the new terminology or vocabulary that the financial institutions are now seeking– which they were not seeking 10 years ago. The Sales & Marketing module was superb and you got very tangible benefits from it, which I could bring home and implement straight away in the business. Anything we got from that module we have used it and got fabulous results from it – for instance if you take our Room Revenue & Occupancy Levels, they have increased significantly and our occupancy level have gone through the roof. The Leadership module was super – I used the techniques I got from the Psychometric Testing on the management team here in The Hamlet. The results I got was really enlightening when we put it down on paper as this enabled me to tailor projects to particular people on the management team and hence we were more effective as a team.

What did you do your Course Project on?

We felt we were at a crossroads here in the hotel. Either we stayed the way we were (and go backwards) or we look at ourselves and see where we want to go.

The Business Diagnostic Tool really highlighted our Strengths and Weaknesses and we have used this tool to develop a plan for the hotel for the next 5 years.

What has this Programme done for your own personal development?

It certainly has given me my confidence back. That was probably the biggest goal for me – particularly after coming out of the recession and with tourist numbers coming into the country on the rise, I’m now motivated to work more ‘on the business’ as opposed to ‘in the business’ to ensure that the Hamlet gets it fair share of the growth in visitor numbers.

Having done the Programme would you recommend it to your peers?

Definitely – no matter who you are, or what company you are in, if it does nothing else it gets your brain thinking in a different way. The programmes gives you a great resource for planning your business into the future.

Stefan Ludstorm

GM of The Galmont Hotel, Galway

What prompted you to enrol onto the Hospitality & Tourism Strategic Management Programme?

I had already completed various Revenue and Sales Programmes but around Oct/Nov last year I was looking for an all-encompassing Leadership programme that was not particularly focused on any one specific area (such as Sales, Revenue Management or Finance) for Senior Managers in the hospitality business. I really wanted to complete a Leadership development programme, that would also give me benefits and new insights across all areas of the business and this Programme appeared to give me what I was looking for.

What Aspects of the Programme did you find most engaging & relevant?

The mentor visits was the most beneficial for me – we had our senior management team meet with the mentor where we discussed and strategised the outputs from the Business Diagnostic, which I thought was really really good. It was refreshing to have a fresh pair of eyes helping the entire management team to analysis and strategise the outputs from the Business Diagnostic Tool– what we are doing well, what we can improve on etc. For me personally I also enjoyed the Finance module in particular – but I found all the modules offered something that you can definitely take back to the business with you.

What did you do your Course Project on?

Because I moved hotels during the Programme I did not get to complete the Course Project in the same way as my peers. However if you were to ask if the Course Project was a beneficial aspect to the Programme - it comes back to the Business Diagnostic. I thought the Business Diagnostic was really really interesting as it made you look at the business from the outside in. I used it to question if I was doing things the right way, have I got the right level of business from the various segments. For example, I would have always thought our yield from the F&B side of the business was very good, but when I completed the Business Diagnostic I benchmarked our performance against the Crowe Howrath benchmark, I discovered that the revenue from our residents was below the benchmark average. So that told me that I need to drive this segment a little bit more.

What has this Programme done for your own personal development?

Two things really, from a personal development it was really good to get together and network with the other GM’s. It is very rare that you get 20 -25 GM’s in the same room on a regular basis – whether that is a chat over a coffee discussing each other’s different experiences and how we would have approached them differently was very good. In addition, getting to meet and network with industry leaders such as the Fáilte Ireland professionals and the Industry Experts who came in to speak to us was really good and these conversations helped me from a personal development point of view. Secondly, the Physcometric Profiling test we did to determine what type of Leader are you was very insightful. It confirmed some things about myself that I knew already but it also highlighted some things, that I may not 100% agree with but it is good to be conscious of them in the future.

Have you been able to bring the learnings you received on the Programme into the Galmont Hotel?

Not yet – we are in the high season here and our focus is mainly on operational issues.

My plans however is to apply the Business Diagnostic to the Galmont Hotel and we’ll see what that highlights for us.

Having done the Programme would you recommend it to your peers?

I would definitely recommend the programme. To go back on something I said earlier, if nothing else it was very rare that you get to meet between 20 -25 GM’s together in the one room once a month where you get to discuss and hear their experiences. So for that alone its worth doing the programme. Also the course will help you to strategically manage and drive your business. I think we are all very busy from an operational point of view trying to drive the full potential of our business and trying to get the maximum profit from the business that you can. But we don’t spend enough time thinking and developing long term plans for the business. I would have always planned for next year (i.e. a 1 year plan) but I would never have developed a plan as to where I will bring the business in 5 years time and how are we going to work to achieve this 5 year goal. The Hospitality & Tourism Strategic Management Programme certainly helps you do that.

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21

Bunzl Labels

The Date Code Genie Twelve months ago, Bunzl McLaughlin got behind an innovative product, new to the marketplace in Ireland, the Date Code Genie (DCG). A year on, it has become hugely popular in hotels and restaurants across the country, including being used in several high profile hotel groups within the country. The benefits of this machine include: legibility; no more deciphering poorly written labels. Consistency; every label prints to the same standard, use-by dates are uniform and can be pre-determined. Ease of use; training is provided on the day of the install, and no more handwritten labels means freeing up time to allow kitchen staff to do what they do best. Flexibility; new labels can be created for all food prep requirements, without any additional set up costs.

Fully customised solutions; every DCG is set to the specific requirements of each customer, ensuring it meets the exact

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needs of the business. Connected technology; the DCG can connect to WiFi, data is stored in the cloudand available to access from any computer via the Date Code Genie website (www.datecodegenie.com).The huge savings, in terms of time and money, and the ability to produce labels in a fraction of the time it takes to write them,has meant the DCG has proven itself to be an essential piece of equipment in a modern commercial kitchen.

We spoke to Steve Donnellan, Sales Manager for NCCO International, to describe the DCG in more detail. “The DCG has been on the market for around five years but itreally only launched in Ireland in the last 12 months.

The DCG came about because of the need for large hotel and restaurant kitchens to handwrite a lot of labels – and automating that task has a great number of benefits. It is unique because it has been developed specifically for that requirement and everything that goes on a label can be

Bunzl Labels

customised to the client’s requirementsincluding logos, font size, level of detail, retail pricing,etc. It can do both back-of-house labels for food prep and storage and front-of-house retail.”

There are no additional set up costswith the DCG so if the client wants to add another label, that can be done through their customised web portal on the Date Code Genie website. Its biggest asset is how the DCG can be set up specifically for their needs.

Steve continues, “It’s a thermal printer so it’s not going to run out of ink.If the label gets wet, it’s not going to run; it’s much more legible than most handwritten labels. It’s so simple to use; the software is held inan app that runs on atablet, so anyone that knows how to use a smartphone will know how to use the DCG. I took one into a customer on a trial basis. I trained the staff on the various aspects of day-to-day use but not on everything the machine can do. When I went back a few days later,they had discovered features of the machine themselves and got the most out of the machine. It’s incredibility user friendly and versatile.”

In a modern kitchen there are so many nationalities. So, is there a language issue with the DCG? “It has eight different languages built in:Spanish, Italian, French, Arabic, Chinese, Korean, German and English. You can choose to have different languages on a label and you can choose how much information to put on each label,” says Steve.

“We gather all the information and we set up everything for the client.

We put in all the information including the item name, category and expiry date. The client may want additional information e.g. batch number for protein products and allergen information.”

So, how would such a high-tech machine survive in a busy kitchen environment? “The machine is built with kitchen-grade stainless steel.

It’s very robust.The screen is encased in stainless steel and it’s very easy to operate. There are different models also; A single printer model, the DCG2.0,ideal for back-of-house, and dual printer model, the DCG X, thatcan hold two different size labels that print side by side, making it ideal for doing back-of-house and front-of-house labels.”

Steve continues, “The DCG connects to WiFi so the app updates are seamless and are included for the life of the machine. There’s no maintenance contract or additional costs to sign up to. It comes with a two-year warranty, with the additional benefit of after sales support, available for the life of the machine. If customers have major changes to their menu, they can send us the changes and we will upload them.

That service is included within the cost of the machine.”

The DCG keeps a log of every label printed,so from the app you can go into the print history and it will tell you what label was printed and when.You can then download the full print history. This means businesses have an automatic record of how their food was labelled.

The information on the DCG is stored in the cloud and can be accessed from any smartphone or computer.

According to Steve,the DCG is selling for between 1,500 and 1,900EU in Ireland, at the moment. He says, “Cost wise, the labels compare with other labels customers are using. However, the biggest saving shows in terms of time. We estimate handwriting 200labels a day takes approximately 80 minutes. The DCG produces the same number of labels in less than 5 minutes. When you add that time up over the course of a year, the DCG would pay for itself in a matter of months.”

“Bunzl McLaughlin hasreally taken the product to market in Ireland and it has been a huge success in hotels,hospitals and restaurants. It has been on the market much longer in the UK and hasbeen sold widely across all areas of foodservice.In Ireland, we’re just beginning and we’re confident it will continue to grow its appeal,” says Steve.

Contact Bunzl McLaughlin for more details on the Date Code Genie.

www.bunzlmclaughlin.com

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tourism ireland

Mid-year review of overseas tourism Official CSO figures for the first half of 2018 confirm growth of +6.7% in overseas visitors to Ireland – 307,000 more arrivals than the record first half of 2017. At the recent mid-year review of overseas tourism, Tourism Minister Shane Ross and Tourism Ireland CEO Niall Gibbons confirmed that this growth has come from all of our main market areas around the world (Britain, North America, Mainland Europe, Australia and Emerging Markets).

Minister Ross and Niall Gibbons outlined what has contributed to the tourism growth so far this year. They also discussed the challenges for Irish tourism to sustain growth into 2019 and beyond. As well as Brexit, these include external factors like oil price rises, changes in the fortunes of key markets like the US, international trade barriers and air travel disruption. Other challenges include capacity constraints in Dublin and tourism ‘hotspots’.

Niall Gibbons, CEO of Tourism Ireland; Tourism Minister Shane Ross; and Joan O’Shaughnessy, Chairman of Tourism Ireland, at the mid-year review of overseas tourism.

Autumn promotion with The Daily Telegraph targets 1.4 million British holidaymakers Tourism Ireland’s partnership with The Daily Telegraph continues this autumn – with a series of articles all about Ireland running in the Saturday travel section of the newspaper, which is read by around 1.4 million people across Britain. The campaign also includes a series of ads in the paper; and a specially-created ‘Indulge in Ireland’ hub on The Daily Telegraph website, with around 40 different articles, which are being promoted via online advertising.

The campaign also includes a number of new online videos, filmed around Ireland in August, which will go live in September and will be hosted on Angela Scanlon (right) and her father Phelim with Claire Brosnan, Tourism Ireland (left), during the Telegraph website. They will be promoted via online advertising as well as on the social platforms of both The Daily Telegraph and Tourism filming for a new driving video at Hook Head, Co Wexford.

Ireland, including Facebook and Twitter, and will be seen by around 123,000 viewers. The films will include a series of four videos all about driving holidays around the island of Ireland, fronted by TV presenter Angela Scanlon.

Filming – with Angela and her dad Phelim – took place along the Wild Atlantic Way, in Northern Ireland and Ireland’s Ancient East.

Chef and TV personality Dan Doherty filmed a separate series of videos about our superb food experience. Locations set to feature in the films include Sawers in Belfast, the King Sitric restaurant in Howth and Gallagher’s Boxty House in Temple Bar.

Paul McGinley and Nick Dougherty lend a hand to promote golf in Ireland Tourism Ireland in Britain has teamed up with Sky Sports Golf in its latest campaign to promote our world-class golf. The month-long promotion has been designed to inspire British golfers to come and visit Ireland and to celebrate the fact that The Open will take place at Royal Portrush in 2019. A series of five different videos – filmed here this summer – are being hosted on SkySports.com and articles about our great golf also feature on the website. The videos are being promoted on the social platforms of both Sky Sports and Tourism Ireland, including Facebook and Twitter, and will be seen by an estimated 4 million people across Britain.

Sky Sports Golf pundits Paul McGinley and Nick Dougherty star in three of the videos. Our own Ryder Cup hero Paul takes an in-depth look at some of his favourite golf clubs in the North West – including Ballyliffin, Portsalon and Rosapenna. Golf fans will see him describe the courses, as well as the local area, highlighting just what makes them, and this part of Ireland, so special. Nick talks about two of his favourite courses in Northern Ireland, Royal County Down and Royal Portrush. The final two videos feature interviews with players and fans at this year’s Irish Open in Ballyliffin.

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Darren Quinton, Tourism Ireland (left), and Sky Sports Golf pundit Nick Dougherty, during filming for a new online video to promote our world-class golf.

tourism ireland

Targeting the Diaspora in Milwaukee The 38th annual Milwaukee Irish Fest – the largest celebration of Irish culture and heritage in the United States – took place recently in Wisconsin. With a huge audience of around 150,000 visitors, the four-day festival was an ideal opportunity for Tourism Ireland to showcase Ireland as a superb holiday destination. Pat Breen, Minister of State for Trade, Employment, Business, EU Digital Single Market and Data Protection, attended the festival, where he met with the Tourism Ireland team and the delegation of Irish tourism enterprises attending this year’s festival.

Pictured are (l-r) Brian O’Brien, Consul General of Ireland to Chicago and the Midwest USA; Ciara Brady, TradFest; Martin Harte, CEO of TradFest; Noel Dempsey, chairman of TradFest; Minister Pat Breen; Ruth Moran and Billy Condon, both Tourism Ireland; and Mharianna O’Shea, TradFest, at the annual Milwaukee Irish Fest.

Chinese travel agents learn all about Ireland Forty Chinese travel professionals heard all about Ireland, at a recent training seminar in the city of Nanjing, the capital of Jiangsu Province in east China – organised by Tourism Ireland in conjunction with Finnair. The travel agents sell holidays to Europe, including Britain and Ireland, using Finnair flights. Finnair offers good connections to Ireland – including a year-round service from Nanjing. Travel agents continue to play an important role in China, with Chinese travellers preferring to use a travel agent for a number of reasons, including convenience, language barriers, visa preparation and knowledge gaps. Pictured are James Kenny, Tourism Ireland (back, centre); Ms Cai Yi (front, fourth right) and Ms Huang Yi (front centre), both Finnair; and the travel agents in Nanjing who took part in the training seminar.

Bayeux Tapestry officials check out Game of Thrones tapestry in the Ulster Museum Officials from the Museums of Bayeux in Normandy – famous for the spectacular Bayeux Tapestry which depicts the Norman conquest of England – visited Belfast recently. They spent time in the Ulster Museum, viewing the exhibits and collections. They were particularly interested in the Game of Thrones tapestry – which was, of course, inspired by the iconic Bayeux masterpiece. Tourism Ireland created the 80-metre long Game of Thrones tapestry, which has been on display in the Ulster Museum since last summer – and has become a new tourist attraction and a wonderful celebration of Northern Ireland’s links to the most popular TV show of all time. It has been seen by around 130,000 visitors so far. Created using linen from Thomas Ferguson’s in Banbridge, the Game of Thrones tapestry depicts some of the most memorable and iconic scenes from every episode of the series to date. Pictured are (l-r) Valerie Wilson and Laura McCorry, both Ulster Museum; Fanny Garbe and Antoine Verney, both Museums of Bayeux; Finola O’Mahony, Tourism Ireland; Kathryn Thomson, Ulster Museum; and Monica MacLaverty, Tourism Ireland; at the Game of Thrones tapestry in the Ulster Museum.

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Budget 2019

August 2018

ITIC

9 reasons why 9% matters

The Irish Tourism Industry Confederation (ITIC) represents the leading tourism interests throughout the country. Tourism is at a key juncture with potential future growth in jobs and regional development predicated on appropriate Government policies. In that context, decisions taken in Budget 2019 will be vital and in particular the need to retain the current 9% tourism VAT rate. ITIC has developed an industry strategy which identifies growth opportunities for the sector into the future. A key enabling factor is the maintenance of the pro-enterprise, pro-competitiveness 9% tourism VAT rate and here are 9 reasons to retain the 9%:

Employment

Regionality

Competitiveness

Growth

The introduction of the 9% VAT rate in 2011 has, according to the Central Statistics Office & Fáilte Ireland, helped the tourism sector create an additional 79,100 jobs nationwide as a result of the increase in international visitors to Ireland. The tourism economy has improved significantly with the support of successful Government policies such as the tourism VAT rate.

Tourism supports jobs nationwide - it is the only industry that can provide jobs in all parts of the country. 68% of the jobs created by the tourism industry nationwide since 2011, have been outside Dublin.

Tourism is vital for regional balance and growth, and the VAT rate is a critical component of regional success.

The tourism VAT rate is rightsized for Ireland; 16 out of 19 eurozone countries have tourism VAT rates of 10% or less, therefore Ireland is competitive.

Any change to Ireland’s tourism VAT rate would consciously damage our competitiveness at a critical time with the sector seriously exposed to Brexit.

Tourism is an export industry, bringing in much needed overseas earnings from international visitors to our shores. ITIC’s Tourism: An Industry Strategy for Growth to 2025 makes the case that overseas earnings from tourism can increase by as much as 65% by 2025 but only if the right policies are pursued. One of those key enabling policies is the 9% tourism VAT rate.

Exchequer Revenue

Cost of Business

Brexit

Value for Money

The 9% tourism VAT rate has been unambiguously positive for the Irish exchequer. In the first full year of the 9% rate (2012) VAT income to the exchequer was €630 million. In 2018 the Revenue Commissioners own figures anticipate that this will have grown to a remarkable €1.04 billion. There is a strong net income to the exchequer from the 9% VAT rate – increasing the rate runs the real risk of dampening demand.”

The National Competitiveness Council latest report has confirmed that Ireland is an expensive location to run a business with regards to labour, property, energy, water, waste, communications and business services. From a tourism perspective, and what is a largely open-sector, retaining competitiveness is key to continued growth. In that regard, the tourism VAT rate must be retained.

Irish tourism is uniquely exposed to Brexit with 39% of all international visitors coming from Britain. It is estimated that a hard Brexit will cost Irish tourism €260 million in its immediate aftermath with an impact on aviation, tourism demand, and cross border movements. Such a period of uncertainty demands stability and competitiveness and the retention of the tourism VAT rate is critical.

Since the introduction of the tourism VAT rate in 2011 there has been considerable improvements in Ireland’s Value for Money (VFM) rating as measured by Fáilte Ireland.

This rating though is under pressure and it is vital that the industry remains competitive.

Any change in the VAT rate at this time would add cost to the system and weaken Ireland’s value rating.

Certainty Room rates particular in Dublin have risen in recent times from an artificially low base during the economic crash.

This is a result of growing demand far outstripping static supply. Thankfully, according to CBRE, over 6,000 new hotel bedrooms will be constructed in the next few years with new hotels and extensions. This will moderate price increases and ensure consumer value remains. However development decisions can’t be taken for granted and the 9% VAT rate is a key factor in investment decisions. Let’s not jeopardise new developments.

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“The majority of the 79,100 jobs created by the tourism industry nationwide since 2011 have been outside Dublin and in the regions”.

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27

Staff Shortage

Apprenticeships The Smart Solution to Staff Shortage

By Sarah Gallagher

2018 has been a challenging year for the hospitality sector. The Beast from the East, followed by a scorching summer, have had a negative impact on an already challenged industry. However, one of the most industry’s most serious challenges remains the area of staff shortages.

This isn’t a new phenomenon by any means, with industry heads regularly highlighting the issue. The tourism industry in Ireland is thriving, with visitor numbers increasing steadily over recent years; Failte Ireland estimates that total employment in the tourism and hospitality industry stands at approximately 240,000. This, coupled with new hotel and restaurant openings – around 70 new hotels are set to open in Dublin alone over the coming 12 months – means that there will be even further demand for quality trained staff. Given that the staff shortage situation is reaching crisis levels as it stands, where will the staff come from?

In the President’s August Report for the Restaurants Association of Ireland (RAI), restauranteur Liam Edwards discussed the ongoing staff crisis, saying: “While the weather is a relatively new factor in our business, the staff crises is one that has lingered around Irish shores for quite some time. For most of this year, it has been our toughest struggle and like many restaurants, we have struggled to find waiting staff.

We all know that without skilled staff there will be an adverse effect on turnover. We are striving to give the customer the best service possible but if we don’t have the staff that can upsell, the consumer spend will undoubtedly be down.” Edwards expressed the hope that the government would bring back Cert, and suggested that restaurants look at the variety of appropriate Skillnet courses available to RAI members.

And while Skillnet and other state sponsored initiatives, offer staff training opportunities, many in the industry are looking at the area of apprenticeships as a potential solution to the problem.

The Department of Education and Skills introduced an Action Plan to expand apprenticeship and traineeship in Ireland from 2016-2020, with the hospitality sector included as one of those being targeted by the plan. The plan aimed to see 50,000 people register on apprenticeship and training programmes, and highlighted that post-secondary education and training which includes work-based learning has been proven to deliver strong employment and growth outcomes. It also highlighted that surveys and data gathered by the Higher Education Authority (HEA) and SOLAA demonstrated the correlation between education / enterprise engagement and employment opportunities.

This was followed by the establishment of the Apprenticeship Council in 2014 by the Minister for Education and Skills. The Council, which includes representatives from business, trade unions, further education bodies and the Department of Education and Skills, is focused on the expansion of apprenticeships into new sectors of the economy, as well as identifying sectors where new apprenticeships can make a real difference to both employers and employees.

While this all sounds very positive, in reality what has actually been delivered to date four years after the Action Plan was launched? Despite hospitality being highlighted as a key area for apprenticeships, a glance at the apprenticeships currently being offered for the sector show that the options are limited. There is currently only one apprenticeship for a Commis Chef listed on the apprenticeship.ie website, with a further handful (Chef de Partie, Executive Chef and Sous Chef ) in development but not yet approved for the restaurant sector. And while it’s positive to see some apprenticeships in the pipeline, the small numbers suggest that there are too little to have any significant impact on the industry, in the short term at least.

Why is the hospitality sector struggling to find staff? Some argue that the problem is beginning much earlier in the process, at secondary school level. Are career guidance offers highlighting hospitality as an attractive, valid proposition? It’s no secret that a

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career in hospitality is seen as challenging, with long unsociable hours, and it may not be perceived as an attractive choice for career progression.

There are a wide range of choices for hospitality in the current education system, ranging from Further Education courses (Level 4-5), through to Level 6 and 7 courses with Further Education colleges and Institutes of Technology, as well as Level 8 Degree programmes in Hospitality Management. Many Irish students opt to study in culinary powerhouses such as France or Switzerland, seeking top quality training. However, despite the range of courses available, the current approach to education and training needs isn’t delivering the staff numbers required to meet the industry’s requirements.

Belfast restauranteur Niall McKenna is someone who has embraced the area of apprenticeships in his business.

McKenna, who is the chef and owner of the Belfast restaurants James Street South, Hadskis and Cast and Crew, introduced apprenticeship programmes during the recession, and currently manages two apprenticeship programmes for 16-23 year olds, training chefs and front-of-house staff in association with Belfast Met. McKenna was struggling to find quality trained staff, and introduced his apprenticeship programme to combat the issue.

“Training was pretty poor and the quality of chefs coming through were pretty poor. There’s a thread going through where they’ve lost their basic training. That’s why I’m so passionate about apprenticeships”, he explains.

He strongly believes that if you treat staff well, they are incredibly loyal. “I have staff that have stayed with me for a long time, five to six years, which is unheard of in the industry.

People are looking to build a quality of life, the days of 70 hour weeks have gone. We don’t bring our apprentices in and treat them as cheap labour; we want to bring them on.” McKenna admits to being a ‘classic’ chef earlier in his career, but now has realised that the most important thing in business is staff and looking after that. “Since I’ve started the apprenticeships, I’ve seen that even more. No way could I run my businesses without my apprentices – both at front and back of house.”

Being strict when running apprenticeships is important. “You have to be strict and clear about what the rules are. They have to take it seriously. And from day one, they have to understand that not everyone is going to get a job. Some might move to a similar industry, or look elsewhere”, outlines McKenna. Around 50% of the apprentices that partake go on to get jobs in his restaurants, and he helps those who don’t stay on to try to get another job. “We have open conversations with them, and we operate a very open policy. These are our babies, we have to look after them.”

McKenna’s apprenticeship programmes are based on one year, and he receives very little funding for it. The apprentices experience a combination of study at Belfast Met, and 3 shifts in the kitchen over a 35 hour week. He too feels that schools need to recognise that it’s a good industry for career opportunities.

“To me, that’s where you need to start looking at it”, he says.

“They need to recognise that it’s a great industry to be in, and it has to be an option for the kids. Do all kids want to go to university, or do they want to get out and start working straight away?”

The apprenticeship programmes have been a huge success, and with the opening of the refurbishment of McKenna’s combined James Street South restaurant and the Bar & Grill, will continue to provide a stream of well trained staff for the premises.

With the lack of apprenticeships coming through via the Apprenticeship Council, the success of McKenna’s programme certainly provides some positive food for thought for the hospitality sector.

“They need to recognise that it’s a great industry to be in”

Staff Shortage

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29

fáilte industry news

Molly Malone Talking Statue Launched The iconic Molly Malone statue on Dublin’s Suffolk Street became the latest addition to the Fáilte Ireland Talking Statues initiative. The words spoken by Molly Malone were written by US student, Michaela McMahon who won an open public competition to provide a monologue for the statue with her winning script subsequently narrated by actress and singer, Maria Doyle Kennedy.

This is the latest development of the Dublin’s Talking Statues project, an initiative of Fáilte Ireland, supported by Dublin City Council & in conjunction with Art producers Sing London, with the assistance of The Abbey Theatre, the OPW, The National Gallery, The GPO & Trinity College.

Michaela McMahon returned from America to attend the launch of the Molly Malone Talking Statue. Michaela is a student, who is currently studying for dual degrees in English Literature and Cultural and Historic Preservation, (with a minor in Creative Writing), and had just completed a semester at University College Cork as an exchange student when she won the competition.

Tourism Industry Joins Forces to promote Water Conservation The Irish tourism industry has come together to promote best practice in water conservation through a Fáilte Ireland led initiative.

Joining forces with Fáilte Ireland are the Irish Hotels Federation (IHF), the Restaurants Association of Ireland (RAI) and the Association of Visitor Experiences & Attractions (AVEA) who have all teamed to promote best practice in water conservation.

The organisations are working together to help reduce water wastage in the Irish tourism and hospitality sector with the publication of a Water Management Good Practice Guide for tourism businesses. Authored by greenhospitality.ie, the guide outlines steps that many tourism businesses are taking to conserve water and reduce usage. The guide is available to download from the publications page on: www.failteireland.ie

September Wild Atlantic Way Cycle Sportif Launched John Meyler, Cork Senior Hurling Manager and cycling enthusiast teamed up with Fáilte Ireland and Ride Wild to announce the September Wild Atlantic Way Cycle Sportif. Taking place between the 8th and 26th of September, the Sportif passes through some of the most spectacular coastline and seascapes spanning Co. Cork to Co. Donegal. The fully supported event is open to female and male leisure cyclists, amateurs and those who simply want to challenge themselves to an epic adventure, on one of the longest and most stunning touring routes in the world. Participants will enjoy an incredible journey combined with fantastic food experiences and the warmest welcomes the Wild Atlantic Way has to offer.

See www.wildatlanticwaycyclesportif.ie for 2018 registration information.

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fáilte industry news

New Interpretative Masterplan launched to enhance tourist experience at National Parks & Reserve Following the launch of ‘Experiencing the Wild Heart of Ireland, A Tourism Interpretative Masterplan for Ireland’s National Parks and Coole Garryland Nature Reserve’, visitors can look forward to an enhanced experience at Ireland’s National Parks and Reserves The interpretative masterplan is a product of Fáilte Ireland and the Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht’s strategic partnership and sets out a framework that will guide the phased development of enhanced visitor centre experiences and improved visitor facilities at Ireland’s National Parks and Reserves, based on research into international best practice. The work will be joint-funded by the Department of Culture and Fáilte Ireland through a multi-million Euro investment package over the coming years.

First Graduates Conferred in Strategic Management Training Programme for Tourism Senior tourism business managers from the first ever strategic management training programme for tourism businesses were recently conferred with their certificates at a ceremony at the IMI head office in Dublin. The Executive Development Programme is designed to meet the challenges of modern tourism – particularly changing visitor

expectations and a number of participants have secured promotion either within their own group or with new employers.

For further information on the programme, contact: Michael Brady, Enterprise & Hospitality Development Officer with Fáilte Ireland at: michael.brady@failteireland.ie

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Java Republic

Java Republic A glimpse into Rwanda and its renowned coffee industry Part 2 - David McKernan founder of Java Republic recently travelled to Rwanda on a coffee origin trip. He shares his insights in a three-part article on the country and its strong coffee export.

Kigali

When you land in Kigali airport your plastic bags are instantly confiscated. Rwanda is the first country worldwide to ban plastic and plastic bags, and as you travel through the country the ban is evident everywhere is spotlessly clean.

Naturally you may have some misconceptions about Rwanda, and Africa in general. Corrugated metal shacks, dirt roads and battered Toyota Hilux are what we usually see in the West. The following is what I saw during our time in Kigali, and the Rwandan countryside.

There are banks, each with an ATM, just like we have at home. There are green areas, where no one walks on the grass. The grass is pristine, the city is modern, and it looks a great deal like Dublin’s IFSC. There are no fast food restaurants, or street food stalls.

In our hotel, every bed had a mosquito net though there were practically no mosquitos. The restaurants’ kitchens were open and visible, like our fanciest restaurants at home, there are separate smoking areas and the food and service is incredible. Throughout the city you will see health clinics and a fine maternity hospital. You will recognise the uncanny absence of car horns as cars and trucks pass by. Motorbike taxis fill the streets, and bikes are everywhere. By law, you must wear a helmet, and, if your misconceptions stand, every traffic light works and is obeyed.

Kigali is a modern, safe and clean city - cleaner even than Switzerland’s

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cities, by my estimation. The environmental agenda is pushed heavily throughout Rwanda. On the last Saturday of every month, every citizen rows in in a mass national clean-up. The collective responsibility for the environment felt by everyone here is inspiring.

The roads are modern, and well built by Chinese businesses who have invested heavily in the country, and continent. I drove on very similar roads during my time in Ethiopia.

From a language perspective, the government encourages people to speak English as much as possible, being the language of international commerce. French is, understandably, on the way out as a result of colonial experience. Swahili and the native Kinyarwanda also enter the mix at times.

Undoubtedly, I would return to Rwanda tomorrow in a heartbeat, and I would bring my family too. It truly is a stunning country, and for what it’s worth, they even sell Irish potatoes there.

If I might offer some advice to anyone thinking of travelling there, please learn from my mistakes and never: 1. Ask a Rwandan ‘what religion or tribe are you?’

2. Ask a farmer how many cows she or he has.

3. And never, ever, ever, walk on the grass.

If you heed this advice you should have a wonderful time in this special country.

Java Republic

Coffee

Coffee is Rwanda’s fifth most valuable export after: gold, refined petroleum, ore, and tea. In 2016, Rwanda exported 3,310,339 kilos of coffee. Grown by four-hundred-thousand famers, and processed in one or more of the country’s two-hundred-andtwenty-nine washing stations, Rwandan coffee has earned itself a sterling reputation worldwide.

Switzerland bought 42% of the yield, the US took 20.9%, followed by the UK with 12.4% and South Africa at 5%. Ireland does not rank on Rwandan coffee exports, but we do buy a great deal of tea from the country.

Not all Rwandan coffee is Rwandan though. Some coffee brought in from the Democratic Republic of Congo is packaged and sold as Rwandan coffee, although thankfully not enough to cause any considerable concern.

The coffee industry is a massive boon to the Rwandan economy, part of the farming and agroprocessing sector which employs close to 90% of the Rwandan workforce.

Right now, Rwandan coffee growers are struggling to resist the effect of the Antestia bug which affects coffee trees. From what I saw, coffee tree husbandry is lacking slightly which is no doubt affecting coffee yield. Reducing the impact of bugs and fungus would be a relatively simple remedy.

Rwanda’s bourbon coffee is bright, clean and fruity, with orange syrupy flavours and a heavy mouthfeel - though at times it can affect a certain subtlety, depending on its quality. Grown between seventeen-hundred and two-thousand metres, the coffee cherries go through a full double washed process unique to Rwanda. The cherries are soaked twice, for at least twenty-four hours and they must be picked from the trees when ripe, and transported immediately to the washing station. At the station we witnessed young girls carrying sixty kilo bags atop their head with ease. During the process, cherries that float are removed and the rest ferment to remove the fruity mucilage flesh.

The wet parchment is then laid out across long wooden beds, and labourers work through it to pick out any defects which escaped the initial cull. Next, they are brought to open wooden raised drying beds where the sun reduces the moisture to just around ten or eleven percent over a fifteen to twenty-day period. During this time, more damaged beans are removed.

After the twenty days, and when the parchment appears fully white and has no cracks, it is nearly ready. Following a final process, and a further check for defects, the coffee is ready for grading, and is then bagged for export.

The entire Rwandan coffee process requires extremely hard labour, and is carried out almost entirely by hand. No mechanical aids. It truly is a work of art.

It truly is a work of art H&RT AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2018

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Industry

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McDonal’s Plassey Foods Platinum Sales Ltd Ponticelli Coffee Ltd Prestige Foods Primeline Sales & Marketing Ratio Brand Distribution Ltd Rational Reach Retail Services Redmond Fine Foods Refridgeration Rentals Ltd REL Group Robot Coupe (UK) Limited Robt. Roberts Ltd Rosie and Jim Gourmet Foods Rubbermaid UK Ltd Ryan Chilling Sauce Works Select Seafoods Sodexo Ireland Shoes For Crews Europe Ltd. Silver Hill Foods Singles Source Ltd Valentine & Cuisine Equipment Ltd. Caterline Catering Equipment Steelite International Stephens Catering Equipment Sweeney O’Rourke Tech Refrigeration & Air Conditioning Templetuohy Foods The Meat People The Mount Charles Group The Nestbox Egg Comapany Ltd Time Point Timeworks Total Produce TrailBlazer BBQ Ltd Trinity Hospitality UCC Uniformal Unilever Food Solutions Jim Franey Ltd Velox Ltd Vernon Catering Vianen Kitchen Ventilaion Systems Vollrath Europe B.V Western Hygiene Ltd. Winterhalter Ltd Wireless Solutions / TradWins Woodfireland Zeus Packaging Group

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Patton Interiors

Patton Interiors Limited is a family business established in Ireland fifty years ago. Over the last five decades the company has steadily developed into one of Ireland’s leading interior design and soft furnishing suppliers to the contract and domestic market, completing projects in Ireland, Europe and worldwide. We chatted to Dermot Patton about how it all began. “We started in 1968, I formed the business with my parents. My father had been working in Brown Thomas’ he ran the drapery department but he decided to branch out on his own. I came back from Canada where I had been studying interior architecture and we started the company in 1968”.

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Patton Interiors

“Originally we went into the domestic market and in the mid 1970’s we did some projects for the Intercontinental hotel group, that later became Jurys. There wasn’t a lot of hotels around at the time so we looked at commercial work and we did a lot of work for the OPW and for hospitals. Our biggest job in those years was St Vincent’s Elm Park. We did the fit out and some design there and then we moved on to St Lukes, the Rotunda and a number of nursing homes around the country. We also did government buildings and the accommodation for the armed forces. Then in the 1980’s we started refurbishing the Great Southern Hotels.

We did Jurys and the Doyle group after that and that work really brought us in to the hotel sector”.

did the Westin Hotel and we worked with HBA in London who were the design team on that for example”.

Pattons quickly became one of the premier companies in the hospitality sector. Dermot continues, “ we built our reputation and then private projects opened up. The first private project we did was a complete re-design and fit out of Mount Juliet in 1989. We finished it in Sep 1990 and from then on we did a lot of private work e.g for the Radisson and Marriott groups.

One of the unique aspects of the company is their ability to source quality furnishings. Dermot explains, “Well during the recession we looks at how we could remain competitive and offer our customers exceptional value for money. So we started looking abroad. In 2001 we looked at China and we went out to China and there wasn’t anything really available apart from the manufacturing process. So we decided to do our own design, we did the technical drawings and had a number of samples made on spec. We then narrowed it down to about three companies and we are still working with those companies today. Since 2007 we have probably done about 15 -20 hotels in Ireland using our designs from China, turnkey packages, including chairs, some lighting, loose furniture, they manufacture to our specifications and we do the quality control ourselves. Our Chinese connection brings about a 3040% saving, if it was full European supply it would be 40% dearer. We do a mix of European and Asian and that brings those savings for our customers”.

So having worked on a variety of projects through the years, what can the company offer to their customers now? “We have a few hats. We are a one-stop-shop offering a complete design and fit-out package. However, a lot of customers want to bring in their own design team so we work with them on procurement and fit-out etc. We can take on the whole project ourselves or we can work with architects, design teams, procurement teams etc. We

“Fashion changes and so do the fashion of interiors. Historically we would have fitted out hotels in the style of the hotel. So for example The Great Southern hotels, they were manly Victorian buildings so they would have their swags etc. to match the style of the building. Now hotels are more minimalistic and modern. It can still be about being sympathetic to the building if it’s an old building but the majority of hotels want a modern style now”, says Dermot.

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Patton Interiors

doing a lot more for Tourism but also for small businesses in the country. In the Far East, Ireland is an unknown quantity. The airways have opened up a bit for the Chinese market but we are ten years too late. Between 2002 and 2008 the Chinese had growth of 28-30% per annum and we weren’t tapping in to it. I think the government looks at where are we getting our revenue from rather than how can we expand. We financed our business with cash flow and personal finances for the last 5 years. My main criticism about the government is the lack of support for small businesses”.

So with the next generation of the family, Marc Patton now involved and Dermot stepping into a consultancy role, what does the future look like for Patton Interiors? “We will stay a family business and continue to do the work we’ve done for the last 50 years. If we can continue to offer the service we have always offered, I will be proud. We are easy to contact, we don’t put our heads in the sand if there’s a problem and our philosophy is that our customer is king. 50 years in business is no small feat!”

Frost Couture designer jewellery

Given the extent of the portfolio of projects Pattons have done over the last 50 years, is there any that stands out for Dermot? “ We are very proud of all our work but some of the big projects that stand out would be ;Mount Juliet, The K-Club, or Lough Erne resort. We did the Shelbourne Hotel, 230 bedrooms over 10 months, while the hotel was running at 100% occupancy. We were completing 7-8 rooms every week. There was a lot of pressure on that project but it was great”.

Current projects Pattons are working on include; Trim Castle Hotel, the K-Club, Leixlip Manor and a Hilton in London. Dermot continues, “Years ago we would have done between 3 and 5 projects per year, all very large projects. There are fewer new builds out there, it’s all mainly refurbishment and extensions. We trying to keep things tighter than they were. But we still carry all the expertise that we had to do any type of project whether it’s a small country house hotel or a bigger project or any part of a project”.

Given their decades of experience in the industry, does Dermot feel the government understands tourism?

My opinion is that I think the government could be

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• • • • •

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H&RT AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2018 Portrait_magazine.indd 1

02.09.18 18:02

Industry

Ideas & Innovations served up at

CATEX 2019

Ireland’s largest foodservice & hospitality event returns Ireland’s largest foodservice trade event – CATEX – will return to the RDS, Dublin next February, providing thousands of visitors with products, services and solutions that meet today’s demands for those operating within the foodservice and hospitality sectors.

CATEX offers a unique opportunity where Ireland’s biggest players and membership organisations in foodservice and hospitality all come under one roof for an action-packed three days. Created by IFSA (Irish Foodservice Suppliers Alliance) and managed by EventHaus, CATEX 2019 is once again supported by industry stalwarts, Bunzl and Calor Gas. Commenting on the importance of show support, IFSA Chairman and General Manager with Total Produce Foodservice, John Cunningham comments: “As Ireland’s largest foodservice and hospitality event, we aim to raise the bar in terms of features, solutions and competitions at every CATEX. We’ve exciting plans for 2019 and are ensuring that every aspect of the event is relevant for the challenges and opportunities presenting themselves to the Foodservice and Hospitality sectors today.

“It takes significant investment to deliver a show of the calibre of CATEX, and the ongoing support of Calor Gas and Bunzl is incredibly important, and central to the show. Many of the industry’s biggest names have already secured their space, and their on-going commitment underpins the return that CATEX delivers for exhibitors in terms of sales and new contacts.”

Taking place every two years, CATEX is the number one event for buyers to source new products and forge new supplier links. The 2019 event promises to be the best show yet and will provide visitors with a programme that identifies key trends that will drive the future of the industry.

Commenting on its support for CATEX 2019, Oliver Kenny, Sales Director with Calor Gas adds: “CATEX offers us the greatest platform to meet with many of our existing customers and potential new customers. It’s an instrumental part of our marketing plans and is a huge opportunity for Calor to introduce new products to the market.

“Calor have had a long-standing partnership with the Irish foodservice and hospitality sector and are very proud that the majority of Ireland’s chefs choose to cook with Calor Gas. At the CATEX 2019 event, we hope to continue to educate customers on BioLPG – our new 100% renewable energy solution for businesses that are committed to reducing their carbon footprint.”

Committed to serving up a great event is Sean Martin, Sales Director with Bunzl, who adds: “CATEX is in our blood. Bunzl has long been associated with the show, and it’s the place for all of those in the industry to come together over three days. The ‘Who’s Who’ in hospitality attends, and for Bunzl, it’s the place where we can reach a national audience of over 12,000 visitors in just three days. We’ve high hopes for CATEX, and the business that it will generate in 2019.”

The future of food, drink and hospitality, and predicting new industry trends, are the key themes throughout the 2019 event, which will run from 26th - 28th February. It’s the essential platform for exhibitors to promote their products and services directly to industry buyers, and for visitors, they come to CATEX to source new products, generate new business and learn about innovative trends set to shape the Irish food and drink industry over the coming years.

In 2017, 98% of exhibitors reported that the event was either ‘very worthwhile or worthwhile’* attending, and this is reflected in stand sales, which are already ahead of target.

Supported by Bunzl and Calor, confirmed exhibitors include Lynas Foodservice, Bewleys, Hugh Jordan, Henderson Foodservice and Marco Beverage Systems.

Over the last 50 years CATEX has established itself as a major force in the hospitality industry, it’s the ultimate diary date for anyone in the sector. By booking early, exhibitors can take advantage of securing prime positioning and being included in the promotional campaign in the run up to the show. To find out more about CATEX and to book your space, please contact EventHaus on (00353) 1 846 0020 or see www.CATEXexhibition.com

CATEX - Ireland’s definitive foodservice event 26th - 28th February 2019 at the RDS, Simmonscourt

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wine

Who made wine

the whipping boy?

Who made wine the whipping boy? Ireland Inc. spends a fortune trying to attract tourists with the quality of our food and restaurants now touted as a major part of the attraction. And once we get the tourists here we sour it all by charging them significantly more than they would pay in almost any other country on earth.

We have in effect a ‘Tax on Tourism’ argues a recent report from the Irish Wine Association who represent wine distributors and importers in Ireland. Ireland taxes wine at a significantly higher level than any other EU country with €3.19 excise tax automatically added to the price of a bottle when it enters Ireland and a further VAT rate of 23% added later, a tax on a tax.

Our nearest rival is Finland who place €2.54 on a bottle followed by the UK (€2.34) and Sweden (€1.97). France places just €0.03 cents while 14 countries such as Spain, Portugal and Germany have zero duty on wine.

Allied to the tax on tourism is a further ‘Tax on Celebration’ as if your wine has fizz then we charge €6.37 per bottle, double the rate charged by the UK which is second highest at €2.99 followed by Finland at €2.54. We tax beer and spirits higher than most other EU countries also but at nothing like the same punitive level – we are more than 700% higher than the EU average tax on wine but less than 300% higher for Spirits and Beer. The fact that we happen to also produce beer and spirits is surely no coincidence.

The government has been quick to state in the past that if you are having a drink it should be done in moderation and with food. And yet wine is punitively taxed despite the fact that it is the one drink most commonly consumed with food, particularly in our restaurants and hotels and increasingly at home.

Pause for a moment and imagine that the Italian or French government placed a punitive tax on one of our main agricultural export products such as butter or beef. How would we feel if Kerrygold cost €20 per 500g or an Irish fillet steak cost €40 to buy in the supermarket?

Meanwhile the Public Health (Alcohol) Bill is due before the Dáil in the coming weeks which in its current form will demand a large health warning label proclaiming the calories and the fact that wine causes cancer. Red meat causes cancer at a higher rate but you may have noticed that nobody in government is calling for the same warnings on Irish beef.

It seems that Ireland is trying to make a stand against alcohol in the same way that we did against smoking in the workplace a few years ago. Yes other countries followed suit on smoking but it is utterly naïve for the government to think that other EU countries will happily label one of their main agricultural exports as cancerous.

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Parts of the bill are so unworkable that it seems unlikely that it retain its current form. Every wine sold in Ireland will need a label created in the country of origin stating calories and other specific information. Literally no French or Italian wine producer of any quality will accede to this demand so we will be left with around a dozen large wine producers such as Santa Rita and Wolf Blass – no more serving Château Lynch-Bages to visiting dignatories ever again.

In addition only the three or four largest wine importers will be left in business, dozens of high quality family owned importers such as Le Caveau, Wines Direct and Vinistito wil be forced to close as they will have no wine to sell. Surely it won’t come to this, but I wouldn’t put it past them and would also not rule out that there may be a further increase in excise.

The Irish wine industry currently employs around 1100 people directly and supports thousands of jobs in the restaurant, pub and off-licence trade. Wine contributed €382 m. to the exchequer in 2017, an increase of €2m on 2016. Wine sales increased by just under 0.5% in 2017 to nine million cases per year. The market share for wine increased slightly to 27.7% making wine the second most popular alcohol beverage in Ireland.

Fear of diminishing returns has prevented further increases in duty on wine in recent budgets but now that the economy is growing and wine sales are slowly beginning to rise again, a further increase in duty on wine in the Budget would not be a surprise. This is despite the fact that we had a 62% rise in tax on alcohol in the budgets that followed the economic crash.

If duty is raised on wine the fig leaf of health is likely to be used as the excuse. The UK medical journal The Lancet announced in August 2018 that even one drink is damaging to our health following a meta-analysis of several hundred studies. The inherent flaws in observational studies were glossed over as was the fact that piling dozens of such studies on top of one another increases the errors. A quick look at the graph showing that one drink causes health problems also seems to show that having 5 drinks a day only increases your health risks by a tiny margin and some would argue that the social aspects of moderate drinking outweigh the risks.

Ireland has become a nation of wine drinkers and we now spend more on wine than we do on spirits and it is time we lobbied our TD’s to get the taxes on wine reduced. Reducing the double taxation on sparkling wine will be a tougher fight as no Minister for Finance will want to be seen as the person that made Champagne cheaper.

A decrease in excise and the scrapping of the unworkable aspects of the Public Health (Alcohol) Bill is what I’m emailing my TD about this Autumn.

Remember that with Brexit looming we need the help and support of our EU neighbours and don’t forget every one of them produces wine.

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H&RT AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2018

41

Industry

Pricing ourselves out of the market Inflation may still be only at 0.8% but from the tourists’ point of view, the climb is perceptibly steeper.

One of the latest reports from Fáilte Ireland shows what they refer to as a “softening” of the figures they have on value for money. Unsurprisingly, the pressure point is to be found in accommodation costs but the malaise is widespread, affecting the overall impression that spending money in our dear land is becoming less satisfactory for the average foreign tourist.

Essentially, the percentage of foreign tourists who believe that a visit to Ireland represents good value for money has dipped in the last two years (figures up to the end of 2017) –from a high of 57% in 2015 down to a level of 52% last year.

With the decrease accelerating slightly, there is the fear that those who believe Ireland to be good value for money will soon be in the minority of foreign visitors to our shores – as they were in 2013 and before that.

Breaking down the Fáilte Ireland figures a bit more, one can see that those who were asked if their trip to Ireland represented “very good value for money” displayed a sharper degree of dissatisfaction. From a high of 16% in 2015, they dipped to just 10% last year. This is still higher than the 6% score in 2012 but the trend is going in the wrong direction with the 2018 figures yet to come.

“If you’re looking for some explanations as to where some of those inflationary pressures are coming from, there’s no doubt that inflation in the accommodation sector is an issue,”says Paul Keeley – Director, Business Development with Fáilte Ireland, “but so too are things like eating out, the cost of drink and the general cost of living.

“We’re recovering from a scenario back in 2011 and 2012 where the industry was on its knees. In a sense, profits weren’t running through companies’ P&Ls – they were bargain basement prices that were never going to be sustainable, so there’s an element of distortion in the market that was always going to recover.”

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Another factor in the mix appears to be that of currency.

Breaking down the “very good value” graph into British, American and Eurozone visitors, the price satisfaction of our Euro-neighbours is much more stable in the last two years (from 11% to 9%) than that of the Americans (from 24% to 19%) and the British (from 15% to 8%).

Another interesting graph in the same category is the one that examines European sentiment broken down into the different nationalities, with the emotional French being far more loyal (stable at 12%) to the Irish tourism industry than the more pragmatic Germans (from 10% to 6%).

Are there any specific failings from Central Government that have led to this state of affairs or is it just the case that this is a normal consequence of a thriving tourism industry?

“My own view certainly is that it is just a general consequence and I don’t think that we can point the finger in any one direction. In one sense, I think that the Government has done a good job with measures such the introduction of the 9% VAT ratebut in truth what we’ve seen over the last five years is this sudden surge in demand.

You’ve just got this mismatch between supply and demand at the moment which is definitely factoring into the mix.

Industry

“I think you’re going to see upward pressure on all the elements – wage costs, interest rates… there are a lot of inflationary pressures about that we’re going to have to be vigilant around.”

The solution, he says, is to resolve our accommodation capacity issue and to concentrate more on “dialling up” the offer rather than attempting a Canute-like futile action against a wave of inflationary pressure. Ireland was never, as he points out, “a low-cost destination and we don’t aspire to be a cheap destination.” Trying to get more “high-yield” (rich) visitors into the country who “aren’t so pricesensitive” (don’t care what they spend) is another area to focus on, he says.

Another worrying aspect is the lack of apparent control that we as a Republic, a nation, a government or a tourism authority seem to have over this evolving situation. It’s one thing to be able to see with a degree of scientific measurement just by how much this problem is evolving. It’s quite another thing altogether to be able to do anything about it.

How, for example, can you put a spanner in the works of the laws of supply and demand? If there are not enough hotel rooms and increasing numbers of people looking for them, what can one do about it in the short term?

Probably absolutely nothing. There are more rooms coming on stream in the capital over the next few years (3,000 according to Fáilte Ireland estimates, but with a requirement of a figure of 5,000) but this is unlikely to have any impact on the pinch for another five years at least. It’s a slow-turning ship and we are victims of our own success to an extent but lack of forward planning has produced this problem or at least left the country’s tourism industry in no fit state to deal with it.

It also doesn’t help that what seems to be preoccupying our current tourism minister is heaping more VAT onto certain sectors of hotel sector. In a recent interview with The Journal, Deputy Shane Ross expressed his wish to increase the hotel VAT rate from 9% to 13.5%, following his advice from myopic beancounters in the Department of Finance who maintain that this will “yield around €500 million a year”.

Minister Ross maintains that the ones who should have their VAT rate increased are the “large hotels who are making huge profits”. Just how to define and separate large hotels from the smaller and mediumsized hotels will provide the first challenge in that particular analysis. The second challenge is how to prevent said hotels from simply passing on their increased VAT bill directly to their clients.

If human nature and past experience are anything to go by, then a VAT rate increase willresult in the tourist ultimately paying the extra tax, not the service provider. If we want to become more competitive and at least convince the majority of people coming here that they’re getting good value for money, we should be focused on ensuring that the tourist is going to pay less for their holiday, not accusing large hotels of making too much money while simultaneously making plans that will make tourists pay even more dearly for their holiday in Ireland.

“

… there are a lot of inflationary pressures about that we’re going to have to be vigilant around.

”

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43

vernment policies. In that context, decisions taken in Budget 2019 will be vital and in to retain the current 9% tourism VAT rate. ITIC has developed an industry strategy which ITIC pportunities for the sector into the future. A key enabling factor is the maintenance of the -competitiveness 9% tourism VAT rate and here are 9 reasons to retain the 9%:

% ording ffice

the visitors onomy y ssful h as

has sitive n %

nue res ave 1.04 net from sing of

Dublin s se sh. g static ding hotel ucted h new his ases lue opment or rate ent rdise

Regionality Tourism supports jobs nationwide - it is the only industry that can provide jobs in all parts of the country. 68% of the jobs created by the tourism industry nationwide since 2011, have been outside Dublin.

Tourism is vital for regional balance and growth, and the VAT rate is a critical component of regional success.

Competitiveness

Growth

The importance of that 9% Vat rate

Tourism is an export industry, bringing in much needed overseas earnings from international visitors to our shores. ITIC’s Tourism: An Industry Strategy for Growth to 2025 makes the case that overseas earnings from tourism can increase by as much as 65% by 2025 but only if the right policies are pursued. One of those key enabling policies is Eoghan O’Mara Walsh, CEO, Irish Tourism Industry Confederation the 9% tourism VAT rate.

The tourism VAT rate is rightsized for Ireland; 16 out of 19 eurozone countries have tourism VAT rates of 10% or less, therefore Ireland is competitive.

Any change to Ireland’s tourism VAT rate would consciously damage our competitiveness at a critical time with the sector seriously exposed to Brexit.

Cost of Business

Brexit

The National Competitiveness

Irish tourism is uniquely Since the introduction of The tourism industry can rightly point to the fact that, since its exposed to Brexit with 39% of tourism rate in 2011 introduction 7 years ago, the 9% Vatthe rate has helped VAT tourism businesses create thousands of jobs.

Recent analysis by ITIC, based on all international visitors coming there has been considerable CSO and Fáilte Ireland data, show that a remarkable 79,100 jobs have from Britain. It is estimated improvements in Ireland’s been created in the tourism and hospitality sector since 2011. And that a hard Brexit cost Value Money (VFM) rating the goodwill news is that 68% of those new jobsfor are outside of Dublin Irish tourismand €260 in themillion regions. in No other industryas canmeasured come close toby thisFáilte sort of Ireland. performance and if tourism is the great regional jobs producer its immediate aftermath with This rating though issurely under it should be supported and nurtured with appropriate taxation and an impact on aviation, tourism pressure and it is vital that the investment policies. demand, and cross border industry remains competitive.

ITIC produced an 8-year for the sectorVAT rate at movements.Earlier Suchthisa year period of Anyroadmap change in the entitled Tourism: An Industry Strategy for Growth to 2025 within which uncertainty demands stability this time would add cost to the tourism is set ambitious goals to grow overseas earnings by 65%. and competitiveness the weaken However thatand is only possible with asystem number ofand enabling factors Ireland’s in and one of VAT those is the retention of therating. competitive 9% Vat rate. retention of place the tourism value Let’s not change a successful formula that has worked so well. rate is critical.

Each year, about this time, there is a lot of speculation Council latest has it will be about the 9% tourism Vat report rate and whether retained in October’s Budget to be delivered confirmed that Ireland is an by Minister for Finance, Paschal Donohoe TD.to Therun media expensive location a love the story as left-leaning politicians and trade unions feel they business with regards to labour,strongly have the right to bash a sector that is performing property, energy, waste,for the whilst the tourism industry putswater, its case forward policy retention.

So will the 9% rate be kept this year? Or communications and business will it return to the previous rate of 13.5% which was last services. From a tourism in effect in 2011? The truth is that no one knows for sure, perspective, and what and is ain reality it will certainly not the media or journalists, probably be a decision made by Cabinet only in the week largely open-sector, retaining running up to Budget day.

competitiveness is key to

continued growth.

In that rate or a Vat Referring to the 9% rate as a “preferential” “subsidy”, as manythe commentators do, israte lazy analysis. regard, tourism VAT Often this is followed by a spurious reference to the “cost” must be retained. of the measure whereas in fact the tourism Vat rate has been massively beneficial to the exchequer. In the first full year of the 9% Vat rate (2012) income to the exchequer was €630 million, in 2018 the income is anticipated to be €1.04 billion as a result of the increased activity in the sector. And these are the Revenue Commissioners own figures! So the next time you hear someone pontificating about the cost of the 9% rate please remind them that the tourism Vat rate is extraordinarily good for the national coffers.

“The majority of the 79,100 jobs created by the tourism industry nationwide since 2011 have been outside Dublin and in the regions”.

The fact is that Ireland’s tourism Vat rate is finally in line with the rest of Europe. 16 of 19 eurozone countries have Vat rates of 10% or less so Ireland, in this rare case, is fully competitive with other international destinations.

To increase the rate would make us less competitive at a time of immediate uncertainty with Brexit around the corner. It would also, by definition, add cost to the system at the very time when we need to keep a close eye on our value for money ratings. Any further increase in costs is likely to depress demand and thereby damage Ireland’s largest indigenous sector. And an increased Vat rate would also have potentially damaging consequences for the pipeline of new hotels that are finally being delivered; 5,000 new bedrooms in Dublin alone over the next 3 years according to CBRE. These new hotels are vital in order to add capacity and accommodate growth and crucially will mean that demand and supply will be in sync thereby moderating any future consumer price increases.

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Value for Money

And back to Brexit, that great external shock that risks knocking Ireland’s wider economy, aside from its tourism industry, off-kilter.

ITIC’s recent analysis identifies that a hard Brexit will cost Irish tourism €260 million in its immediate aftermath. That is some knock, and tourism is uniquely exposed to Brexit with 40% of all international visitors coming from Britain. Soft, hard or medium-boiled, Brexit won’t be good for Irish tourism and Minister Paschal Donohoe must be mindful of this when he delivers the Budget on October 9th. The 9% Vat policy has been unambiguously positive on a variety of fronts – jobs, regional balance, exchequer receipts, industry growth – so it would seem counter-logical to change it at this stage. Leave well enough alone Minister.

9

IT Tallaght

Calling Practicing Chefs

• Learn how to grow your own vegetables & fruit and to innovate your menu with creative plant–based cuisine • Utilise your experience in the industry to date, to facilitate you gaining an honours degree (in one year, part-time)

New Farm-to-Plate Culinary Degree Programme for Contemporary Chefs at IT Tallaght & Airfield Estate with Chef Patrons JP Mc Mahon, Sasu Laukkonen, & Matt Orlando.

The Institute of Technology Tallaght in partnership with Airfield Estate, has developed a unique Honours Degree in Botanical Cuisine to enable chefs grow their own produce and creatively and confidently innovate food in line with current food and dietary trends in particular plant-based cuisine and sustainability. The one-year part-time programme is the first of its kind in Europe and is aimed at chefs with extensive experience in the industry or those that have previous culinary qualifications.

Underpinned by the theory and practice of fruit and vegetable food production, this programme gives the chef an experiential ‘hands-on’ learning environment in Airfield Estate to grow their own produce which in turn will be used for plant-based restaurant-menu food production. The design of the BA (Honours) in Botanical Cuisine was inspired by Food on the Edge Chef Symposium in 2015, in particular by chefs:- Matt Orlando (Chef-patron Amass Restaurant Copenhagen) and Sasu Laukkonen (Chef- Patron, Ora Restaurant, Helsinki). These along with the Director of Food on the Edge Symposium, JP Mc Mahon are now the patrons of this degree in Botanical Cuisine.

In all culinary programmes in IT Tallaght, an applied approach to learning is taken. What makes this programme unique is its applied nature, the focus being on linking fruit and vegetable gardening with plant-based menu production, applied culinary nutrition and culinary events project management. As the culinary education partner of Airfield Estate Dundrum, IT Tallaght is delighted to partner with them on this innovative programme, for students to avail of their expertise and to bring this programme ‘alive’ on a working restaurant farm.

The programme is designed as a one-year (add-on) honours degree programme (Level 8) for chefs working in the industry for some time or those that have previously completed a Level 7 / equivalent in Culinary Arts.

The programme starts on Monday 3rd September and applications are now open.

For programme details and to discuss your eligibility please contact: Tom Meaney, Tel: 01-4042830 or email: Tom.Meaney@it-tallaght.ie

What the programme patrons think of this programme JP Mc Mahon:

“This course is a vital addition towards the further education of Irish Gastronomy.”

Matt Orlando:

“I’m both happy and honoured to have had a role in inspiring this development.”

Sasu Laukkonen:

“I have to say that being part of something like this has been a dream of mine for a long time. Imagine a future world where chefs understand more about their most important asset - the produce!”

Course Duration This is a one-year part time programme (1.5 days week- Mondays 9-5, Tuesdays 9-12)

Core Modules Semester 1

Schedule

Semester 2

Schedule

Farm to Kitchen Internship Edible Gardening (Part 1)

Botanical Cuisine Applied Culinary Nutrition Culinary Events Project Management Edible Gardening (Part 2)

1 Day in Airfield Estate Half Day in Airfield Estate

1 Day in Tallaght IT

Half Day in Airfield Estate

Other Part-time Programmes for Chefs at IT Tallaght Applications still open

BA Culinary Arts- 2 years part-time 1 day/ week( Monday 2018/19)- starts 17th September

MSc in Applied Culinary Nutrition 2 years, Mon & Wed 6-10pm- starts 10th September

Call Annette 01-4042826/ email Annette.sweeney@it-tallaght.ie H&RT AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2018

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Chef of the Year

Euro-Toques Young Chef of the Year 2018 Euro-Toques Young Chef of the Year 2018 competition continues as the final six young talents are announced Continuing the competitive journey that began for these young talents in August, the Euro-Toques Young Chef of the Year competition presented by La Rousse Foods today announced the six chefs that will continue on to the final in November.

Following a skills test held recently, in the professional kitchens of Dublin Cookery School in Blackrock, chef judges Kevin Thornton, Gareth Mullins and Wade Murphy along with special guest judge Tom Brown of Cornerstone in Hackney, one of London’s most exciting and interesting rising star chefs, selected the six young talents that will now progress on to the next stage of the competitive adventure.

The young chefs were set the task of creating a dish based on whole turbot, along with pommes mousseline (with no recipe supplied), with a beurre blanc made to a specific recipe, plus their choice of vegetable garnish. With Domini Kemp running the kitchen, the young chefs had two hours to produce two plates of each dish, with the turbot kindly supplied by Kish Fish and crockery by Hugh Jordan. Demonstrating skills in prepping fish, filleting or cooking it on the bone, the young hopefuls were marked on their execution and work practice, the taste and flavour of their various dishes, and presentation, with each category marked out of ten.

The six chefs selected to go through to the final round of Euro-Toques Young Chef of the Year 2018 are Attila Galambos mentored by JP McMahon of Aniar, Jack Lenards mentored by Ahmet Dede of Mews, Jason Nolan mentored by Robert McCauley of Gregan’s Castle, Matthew Stafford currently mentored by Kevin Aherne of Sage, Glen Sutcliffe mentored by Eric Matthews of Chapter One and Michael Morrisroe mentored by James Kavanagh of The Strawberry Tree.

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Chef of the Year

Glen Sutcliffe

Attila Galambos These six young chefs, each currently working in some of the country’s most exciting and sophisticated kitchens and being mentored by individual chefs with unique skill sets and talents, now have a series of educational events lined up before the grand final in November.

These will include events in collaboration with principal partner La Rousse Foods, and supporting partner San Pellegrino. Next on the agenda is a workshop with Cúán Greene, currently a chef at multi-award winning Noma in Copenhagen, in the test kitchens at Kitchen Aid HQ, new supporting partner of the Euro-Toques Young Chef of the Year competition.

Jack Lenards

The six finalists will also experience hands-on visits with suppliers and producers based around a trip to Ballymaloe House, home of Myrtle Allen, founder member of EuroToques International, who passed away this year.

The Euro-Toques Young Chef of the Year competition presented by La Rousse Foods is Ireland’s premier culinary competition celebrating Ireland’s best emerging culinary talent. Open to professional chefs under the age of 26, the competition has a proven track record in discovering the finest young talent with former winners including Mark Moriarty who progressed to win the World San Pellegrino Young Chef Competition in 2015.

The 6 selected finalists in the Euro-Toques Young Chef of the Year competition presented by La Rousse Foods will all participate in the two-day chefs’ conference Food On The Edge in Galway on October 22nd and 23rd. For all the young chefs taking part this contest is a unique experience that will provide recognition throughout Ireland and beyond, and act as a prestigious steppingstone in their culinary career.

Manuela Spinelli, Secretary General of Euro-toques Ireland said: “The six talented young chefs in this year’s Euro-Toques Young Chef of the Year 2018 have been chosen for their enthusiasm, talent and eagerness to learn and I am once again so happy to see such a high level of skill and technique coming through in this exciting competition which is designed to nurture that talent. At Euro-Toques we are so grateful to our sponsors and to the judges, producers and hosts who give so generously of their time and expertise in helping this process be the best it can be.

It will be an excellent final competition again this year good luck to all six of the finalists, and may the best young chef win!”

Gareth Mullins, Euro-toques Ireland judge at the semifinals said: “The mystery basket was a real test of the young chefs’ basic skills, including their knife skills, their palate, their creativity and ability to plate. This stage of the competition was about their cooking skills, technique, seasoning and understanding of raw ingredients. It’s so refreshing to see the passion and commitment of these young chefs and I hope that they make the most of the next stage of their journey.”

Jason Nolan

Matthew Stafford

Michael Morrisroe H&RT AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2018

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Industry

Irish hotel sector performs strongly as occupancy levels at all-time high across Ireland

Crowe, formerly known as Crowe Horwath, Ireland’s leading accountancy practice and advisors to the Irish hotel sector, launched the 23rd edition of Ireland’s most comprehensive annual analysis of the Irish hotel sector recently. The Crowe Ireland Hotel Survey, compiled from an analysis of Irish hotels’ 2017 accounts, shows that key performance metrics have enjoyed a period of sustained improvement with a seventh consecutive year of growth in turnover. Record profit levels, room occupancy levels and average room rates have been recorded in all regions. Notwithstanding such a strong performance in the sector, the levels of profitability recorded are necessary to provide a sustainable business model to allow for a €1.5 billion investment required to deliver an additional 11,000 rooms which are required within the next seven years. Failure to deliver this capacity will impact on competitiveness and Ireland’s ability to maximise revenue from the tourism sector.

“

Delivery of 11,000 rooms nationwide required to remain competitive

”

Hotel room rates have increased in all regions, up 6.86% on average rates achieved in 2017 when compared with 2016.

Rooms in Dublin hotels had an average rate of €136.96 in 2017 some 6.78% higher than the price achieved in 2016. During 2017, the South West and Western Seaboard regions were the strongest performing areas, with average room rates for both regions rising to €100.67 and €87.49 respectively, a growth of 7.96% in the South West and 9.67% in the Western Seaboard area.

the rate achieved in 2016 showing some moderation in growth even though very little new capacity came on stream as only 237 new rooms were added during the year according to the Fáilte Ireland hotel register. For the first time since 2011 average room rate growth in regions outside Dublin was higher than the capital pointing to a broader, more balanced recovery in the sector across the country.

Profitability in the capital too increased at a lower rate when compared with other regions. Dublin hotels increased their profits on average by 12% whereas the largest increase in profitability was achieved in the South West at 17.43% growth with Western Seaboard at 17.01% and Midlands and East at 13.89%.

During 2017 average room rates in Dublin increased at half

Occupancy levels across all regions have increased too with all regions

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Industry bar Midlands and East now reaching over 70% occupancy. However, the Midlands and East are just shy of the 70% mark at 69.5%. Overall, the average room occupancy levels across all hotels are now at 75.4%, an all-time high, while Dublin remains the area with highest occupancy levels at 83.5% in 2017. At this level, every room in Dublin is occupied six nights every week, a performance metric which is considered very strong in the sector.

Of all classifications, Luxury hotels saw the biggest increase in room occupancy in 2017, with a 2.7 percentage point increase on 2016 figures. Their average room rate rose to €218.02, an increase of 6.23% on last year’s record level of €205.24. While First Class (four-star) hotels have the highest level of room occupancy at 76.2%, economy hotels saw the biggest growth in the average room rate, growing to €68.43 and an 11.84% increase on 2016 figures.

The unemployment rate in Ireland has dropped by approximately 3.2% between 2015 and 2017. Labour intensive work such as hotels are facing the challenge of staff retention and lack of skilled workforce due to competing sectors offering higher pay. The hotel sector must respond to this challenge to help retain staff and attract workers to the industry, however, this will result in major costs.

The sector saw a historical pay high in 2009 of 42.3% against our current rate of 34.5%. With the emphasis on increasing pay, if the hotel sector was to return to such highs like in 2009 this would reduce profitability across all regions. Payroll cost is currently one of the largest threats to the hotel sector in Ireland.

Among the other findings in the study are:

• 2017 represented the seventh consecutive year of turnover growth for Irish hotels.

• Profit levels are higher across all regions, recording an increase of 12.22% year-on-year.

• The Midlands and East region continues to be the highest turnover-generating region per available room (€81,913 in 2017).

• 9.9 million visitors travelled to Ireland in 2017, a record high and a 3.6% increase on 2016 – the previous record year.

• Profits growth are the highest in the South West region, an increase of 17.43% year-on-year, while Dublin saw the lowest levels of growth in profits, at 12%.

• Dublin’s average room rates have stabilised and are now growing at a slower pace, as the Dublin originated recovery for the sector rolls out to all regions.

Commenting on this year’s survey, partner at Crowe Horwath, Aiden Murphy said: “The growth in the Irish

hotel sector improved again in 2017, with increases in occupancy levels, average room rates and profitability not just in the capital, but across all regions. With occupancy levels at between 70% and 80% across the country, new capacity estimated at 11,000 rooms is required through hotel extensions and new builds in order to satisfy demand and maintain our competitiveness.”

Speaking about the outlook for 2018 Mr Murphy added: “Notwithstanding some headwinds with a

weaker currency in our largest tourism market, the UK, outlook for the sector remains positive. After seven consecutive years of growth and sustained projected growth expected in the coming years it will be important to address the capacity constraints if Ireland is to fully reap the benefits of Ireland’s high quality and internationally renowned tourism product.”.

Commenting on the findings of the Crowe Report, Brendan Griffin TD, Minister of State at the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport said: “The findings of this survey show

that there is continued improved performance in hotels nationwide across all key performance indicators. It is great to see the improved viability of the sector, as it is a large employer and now again has the potential to support the expansion in capacity that our growing tourism industry requires. It is important, however, that Ireland remains competitive in all markets and that we continue to offer our visitors good quality products and services. In particular, it is crucial that we avoid any reputational damage in the area of value for money.

The Government and the tourism agencies, Fáilte Ireland and Tourism Ireland are continuing to support the tourism industry within the framework of the Government tourism policy “People, Place and Policy”. My Department is currently in the process of drafting a Tourism Action Plan for 2018-2020, in consultation with the industry. This plan will help to continue to develop our tourism offering and to drive growth and innovation within our tourism services and products.”

For more information or for a copy of the Irish Hotel Survey, please log on to www.crowe.ie

“

Crowe Ireland Hotel Survey concludes growth more evenly spread with growth outside capital now outpacing Dublin

”

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IFSA news

IFSA Golf Society The IFSA Golf Society run a series of fun and competitive events throughout the year offering a chance to meet suppliers and end users in the Foodservice sector in a friendly and relaxed environment.

NEXT EVENT: • President’s Day, Thursday 6th September Rathfarnham Contact Brendan Fetherston on 087 258 0417 or at brendanfetherston@eircom.net for bookings and membership of the IFSA Golf Society.

Future Proofng Foodservice - chef supplier forum

Trailblazer BBQ

On September 25th Chef Network and IFSA present their Future Proofing Foodservice Seminar at Airfield Estate, Dublin. Join chefs from across Ireland to discuss how we can make the industry more sustainable. The objective of the day will be to bring chefs and industry suppliers together to focus on actions the industry can take towards increased sustainability within the foodservice sector.

The event will highlight the demands of the industry to make the sector more sustainable and environmentally friendly via practical examples and case studies, exploring how suppliers can support these aims and showcase existing products and services that support industry sustainability.

This event will focus on the following core themes:

• Sustainable Sourcing

• Tackling Waste – Food & Packaging

• Achieving Efficiencies Key outcomes will be raised awareness among chefs and suppliers on reducing environmental impacts, practical examples of how to achieve this and a directory of products and services that can assist.

SUPPLIER SHOWCASE

IFSA members with a product or service that helps make the industry more sustainable will also have the opportunity to showcase their innovation on the day. Apply to participate at http://www.ifsa.eu.com/events

Designed to be the ultimate mobile charcoal BBQ/Grill, the Trailblazer range now consists of 7 upgraded models with 11 variations.

If you need a towable or mobile BBQ/Grill or food truck trailer for anything from small, to very large groups, or from a high volume to a high ticket event, then nothing comes close to the amazing TRAILBLAZER range from a compactness, capacity, theatre and staggering return on investment. Boasting immense outputs, adjustable grill heights/heat control, ash scraper blade, removable ash collection box and iconic gull wing doors, Trailblazer is unrivalled in the marketplace!

When you own a Trailblazer, it is not just another piece of catering equipment, it will enhance your business, grow new customers and extend your season.

Chef Network & Keelings Partner to Bring Chefs Seasonality in Real-Time Chef Network are delighted to announce their new partnership with Keeling’s. The partnership will see the launch of a new Real Time Seasonality Calendar as a resource for Chef Network members.

Chef Network in partnership with Keeling’s are developing an online resource for chefs across Ireland, to stay up to date with the latest in-season ingredients. The calendar will provide chefs with information on produce coming into season, making it easier to update their menus and work with the freshest ingredients. New ingredients will be added monthly with real time updates to notify chefs about any changes in supply such as production difficulties, delays or excess produce.

“We select from only the best local and global growers, who share our passion for quality fresh produce. Provenance is vital as we endeavour to supply locally grown fresh produce throughout the season” says Keeling’s.

By promoting seasonal products, the calendar aims not only to reduce food waste and create a more sustainable industry, but also to inspire chefs to get creative and develop something new. The ‘Real-Time Seasonality’ updates are key to alerting chefs when a product is about to be harvested on Irish farms, so that they can adapt and make use of that ingredient while it is available and at its best. Chefs will also be encouraged to share their seasonal ideas and dishes through the Chef Network online community.

Seasonality information is something Chef Network members have called for and Keeling’s, who work with 50+ growers nationally and internationally are the ideal partner to answer that call.

The Chef Network & Keeling’s Real Time Seasonality Calendar launches on the Chef Network Website this August 2018. Sign up to Chef Network today (www. chefnetwork.ie) to be notified when the calendar goes live.

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IFSA news

“Love good food?

Love Plassey Food!”

Plassey Food is a 100% Irish, family owned food distribution company, delivering in Munster, Leinster and Connaught, offering a wide range of fresh, frozen and ambient products from our carefully chosen network of producers – both locally, regional, national and international.

One-Stop Shop

With 3,598 products we present ourselves as a “One-Stop Shop” to the foodservice industry.

Meeting the needs of our customers

Our fleet of multi-temperature trucks guarantees an professional and efficient service to meet the needs of chefs in hotels, restaurants, bars, catering businesses, health care & government institutions and education facilities but also butchers, retailers and take-away’s.

Service is what makes us different

Our ultimate goal is to provide our customers, with a quality experience, meeting or exceeding their expectations, with each and every order placed. Our service is what makes us different.

Sourcing Products

If you are looking for a particular product then please contact Plassey Food, call our Telesales staff on (069) 63500 or contact your regional sales representative listed at the bottom of this page and we will assist you in your search to find the required product.

Plassey Food & Distribution Company Ltd. Rathkeale Industrial Estate, Rathkeale, Co. Limerick, V94 X2K0 P: (069) 63500 F: (069) 63503 E: sales@plasseyfood.ie W: www.plasseyfood.ie

Vector Four-in-One: four temperatures, four cooking times, four fan speeds, one oven Radical, compact convection oven from FEM offers kitchen space solution As the size of kitchens continues to get squeezed, operators are looking for inventive ways to get more production out of less space. Now FEM has launched a radical solution in the shape of the Vector multi-cook oven, manufactured by AltoShaam, which offers up to four separate oven chambers in one compact unit.

It’s quick, with a special new airflow technology that delivers faster, more even cooking, while its ventless operation, and the fact that it needs no water connection, means it can be placed anywhere. Each cooking chamber is entirely independently controlled, with its own time, temperature and fan settings. There is no possibility of flavour transfer between the chambers – and all units are just 530mm wide.

The oven’s speed is down to the Structured Air Technology feature.

This innovative design delivers a high velocity, vertical airflow from the bottom and top of each chamber. It produces completely even temperature control, throughout each chamber, and faster cooking results.

“The Vector is a truly versatile cooking appliance that can increase production, improve quality and save time,” says Mark Hogan, Commercial Director of FEM. “It has stirred up a lot of interest – because while the benefits it delivers are crystal clear, it’s also a brand new concept, in a category all of its own.”

For more information call FEM on +44 (0) 1355 244111, email sales@fem.co.uk or visit www.fem.co.uk

New Premises for M&P O’Sullivan

The sun may have been out in force over the last few weeks but there was ‘a big freeze’ occurring at M&P O’Sullivan Ltd in Cork, as the well-known foodservice distributor marked the official opening of their brand new and extensive frozen storage build at their premises on Sarsfield Road.

The large frozen and chill storage unit, measuring 15,000 square feet, took approximately one year to complete and extends M&P O’Sullivan’s already vast premises considerably. The extension allows for the storage of frozen and chill produce such as meat, vegetables, breads and desserts, and plays a vital role in fulfilling supply and demand among the Cork wholesalers’ customer base located across the Munster region. From supermarkets and convenience stores – including the company’s retail franchise, Gala – to restaurants, take-aways and even icecream and fish-and-chip vans, M&P O’Sullivan’s brand names and products are central to daily life for countless food service providers and their customers.

This new extension will allow the team behind the famous name to increase their efficiency and professional scope, leading to success and a smooth operation for all involved.

The build also denotes a good news story for the local economy, with in excess of 30 jobs created as a result of its inception in the areas of construction, transport and logistics and retail. In order to grow the business and put forward such economic opportunities, the company also put a significant investment behind the extension, with the total figure estimated at €500,000.

REDMOND FINE FOODS INSPIRATION | INNOVATION | PRODUCT | SUPPORT Established in 2004, Redmond Fine Foods is an Irish owned purveyor, marketer and wholesale distributor of high quality, high value, innovative Irish and global food brands, select ingredients and finished food products.

We supply food professionals across Ireland in all major industry sectors. Through our strong network of suppliers and partners and our own dynamic team of experts, we offer an exceptional service experience through support, training and on-time delivery.

In 2018 we launched an e-commerce platform (www.redmondfinefoods. ie) to elevate the customer buying experience. This offers a unique opportunity to access product, live and bespoke pricing and stock levels.

Our extensive and exclusive range of ambient, chilled and frozen foods and non-food items include the following product categories: Bakery, Pastry & Confectionary Cereals, Flours, Nuts, Condiments & Spices Dairy, Cheese & Ice-cream Truffles, Mushrooms, Fruit & Vegetables Kitchen Essentials & Antipasti Specialist Meats & Game Modern Gastronomy Ingredients Seafood & Caviar Snacking Tools, Moulds, Transfers & General Kitchen Equipment Our nationwide customer base is made up of hotels, restaurants, contract caterers, bakeries, chocolatiers, food manufacturers, wholesalers, entertainment, corporate accounts and select retailers.

Phone: +353 45 883 570/573 Email: info@redmondfinefoods.ie Twitter: @RedmondFineFood Instagram: @redmondfinefoods Facebook: www.facebook.com/RedmondFineFoods H&RT AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2018

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Seafood

Appeal for Top Menus

The late Ernie Evans of Dingle Bay fame claimed culinary history in Ireland by “ making it alright for real men to eat fish”. His buttery sole on the bone and brandy flamed lobster converted the steak and potatoes brigade and helped turn the tide on dull “fish on Friday” fare.

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by Marilyn Bright

On the menu

Statistics from the early 1970’s indicate that per capita consumption of fish was something like 7 lb. a year. Dedicated promoters of Iriish seafood like Phena O’Boyle and Eileen Kieran of Bord Iascaigh Mhara worked to raise appeal with modern recipes and demonstrations around the country.

Today many restaurateurs and caterers report that sales of seafood equal those of meat, or even more in seaside areas where a platter of prawns or bowl of chowder can be eaten in sight and sound of rolling waves.

Aidan MacManus might be considered the grand old man of modern Irish seafood, opening Howth harbour’s King Sitric Restaurant in 1971. Exotica like cod’s tongue morsels and livers accompanied prime fish fillets and monkfish cheeks were salvaged from the previously discarded heads. Today Aidan’s menus reflect modern tastes with lighter treatment replacing heavier cream sauces, but the appeal of some old classics never fades. The Dubliners’ favourite of ray wing in black butter with capers may appear on the menu and high summer might see the return of Edwardian ‘Dublin Lawyer’, lobster rich with cream and brandy.

On the menu

Customers are not only eating fish in greater quantity, Aidan confirms, but are ready to try a greater variety of fish. Warmer weather patterns have brough tuna and swordfish to Irish waters and these are proving polular additions to menus in August and September. And in the King Sitric’s East Cafe, young customers are lured away from chicken nuggets with fresh mussels and chips while grownups enjoy the day’s selection of seafood in sharing platters.

Prawns star on seafood menus everywhere, but confusion arises when the term is used with no further clarification. John Hackett, domestic marketing executive of BIMexplains that there are three groups of prawns -- shrimp, the small shellfish often used for potted shrimps and garnishes; vennini, includes tropical varieties like tiger prawns which are mostly farmed in Central America; and most prized of all, langoustines - the Dublin Bay prawn looking like a miniature lobster. Menus need to be specific, John says, and colloquial terms can further cloud the issue, with the terms ‘shrimp’ or ‘scampi’ used interchangeably in some places.

In Dublin’s Herbert Park Hotel, executive chef Kevin Ramen confirms that seafood is more popular than ever, and in summer sales surpass those of meat dishes. Customers are interested in provenance and ask if the fish is farmed. Seafood chowder and fish pie are lunchtime best sellers, with the latter edging chicken and mushroom pie off the menu.

Crab is popular and may be paired with prawns and avocado on fresh brown bread. Kevin explains that pasteurised crab is offered by processors now, “ and it does have a longer shelf life, but I find it drier and not the same fresh, moist flavour. We buy as much fresh Kilkeel crab as we can when it’s available, and flash freeze it for a better product.”

At the Ballymore Inn, Georgina O’Sullivan also reports a significant rise in the popularity of seafood, and an increased spend for premium fish. “Black sole used to be a Sunday treat -- now it sells through the week.”

Seafood suppliers like Graham Rogerson of Ocean marine guide buyers on trends in the market as well as availability and value for money. “ There’s more demand for exotic fish and people are willing to be more experimental,” he says.

“Gurnard for instance is a good substitute for monkfish, with a large head in comparison to body, but solid flesh for filleting. Hake is plentiful now and cheaper than cod since the Spanish export market collapsed.”

Peter cites whiting as a fish that can be great value but people object to the bones. A skillful fishmonger will source bigger fish, such as 3kg whiting from Donegal, and bone them to provide good thick fillets with no bones. The same thing applies to ling, an undervalued fish which Peter refers to as ‘poor man’s cod’. Pollock, also a member of the cod family, has become a popular choice for fish and chips on many menus. The greyish flesh turns white when cooked and is firm enough to be presented as grilled fillets with herb crusted topping.

Denis Vaughan of The Anchor Inn in Liscannor is in a happy harbourside position where daily landings arrive opposite his front door. He has made a mission of putting lesser used fish on the menu. “ There isn’t any fish I haven’t used -- gurnard, pollock, even whelks and limpets.” His tip is to introduce the less familiar fish by including them on seafood platters combined with favourites like prawns, cod and salmon.

Happily, improved transport around the country means that fresh seafood is available to inland caterers withis hours of seaside landings. On the borderline of Cavan, Gearoid Lynch of The Olde Post Inn considers that he is better serviced than many as the day’s catch from Greencastle and Killybegs is dropped at his door from lorries en route to the restaurants of Dublin. “There’s no doubting the growing demand for fresh fish,” he confirms. “ we’re here in the middle of the country and can sell 1000 portions of seafood in one threeday weekend.”

Peter Caviston of Caviston’s wholesale and retail fish suppliers confirms the demand for fish, driven not only by preferences for lighter, healthier food, but by improvements in refrigerated transport and handling. “ Fish is iced on board as soon as it’s caught and it arrives in good condition.

Chefs are more knowledgeable and go to suppliers who can advise on the cost effectiveness of the menu.”

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• National Apprenticeship C • Primary Food Hygiene an

Letterkenny IT

Institutes of Technology receive €1.4M funding for Hospitality and Culinary Arts education through Springboard A Consortium of Institutes of Technology collaborated on a national application to Springboard to fund ongoing training and education for the Hospitality sector. The activities of the Institutes of Technology have been curtailed since Fáilte Ireland announced that they were no longer in a position to fund education and training. Given the severe shortage of chefs at all levels, professional front line staff in food and beverage and accommodation, and the need for upskilling and professional development of middle and senior managers, the consortium sought support for their application from the key industry agencies – the Irish Hotels Federation (IHF), the Restaurants Association of Ireland (RAI) and the Irish Hospitality Institute (IHI).

The Consortium, led out by Dr Ciarán Ó hAnnracháin of Letterkenny IT, Killybegs Campus, submitted proposals in Culinary Skills, Food and Beverage Operations and Restaurant Management, while a fourth project in Hotel Management was co-ordinated by Mary Rose Stafford at IT Tralee. The four programmes will provide funded spaces for over 230 additional participants at operational, supervisory and management education levels. Programmes will be offered on one or two days per week over an academic year, and will facilitate recruitment of new staff off the live register or of homemakers wishing to return to work, as well as giving opportunities for staff within the industry to engage in college learning to upskill or re-skill.

The programmes will be offered through a network of ITs to include Athlone, Cork, Galway, Letterkenny (Killybegs), Tralee and Waterford.

Courses are fully funded for participants on the live register and homemakers. Courses at Level 6 (Culinary Skills and Food & Beverage Operations) are also free to those in the workplace, while participants in employment on the Restaurant Management (Level 7) and Hotel Management (Level 8) will pay a contribution of 10% of the cost of the programme.

The proposals were recently endorsed and commended at the Hospitality Oversight Group Meeting in Dublin. The Hospitality Oversight Group was established on recommendation from the Expert Group on Future Skills Needs to oversee education and training developments for the sector.

Speaking at the meeting, Adrian Cummins, Chief Executive of the RAI, welcomed the proposals and the commitment of the IT sector in their work on training and education for the sector.

Applications to the programmes will be through the Springboard portal www.springboardcourses.ie, and courses will commence in September 2018.

YOUR ACADEMIC PARTNER IN STAFF TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT LYIT School of Tourism has been providing world-class education and training for the tourism industry since 1969. Today it is a thriving specialist campus offering a range of full and part-time programmes in hospitality, tourism and culinary arts.

Full-time Programmes • • • •

Higher Certificate in Arts in Bar and Restaurant Supervision Higher Certificate in Arts in Culinary Arts BA / BA (Hons) in Hospitality and Tourism BA / BA (Hons) in Culinary Arts

Part-time and CPD Programmes • • • • • •

Diploma in Restaurant Operations Management Hotel Revenue and Digital Media Management BA (Hons) in Hotel Management BA in Hospitality Management National Apprenticeship Chef de Partie Primary Food Hygiene and Management of Food Hygiene

For further details contact: Ciarán Ó hAnnracháin, Head of Department of Hospitality, Tourism and Culinary Arts. T: 07491 86603 E: ciaran.ohannrachain@lyit.ie, www.facebook.com/lyit.tourism

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When great food meets great service.

When your catering business switches to Calor, you’re not just gaining an energy supplier - you’re gaining a partner that knows the things that matter to you. We recognise that your needs are different to other businesses, that’s why we provide energy solutions tailored to you.

Call now for a consultation 1850 812 450 or visit calorgas.ie

Access more opportunities with IFSA Discover our member benefits and how IFSA can give you access to everything you need to grow your foodservice supplier business.

We offer a wide range of membership benefits to our 200+ supplier members including: • Access to end-users groups across the Foodservice sector including 3,000 Chef Network members • Free industry profiles, advertising and other publicity opportunities • A calendar of high profile networking, information and sales events For more information on membership and it’s exclusive benefits visit www.ifsa.eu.com

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