VerandaLeisure brochure – November 2018

Veranda Leisure & Hospitality

Procurement and hospitality made simple

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VLH uses strategic procurement to provide world class hotel services WRIT TEN BY

DA LE BENTON PRODUCED BY

S TUART IRVING

a fri c a .busi ne ssc hief. com

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Through an approach to strategic procurement, VLH provides world class hotel services with greater efficiency

A

ll over the world, the hotel industry is changing and now more than ever before the role of procurement is proving key in

adapting to the ever-evolving hospitality landscape.

The industry has always been driven by the guest 04

but the modern-day hotel guest has far greater access to information and technology, resulting in a more informed guest which demands more from a hotel operator. For Veranda Leisure and Hospitality (VLH), key to understanding and delivering on this increasing demand lies within its procurement.

“We have a hybrid procurement process, that is, we use a mix of decentralised and centralised procurement processes,” says Stéphane Lacoste, Group Procurement Manager, VLH. “With this modus operandi and the input of my great team, we can manage to meet our KPIs and achieve world class standards, ensuring that Veranda Leisure and Hospitality increases its competitive advantage.”

VLH is the mother brand of two hotels’ brands: Heritage Resorts and Veranda Resorts. The group is composed of three hotels in the three-star

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w w w.v lh . m u

category, two hotels in the four-star category, two hotels in the five-star category, a 19th century Chateau, 50 luxury villas, an 18-hole championship golf course, one beach club famous for its international events, and its own spa and wellness brand Seven Colours Spa. As Group Procurement Manager, Stéphane oversees a small team of 9 people and is responsible for VLH’s yearly average spend of $30 million. But as Stéphane notes, procurement has changed dramatically in recent years and his teams’ responsibilities have too. “We manage the group’s procure06

ments for every category of items over the group” he says. “We are also part of the Project Management teams and we work with them for all procurement-related actions, decisions and strategies during the renovation of current assets and/or acquisition of new hotels.”

This shift in responsibility within VLH speaks to an industry wide shift in procurement, with more and more companies looking to implement a robust strategic procurement function. But what is meant by strategic procurement? “Moving away from tactical procurement to a strategic model was one of the very first tasks I had here at VLH,” says Stéphane. “For me, strategic procurement is defined by information; you don’t know what you don’t know so we must be guided by

“With this modus operandi and the input of my great team, we can manage to meet our KPIs and achieve world class standards, ensuring that Veranda Leisure and Hospitality increases its competitive advantage” — Stéphane Lacoste, Group Procurement Manager, VLH

CLICK TO WATCH : ‘VERANDA — BRAND MOVIE’ 07 data and information coming from the

business model. He found that the

supply chain.”

existing ERP system proved incred-

VLH, like many organisations before

ibly inhibiting.

it, had been utilising a ‘tailor-made’

“To be able to do this, the ERP should

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)

be up to standards,” he says. “In supply

system and it required a keen under-

chain, you need a world class ERP

standing and knowledge of how to use

system. The better you have and the

it in order to extract the necessary

better your data is stored, the better

information. Stéphane looked to review

you will maximise your efficiency in

the company’s whole supply chain and

gathering information, the better you

procurement processes, its supplier

will analyse the data and the better

and item rationalisations and its

you will implement cost improvement/

spending in order to better understand

reduction strategies to have the company

how procurement could better fit into

beneficiate from all of it.”

and enable greater value to the VLH’s

“If the ERP doesn’t deliver strategic w w w.v lh . m u

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information, procurement can’t develop

where used and replaced them with

any strategy.”

eco-friendly alternatives wherever

One such strategy that Stéphane

possible. The group has also replaced

and his procurement team have been

more than 200,000 plastic bottles from

working on is the implementation of

its operations through the implementa-

a more sustainably focused procure-

tion of bottling plants at all of its hotels.

ment function, which echoes a VLH

“Sustainability is at the heart of

groupwide approach to sustainability

everything we do and it’s rooted within

best practice. “We are constantly

our day-to-day thinking and actions in

encouraging and helping our business

order to enable the group to be greener

units to buy more responsibly and in a

throughout every single step of the

better way for the planet,” says Stéphane.

procurement process,” adds Stéphane.

To this end, VLH has removed all

Through the implementation of

plastic straws and polystyrene boxes

a Business Intelligence system, as

E X E C U T I V E P R OF IL E

Stéphane Lacoste, Group Procurement Manager at VLH Stéphane has 13 years of experience in procurement and supply across different industries, namely the banking industry, the FMCG industry, the manufacturing industry and the hospitality sector.

His core expertise are strategic sourcing and purchasing, supply chain management, category management, contract management, ERPs, warehouse management, P&L accountability, negotiation skills, vendor management and project management.

Since 2013, Stéphane has been a member of the Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply, a renowned UK-based global professional body for procurement and supply. w w w.v lh . m u

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well as the company’s approach to

team working with you and have great

sustainable best practice, VLH contin-

external stakeholders helping you

ues to act on all steps of the procure-

to improve your supply chain” says

ment process with the necessary

Stéphane. “By applying our ESI concept,

controls and measures in place to

we use the knowledge and expertise of

increase overall efficiency and effec-

our partners to improve and maintain

tiveness. Key to any procurement

the quality of our goods and services

function is its supplier network and

in our supply chain.”

VLH has adopted an Early Supplier

In order to implement the ESI concept,

Involvement (ESI) concept designed

Stéphane understands that he and his

to ensure the highest standards are

team must continuously strive to create

met and continue to be met for all its

strong relationships with these external

procurement activities.

stakeholders, suppliers and partners.

“In procurement, each journey is

The goal of this, he feels, is to create

a success only when you have a great

relationships that are built on trust,

From left: Shamnaz Mowlabocus – Procurement Officer, Xavier de St Pern – Senior Procurement Officer, Stéphane Lacoste – Group Procurement Manager and Arjuna Cuttaree – Procurement Officer

11 mutual respect and honesty. With a supplier database of more than 1500 suppliers and vendors, how does Stéphane foster and develop key relationships?

“Face to face communication wherever possible,” he says. “In all relationships trust and honesty should be the more important factors. Win/ lose relationships in supply chain will never succeed and for the relationship to work it must be reciprocal.”

“Veranda Leisure and Hospitality is very lucky to have such great suppliers

“If the ERP doesn’t deliver strategic information, procurement can’t develop any strategy” — Stéphane Lacoste, Group Procurement Manager, VLH

to be part of its supply chain. The w w w.v lh . m u

process of involving our partners in our decisions is one of our success factors in our relationships.”

A key factor to developing these relationships is transparency and data capture through e-procurement. As the procurement sector becomes more agile and embraces technology further, Stéphane can assess its processes and share this information with VLH’s stakeholders. This he feels

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“In procurement, each journey is a success only when you have a great team working with you and have great external stakeholders helping you to improve at every turn” — Stéphane Lacoste, Group Procurement Manager, VLH

60,000 Clients per year

1982

Year founded

2,000

Approximate number of employees

makes sense in order to foster relationships but also improve and enable growth as a business.

“E-procurement allows greater speed in the way we can do business and the easiness in which we can obtain information and make decisions based on that information,” says Stéphane. “Combine that with VLH’s international standard policies regarding good governance and how

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we rely on internal and external

VLH’s strategy over the coming years

auditors to challenge our processes

will be defined by an approach to

in order to improve what we do and I’d

continuous improvement, analysing

argue transparency is absolutely

and reanalysing its supply chain and

crucial to the VLH of today and the

procurement as it continues to play

one of tomorrow.�

an ever-increasing role in growing

Whatever the future holds for VLH

competitive advantage.

and the wider hospitality sector, procurement will continue to play a key role in enabling growth. With a number of hotel acquisitions already in the pipeline, w w w.v lh . m u

Veranda Leisure & Hospitality Labourdonnais Village 31803 Mapou Mauritius, 31803 T +230 266 9700 www.vlh.mu