INTERVIEW: ANDREW GIBSON
Fairmont Hotels Raffles International
History and ownership
■ Kingdom Holding Company (KHC) is a publicly listed investment company based in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Its involvement in FRHI dates back to a 1994 investment in what was then Fairmont Hotels Management.
■ Twelve years later, in January 2006, KHC chair Prince Alwaleed led a US$5.5bn (€4bn, £3.3bn) deal to privatise Fairmont and, at the same time, combine it with the Raffl es and Swissôtel hotel brands which were owned by US equity fi rm Colony Capital. The newly formed company was Fairmont Raffl es Hotels International (FRHI).
Fairmont Monte Carlo is one of the fl agship properties Gibson will be working closely with
We’re discussing the possibility of not even having a spa in the hotel... all the usual spa components will be there, just not in a dedicated facility
‘an oasis for the well-travelled’,” he says. “Translate all of those standards into spa and that means each facility will be custom- built for a particular location and will off er everything that affl uent, well-travelled guests demand, such as seamless service, space and privacy. But it’s the defi ning of the fi ner points that’s going to take a lot of work. If people want privacy, do we get rid of banks of treadmills in the fi tness centre so others can’t see what you’re doing? If people want luxury, do we choose the best products in that particular market instead of having a set product house?” As Fairmont is a Canadian brand, the
philosophy centres around hospitality and humbleness. “Canadians have a way of wel- coming you into their homes,” says Gibson. “So, where it’s culturally acceptable, we’ll look to include communal lounges in spas as part of this social aspect.” Meanwhile, with Swissôtel it’s all about
sticking to Swiss-style standards such as effi ciency, unobtrusive service, vibrancy and energy. “The founders are Swissair and Nestlé: you couldn’t get more Swiss if you cut a Toblerone in half!” Its spa brand, Pürovel, launched in 2011 (see SB11/3 p20) and already incorporates many of these elements. Gibson says it’s likely that these spas will stay the same worldwide, but he might do some tweaking. That said, he’s also open to trying out new things in any of the hotel spas should
the market demand it. “Mandarin had it’s Oriental heritage brand that worked well and they didn’t want to experiment with it – why would they?” he says. “But here, there’s a bit more fl exibility. There’s an opportunity to perhaps go more into beauty or fi tness, or to introduce some edgy treatments. We’re discussing the possibility of not even having a spa, but instead having wellness facilities in the hotels that guests want – all the usual spa components will be there, but just not in a dedicated facility. But I can’t reveal any more about that yet. “Trying any new concept will be
challenging and it will have to be done in a style that matches hotel standards and locale. But I always enjoy a new test and it’s important not to get set in your ways.”
GETTING STRATEGIC Three months in and Gibson admits he doesn’t have the luxury of dedicating his time to just branding, however. “There’s no ‘fi rst thing’ to work on as I’ve jumped feet fi rst into the deep end of the pool,” he says. As people jostle for a sense of place in the FRHI reorg, he’s been busy meeting senior management teams globally – when we speak, he’s just attended a general managers’ meeting in the Middle East and has others planned in Europe, America and Asia. “I’m explaining my background to them and what my principles are. At
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■ Subsequently, in April 2010, FRHI sold a 40 per cent stake of its busi- ness to Voyager Partners – an affi liate of Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund Qatari Investment Authority (QIA) – for a reported US$847m (€610m, £505m) to help fund expansion plans.
■ Last May, Colony Capital reportedly sold its interest in FRHI to QIA. According to a recent article Canada’s newspaper The Globe and Mail, QIA now has a controlling 63 per cent stake in FRHI, while KHC has a 35 per cent share.
■ Other QIA investment companies range from Credit Suisse to Volkswagen and BlackBerry. It’s one of the biggest buyers of hotels, but didn’t have a management arm until the FRHI deal.
■ Investments of KHC’s Alwaleed amount to more than US$20bn (€14.4bn, £11.9bn) and include interests in varied businesses such as Apple, Citibank and News Corp.
■ In 2007, Alwaleed bought a 95 per cent share in Four Seasons with Microsoft founder Bill Gates. Mövenpick is another upscale hotel brand owned by KHC. In total, KHC’s hospitality platform is valued at US$13bn (€9.4bn, £7.7bn) and the portfolio is handled by Kingdom Hotel Investments.
■ FRHI has around 47,000 employees and is projecting 50 per cent growth over the next fi ve years. Most of the development will be international.
Spa Business 2 2014 ©Cybertrek 2014
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