Company insight
Managing assets you can experience
Hotel Management International speaks to Alessandro Tedesco, COO at FEBC, as he discusses the state of the hospitality industry and gives his insight on procurement and asset management.
ince FEBC was founded in 1989, the consultancy firm has expanded to cover a full suite of hospitality services for its clients, specialising in procurement management, strategic contracting, F&B concept and pre-opening activation. And while the past few years have been difficult for every industry, a lot can be learned from the experience, says Alessandro Tedesco, COO at FEBC, hospitality, manufacturing and operations expert with over two decades of experience. “We have learned that nothing is predictable.”
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Alessandro Tedesco COO FEBC
Over the past ten years, he continues, a lot has changed, but FEBC has never stopped improving and adapting to meet every situation that comes its way. “We have learned that we can have new markets open unexpectedly[…] that its important to be extremely professional in what you do, create solid bases, ever-diversified teams around the world and have a diversified portfolio of both countries and projects,” Tedesco explains. “But the most important thing that we learned, I think, is to be consistent in what you do and continue optimising your services.”
Hedging bets on hospitality Since the pandemic, global hospitality procurement has proven itself to be a solid way to invest money – for developers and individual investors – and is growing in the right direction. “It was an industry that was able to be resilient through two years of almost closing down [at a time that was] very challenging for some assets,” says Tedesco. “But overall, we had some outperforming properties.” According to the COO, the balance and the direction of hospitality has changed somewhat on a global scale, due to changes on the asset side affecting operators, causing a shift in approach and changes on the client’s side, with travellers spending more money and planning more
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thoroughly for the desired experience. “That’s why operators are offering a lot of different brands, a lot different positioning in the market to answer this kind of market segmentation,” he continues. “Nowadays, it is the standard that you need to be able to tackle each and every angle and sector of the market, alternatively you stay focused on a very specific one.” With changes to the scenario pipeline, there have also been strong growth for new development in Asia and South East Asia, such as China, Vietnam, Indonesia and the Philippines. “The pipeline for the Middle East, as we all know,” adds Tedesco, “has been completely blasted by the new master player, Saudi Arabia, who are basically running their own hospitality pipeline equal to a region and is instead a country.” The US, Tedesco notes, is experiencing a slowdown in preparation for the election in 2024, but in terms of development, operation and the supply chain, hospitality is a healthy industry. Asset managers are also seeing the value of a certain procurement cycle post- pandemic, says Tedesco. “In the past [few] years, there’s been a lot of assets, which have been developed to a very limited budget that ticked all the boxes for a quick return on investment.” According to Tedesco, a big discussion had among asset managers is about the ability to optimise the investment from the start and operational procurement in order to minimise financial wastage.
Luxuriously stable
When it comes to asset positioning, there has also been a big shift compared to pre- pandemic. “All the talks before Covid were that there were too many luxury assets and there were not enough mid-scale assets in different regions of the world,” explains Tedesco. “The reality is that 2021 demonstrated that the luxury segment is the one who was capable of surviving during that period.”
This cannot be the rule of investment,
Tedesco is keen to stress, but luxury showed the most potential due to the more “comfortable” budget during the development stage, allowing it to address sustainability and ESG, and any certifications necessary. “The reality is that luxury allows this kind of exercise compared to mid-scale, not because those assets don’t want to do it, but because normally for those assets (it’s not a rule) budgets are a little more constrained for development.” In Tedesco’s experience, hospitality is either a governmental or semi-governmental venture, or otherwise a real estate development for small or big developments. “Hospitality, by nature, is a valuable, long term business for diversification,” he explains, “and diversification in business is paramount nowadays for many companies.” FEBC, for example, started F&B concepts for restaurants and property management three years ago. Diversification, Tedesco continues, can help to tackle markets from different angles in order to survive any disruptions. The hospitality industry is experiencing a “fantastic moment”, despite the past and current challenges, but investors will continue to invest. “Hospitality has shown a fantastic capability to resist turbulent situation and even financial or global health ‘quakes’,” declares Tedesco. ●
www.febcgroup.com Hotel Management International /
www.hmi-online.com
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