Yes, it has been a year, where do they go? For suppliers to the region’s hospitality industry, 2010 might have been a year they were glad to see the back of as quickly as possible, but as our survey reveals, it certainly beat 2009.

It probably wasn’t a vintage year for everyone, although we would like to think the supplier who turned over a net profit of US $10-25 million would disagree, but most seem more optimistic and that can only be a good thing.

But as you read on, some of the same issues rear their ugly heads — late payments, broken promises and back breaking undercutting to secure business.

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First let’s take a look at those who took the survey, which was completed by 56 respondents in total. More than half of our respondents (64.3%) sold something to do with F&B, whether it was food, kitchen equipment or kit for the restaurant or ballroom.

Both spa and in-room tech equipment were sold by 5.4% of our respondents, while furniture was supplied by 14.3%. At least 32 companies called the UAE their home, with Western Europe and Saudi Arabia making up 5.4% each.

The majority of those from the UAE were based in Dubai, although Sharjah made a decent showing. We would also like to say hello to our supplier from Buenos Aires.

The UAE was the place most of the firms conducted business (83.9%) but the rest of the region was well represented by the suppliers.

More than 71% were in Qatar and 69.6% of respondents sold in Saudi Arabia. Yemen and Iran were least represented with only 19.6% and 21.4% respectively of companies operating in those states.

For 66% of suppliers who took part, more than half of their business was tied up in hotels. For 8.9% of the companies, 100% of their business was supplying hotels.