Knud Bundgaard, director of culinary - MEA, and F&B operations for Africa & Indian Ocean, Hilton Worldwide
How many new brand partnerships do you expect will arise from the website?
JMD: It’s difficult to say at the moment, but we’re obviously looking at a variety of complementary brands that suit the local market and each property.
You mentioned Cairo earlier in reference to new brands. How has your approach to that market changed due to the effect of the Arab Spring?
Jarrett Beaulieu: Cairo’s a bit of a different case for obvious reasons. There’s a challenge with price points – it’s more sensitive – and there’s less footfall in the hotels, so for us to get our market share we’re doing some creative and innovative promotions and ensuring that the quality is better than that of our competitors’.
Tourism is certainly down, so we’re focusing more on trying to attract the local market.
| Advertisement |
Have you had to change any of the restaurant concepts as well as your price points?
JB: We’re trying to offer more value; we’re working on menu engineering with lower price points and some added richness. We’re fighting for the market.
Have you found it difficult to get hold of ingredients for your Cairo restaurants?
JB: There have certainly been challenges. In our Asian restaurant in the Conrad Cairo, for instance, we try to be as authentic as possible, which means importing vegetables from Thailand.
There was a stage where one or two vendors were unable to supply the produce, so we had to ask them to supply to us exclusively and paid a bit more for it.
There’s also a drive towards locally-sourced produce. There are some beautiful products from the local farms, but they traditionally go straight to Europe.
Article continues on next page ...
Search our database of more than 2,700 industry companies
