BRAND DEBUT: Le Bristol Abu Dhabi

The Oetker Collection's senior vice president of development in the Middle East and Africa, Samir Daqqaq, chief financial officer, Dr. Timo Gr?nert, and chief executive officer Frank Marrenbach.

Middle Eastern expansion
Looking for potential partners in this region is high on Marrenbach’s list of priorities, as the group is looking to expand in MENA with Dubai, Doha, Muscat and Cairo earmarked as locations for the group’s ‘masterpieces’.

“We are looking at Oman, we’re looking at Doha, of course, Dubai is definitely on the radar screen big time,” reveals Daqqaq.

However, Grünert says a key challenge with expansion is finding the right location and owner for the group’s “masterpieces”.

Story continues below

“We are looking carefully at a lot of different markets but in a way, [we are looking for] the needle in the haystack — this very special project with the right owner. It’s one thing to talk about masterpiece hotels but it’s another thing to find places,” he says. “When you make two or three mistakes in the development of masterpiece hotels you lose your credibility and that’s obviously not what we intend to do.

Marrenbach says there is one other major challenge that is dictating a gradual growth for The Oetker Collection — the people to create and staff their hotels.

“What’s the bottleneck?” he asks. “The viability of good, skillful people who are willing to design and build. Even the best manager in the world is only as good as his or her hoteliers, that is the challenge. So you’d better pursue a careful growth instead of a super large growth,” warns Marrenbach. “We’re not a global company. We are a very fine selective company and the MENA region is the one we chose to grow the most.”

Quoting the company’s founder, the late Rudolf August Oetker, Marrenbach reminds us: “The one who stops striving to be better stopped striving to be good”.

With Emirates Palace identified as the competition, it sounds like the bar is being raised for Abu Dhabi’s luxury sector.