Ghandour: I think all of us would admit that in 2008 the mood was really geared towards expansion. And by contrast this year the focus is on the details, so once the market does recover, we’re going to be in much better shape to make money.

Bautista: I think in general managing this kind of thing was not a priority; it was all about growth: growth took precedent over cost control.

You could see we were just focused on getting locations — it got to the stage where you were actually afraid that your competitor was going to come in and snap it up before you did.

So there was no arguing about the price, it was just about getting the location.

Penhaligan: From our side, I would beg to differ there; we were looking at the bottom line as well even back in 2006 and 2007. We were offered locations that we actually turned down and our expansion plans have been very measured.

Now, at the beginning of September, we will open a new hotel in Abu Dhabi which is managed by Fairmont and our second Frankie’s restaurant.

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Ghandour:  I think overall we’re much wiser as business people than we were in, say, 2002; we’ve seen growth in double digits over the past six or seven years, and I think when we expand we’re really going to do things right.

We’ll look at the location ten times; we’ll put in realistic numbers, not just go in and expect to break even right after it opens.

Dowlatshahi: The smaller players are the ones that will have problems, because they came in agreeing to pay ridiculous rents and inflated the market.

Penhaligan: I think all of us here are in it for the long term, but those people who came in without experience and drove up the rent prices, they’re the ones that are closing already. If you walk around some of the malls, you can see that outlets are starting to close.

De Villiers: Or on the verge — we get phone calls at least once a week from operators wanting to sell to us.

Dowlatshahi: We’re seeing the same thing. It’s a wake-up call to the developers as well, because they now really need to look at the retail mix in their malls and make sure they have the right one.