Hodson Bay Group honoured at Best Managed Awards

The future is bright for two sister hotels in Athlone after their company's management performance was honoured with a top business award last Friday. Owned by the O'Sullivan family, Hodson Bay Group comprises the well-known Hodson Bay and Galway Bay Hotels, and more recently, the Sheraton Athlone Hotel. The group won an award for excellence at the Deloitte Best Managed Company Awards programme after a very comprehensive and lengthy judging process, which saw judges delve through the group's accounts and business plans. The award was particularly notable as the group was the only representative of the hospitality sector to receive the coveted honour. John O'Sullivan and Johnny O'Sullivan, Directors, and Gary Walsh Commercial Director, were thrilled with the recognition, which saw their business practices get the thumbs up from people hugely experienced in the financial and business world. It's a sign that the hotel group has survived the recession. "These mentors, one was from Deloitte and the other worked for years in the banking industry. We'd to share our A to Z of business with them," said John. "They were very, very impressed with our profit margin performance in the industry." After receiving the award from Denis Brosnan, former head of Kerry plc, John O'Sullivan expressed his delight. "This award is all about our people. It reflects on their ability to deliver superb standards of hospitality to all our customers. Our record levels of repeat business as a result of our team's passion, sincerity and friendliness has allowed Hodson Bay Group to achieve this wonderful recognition". The group is now focusing on making the hotels more successful, instead of stretching resources to expand the group. "It's by far the most secure option. The location has been proved, the brand and the customer base has been established," said John. He said the decision to extend the Hodson Bay by adding a spa has already paid off and it would have been "silly" to leave it as it was and to build elsewhere. They described the Sheraton brand as a "coup" for Athlone which benefitted the town because 25-30% of guests are overseas visitors. John agreed that too many hotels were built around Ireland during the boom years and that the banks were only keeping some of them open now to retain their value for NAMA or to receive tax breaks. However, he said it would be a bad thing for his hotels if other hotels in Athlone closed down because of financial troubles. "The important thing for Athlone is the number of bedrooms it has on offer. Gary (going to marketing events) has to say there's a good healthy hotel industry here. So it's important that other hotels remain in a healthy state. We're not competing with other hotels in Athlone, we're competing with alternative destinations." In June 2008, John realised that a recession was looming and with the board of directors, the three hotel general managers and financial controllers, formed a plan to cope with a 35% drop in revenue. "Revenue was still growing and our main business plan had been to capture that growth, so we'd to change that, which is a difficult thing to do. But in October 2008, it (the industry) just dived," said John. Gary said they focused on customer research using the 1,000-plus enquiries made to the hotels every month. "We listened to what they were asking about, what they were saying about the rate and what they were saying about competitors," explained Gary. "And then we asked, 'how could we convert them?'." Cost-cutting while maintaining an excellent guest experience was a priority, added Johnny. "You can have the keenest price possible, but what do you do next? You do it better than the next guy," said John. "That's where the quality of your people come in. The Hodson Bay is a friendly place to be, as is the Sheraton, and that's down to the management and staff working together." The group employs around 600 full and part-time staff and a good working atmosphere is important. In the depths of the recession, John made sure that staff knew that the business was healthy and there was room for expansion.