Jinnie pushed the button that changed the Trattoria Trevi Group boardroom’s glazed partitions from transparent to opaque and called the meeting to order. Before talking about the project, she impressed on everyone the importance of absolute secrecy for what she was about to describe and that it was not to be discussed with anyone outside those in the room without direct permission from her or Brooke, the project manager. And even then, it should be behind closed doors. If notes were taken, they should be locked away when not in use, and that even included going for a coffee or a pee. Jinnie said she would record the meeting’s decisions and keep them under lock and key until the project was general knowledge.
Jinnie described the project and how it had come about. Then she explained that in Canada they would not just be in competition with KFC who had nearly 850 outlets but also Popeyes who had 450. Jinnie told them that Popeyes was a big rival to KFC in North America, but there was another North American chain, Chick-fil-A. They had a small presence in Canada, but if this plan went ahead, they would instantly have more branches than them. Hence the secrecy, if any one of the competitors got wind of the plan, they would do their utmost to destroy it.
Brian wanted to know if the project had been costed and Jinnie replied that currently that was impossible. They needed to get offices, a preparation plant and a delivery network designed and costed first. At that stage a decision could be made by this group as to proceed or not. When the meeting broke up, several actions had been agreed. Brooke and Brain were to travel to Ottawa and with Jack look for the offices and a building for the preparation plant. Legal Affairs were to set up Bearcat Foods (Group) Limited that was to be 100% owned by TT FastFood Limited. But Bearcat Foods (Canada) was to be 50% owned by the Group and 50% by Jack and Molly’s company, Baker Fried Chicken. To confuse things even more it was agreed to set up dummy Bearcat Foods companies in Ireland, France, Italy, Spain and the USA. Nigel was tasked with investigating setting up a computer network to link the Canadian businesses to the TT group’s SAP system.
Jinnie and Brian undertook building the costing spreadsheet, and Sir Nigel was tasked with looking into a radio advertising campaign in Ottawa. It was hoped that Jack would be able to recommend various local suppliers for the main requirements, chicken portions and potatoes. Jinnie told the meeting she was certain that numerous other items would emerge, and further tasks were likely to be allocated.
Jinnie and Belinda had retreated to Jinnie’s office for a sandwich lunch when the travel office’s youngest trainee knocked on her door with an envelope in his shaking hand which he gave to Jinnie. Jinnie thanked him and asked him how he was enjoying working for Trattoria Trevi. He replied that he was loving it and that when he had told his friends he was going to work for Trattoria Trevi, they thought he was going to either be a waiter or work in the kitchen. No one thought that a restaurant chain had a travel department. Jinnie laughed and said, “In the early days of the company, when I joined, if anyone needed to go anywhere on business, they arranged and paid for their own travel and were reimbursed from the petty cash. Then we moved on and used an independent travel agents in the high street.”
“Then,” Jinnie continued, “when we got much bigger and had restaurants all over the country, we often had to hire cars as well as issue train tickets. So, we bought the travel agent and opened an in-house branch, we still own ‘C Travel’ but they are in Darkes Lane now and specialise in selling cruises. Strangely they contribute quite well to our profits although not many people realise we own them because they do most of their business selling cruises on the internet. I doubt it would be economic for us to have our own in-house travel department without the shop, but we do it for the convenience, like you bringing us our train tickets and hotel reservations. So thank you again, I’m sorry I don’t know your name.” The trainee was more at ease now and replied, “It’s Ronnie Clark, ma’am.”
“Well Ronnie,” said Jinnie, “you have learnt a few things this afternoon. Firstly, I don’t bite, and you now know the history of the Travel Department. But there are a couple of other things, everyone calls me Jinnie, ma’am is for the Queen and if you haven’t got a passport apply for one tomorrow, now we are doing a lot of business abroad you never know when the chance to travel might occur.” When Ronnie had gone back to his desk in the area occupied by travel, Belinda said, “What a nice polite young man.”
Jinnie replied, “Yes, I’ve seen him about before, I talked to his boss about him and he is a very hard worker and a quick learner, just the sort of employee I want to encourage. I have been thinking about a head office staff incentive scheme with small prizes like free sandwiches and coffee on a weekly basis in a random draw. Then a monthly draw of a meal for two at the Trattoria Trevi and an annual prize of a meal for two at the TT Carlton in Barbados with travel and accommodation. Of course, the winner will have to have a passport.”
***
Jinnie had rung Rick and told him that the inspection party had bookings in the Supreme for Tuesday evening. She had booked in her maiden name of Jinnie Walsh as too many people in the hotel and restaurant trade now knew who Jinnie De Luca was. For a similar reason, Belinda had made the appointment to view the Belvedere in her real name of Quarendon, in the trade she was Belinda Wright from Wright Refurbishment the name of her first husband. On the fast train from Waterloo to Bournemouth the four had sat together in First Class and Jinnie had repeated her conversation with Rick to them.
The restaurant manager was expecting them and after dinner he and the deputy general manager would show them around the Supreme. The general manager had never been known to work later than eight in the evening and they would have no problem avoiding him. The deputy general manager had been Rick’s deputy and according to Rick should have been promoted when he resigned but the owners had brought in their own man who was thoroughly disliked and not trusted by the staff. Rick believed the news of the sale had come from the deputy.
Belinda told them that the Belvedere was on the estate agent’s website at £1.1 million having been reduced in steps from £1.5 million. From the agent’s reaction when she had booked the viewing, she was certain the property had not been viewed for some time and the owners would be only too happy to accept an offer. Alberto wondered how low they should go as being empty for a long time it was bound to need a lot of work.
From the rank outside the station, they piled in a taxi and were dropped at the Supreme Hotel which looked like it had once been part of a terrace of townhouses and had a canopy out over the pavement to the roadside which Alberto liked, saying how convenient it would be if it were raining. Further down the terrace the bright lights and fresh paint of the Supreme finished and what they guessed was the shabby exterior of the Belvedere started. The reception handled the check-in efficiently and asked if they would be eating in the restaurant that evening. Jinnie replied, “Yes please, could we have a table for four at 7:30.” The receptionist said yes that was OK and called over a porter to show them to their rooms.
Jinnie and Belinda’s rooms were adjacent on the first floor, which was the top floor, and had a decent view of the beach. Jinnie spent a while looking around and took a load of photos on her iPhone. The room had recently been refurbished and in Jinnie’s opinion it had been done quite nicely, but the more she looked there were little touches missing that the TT Ennios offered. She sat at the desk/dressing table and made notes. The furniture was similar and the soft furnishings pretty good. But it was the small things, for example, the quality of the soap and shampoo in the bathroom, the Ennios were at a higher level. Even the towels were not quite as thick and fluffy. The pad and ink pen on the desk were of a lower grade. In the Ennios every page was printed with the hotel’s name and logo and the pen was click action, here the pad was plain paper and the pen more like those given away in banks and betting shops.
The Ennios had bottles of sparkling and still water with tumblers on a tray, here there was nothing. Also missing were fresh flowers and a fruit bowl all standard at the Ennios. Yes, it was nice but not luxurious. Jinnie looked at the room service menu and it had a decent offering and the prices compared to the Ennios but here they had a £5 service charge while the Ennios was free. The kettle and mugs were okay, but the tea bags were Lipton’s, she much preferred the Yorkshire tea at the Ennios or even the PG Tips on P&O ships. The custard creams were some unknown brand while the Ennios were all Huntley and Palmers. Jinnie decided that if they were to add this hotel to the chain Rick was going to be busy.
***
They met in the bar for a pre-dinner drink at 6:45 and, settled in a booth, Alberto asked what they thought of their rooms. Jinnie pulled out her pad and went through her notes. Nigel nodded along and, when she had finished, said, “I totally agree, the rooms are nice, but not of the same standards as the Ennios.” Alberto said, “I also agree but it wouldn’t be hard to bring it up to the same standard it’s all little things. Look at this bar, it is excellent, I suspect that no expense has been spared here while the rooms seem to have been renovated to a tight budget and savings made on the luxuries which people expect in a top-notch hotel.”
At exactly 7:30 a man in a smart suit approached them and asked, “The Walsh party?” When Jinnie said, “Yes”, he said, “Your table for four is ready madam, would you like to follow me.” As he led them into the dining room Jinnie asked him if he was the restaurant manager and he replied, “Yes, I’m Rod Walker and Rick told me you were coming to look at the hotel and the Belvedere. I’m afraid standards here have dropped a bit since Rick was in charge. The owners have spent money doing the Supreme up. It looks nice but they have cut back on some of the things that make a luxury hotel. I think Rick would have realised the hotel was being done up for a sale, that’s why they didn’t promote Derek and brought in their own man. Derek is too much like Rick for them.”
Alberto sat so he was facing the busy room and waited while the chairs were pushed in, crisp white napkins placed in everyone’s laps, iced water poured and menus presented before saying, “Well, so far so good.” Before he could continue, the wine waiter arrived and asked if anyone wanted drinks or wine. Alberto said, “I think we might be having wine so please leave the wine list so we can pick something that goes with our meals.” “Of course, sir,” came the reply and he glided away. Alberto continued, “So far I can’t fault the restaurant, but we haven’t tasted the food yet.”
The Jinnie sipped her coffee without much expectation and found it to be quite reasonable before saying to Alberto, “I quite enjoyed that meal, the fish was lovely, and the crepes were delicious”. Alberto smiled and replied, “Yes, I agree, Rod runs a tight ship. I did wonder if we were getting special service, but I have been observing other nearby tables and can happily say we weren’t getting special treatment. There is little to do in this restaurant, maybe a couple of tweaks of the menu, but I don’t think we would need to spend a penny on improvements here.”
As Jinnie drained the last of her second cup of coffee, Rod came over and asked if the meal had been satisfactory. Alberto smiled and replied, “It was excellent, the ‘Ossobuco alla Milanese’ was magnificent. I haven’t had it in years and if I can source the veal shanks, I might put it on at my restaurant.” Rod replied, “Rick knows where we get them so he should have no trouble sourcing it for the Ennios.” Alberto said, “I’m not talking about the Ennios, much as I am proud of what Rick had done there. I was thinking of my first love, the Trattoria Trevi in Potters Bar.” “But that’s a Two Michelin Star restaurant,” said an amazed Rod. “I thought you knew that The Trattoria Trevi Group owned the TT Ennios,” replied Jinnie.
***
The inspection party plus Rod and Derek, the deputy general manager, sat in the bar after the tour of the Supreme and talked about what they had seen. Belinda said there were a few things on her notepad, all of them were behind the scenes things where the owners had not wanted to spend money on things not in public areas. Many of the offices, service corridors and staircases needed redecorating and recarpeting. The service lift was in a poor state and the computer system was positively archaic, they would be the most expensive things if they were to buy the hotel.
Derek and Rod shook hands with the party, said if they wanted any more help to ring them and handed over their mobile numbers. Derek promised that if he got word of the asking price he would contact them immediately and they walked away. Jinnie addressed her colleagues saying, “Well, I like this and I have a good feeling. Depending on the asking price, I think we could make money here. I trust Derek and Rod and don’t think we need to look for management. Derek could easily step up to general manager.” Alberto said, “I’m inclined to agree with you, but let’s wait until the morning and the Belvedere, my worry is that it could be a money pit.” Belinda said, “I won’t mince my words, I will give you a fair price to bring it up to the same level as the Supreme/Ennios. As I currently see it, we can knock through the adjoining wall, I suspect we will have to be careful about fire regulations with self-closing fire doors, alarms and sprinklers. I might need a steer as to what you want to do with the kitchens, reception and dining room. Do you want more bedrooms or something like a conference centre or a spa? I take it you will want new signage and it will become the TT Ennios (Bournemouth).”
Jinnie said, “We are all speculating, we haven’t seen the place yet. We have no idea what condition it is in, it might be good, it might be awful, but until we have seen it we won’t know. I suggest we discuss it once we have seen it, only then can we decide how we are going to proceed.” Alberto said, “I agree, there is no point in discussing it now, instead, as I said, I agree we could make good money turning the Supreme into an Ennios, does anyone disagree? Is there anything we need to do that we have not talked about yet? If there isn’t, I am going to bed, and I will see you at breakfast. I suggest we meet at eight in the restaurant.”
***
The small party met the agent in the bar of the Supreme at 10 am and walked next door. Belinda’s first entry on her notepad was ‘remove revolving door and two side doors, infill 4m x 3m opening. Add windows?’ Entering the reception area Jinnie’s first impression was that it wasn’t as dilapidated as she had expected, it was just very old-fashioned and desperately in need of renovation. Then she thought, ‘No, the reception will be surplus to requirements, it needs ripping out and repurposing.’ The agent saw Belinda sketching and measuring and said, “If it helps, we have AutoCAD plans of the building, the owners kept them up to date with alterations, power outlets, fire call points, all sorts of useful things all on various layers. I can email them to you as soon as I get back to the office.” Belinda reached into her bag for a business card with her email address on and then thought better of it and wrote her personal Hotmail address on a sheet torn from her pad.
Alberto pointed out that the restaurant shared a common wall with the Supreme, which would make the Belvedere’s kitchen redundant if the Supreme’s could cope with the extra covers. If it couldn’t, it seemed that again they had a common wall which Belinda suspected was a supporting wall. There was a bar, a large resident’s lounge and 60 en-suite double rooms. Belinda said to Jinnie, “This is better than I expected, of course, it needs all the carpets, curtains and furniture being ripped out, but structurally it looks ok. I haven’t seen any cracks or fallen ceilings. There is no water damage from leaks indicating the roof is in good repair. I would recommend the old wooden windows are replaced, but we will have to run that past the council, I don’t think this is a listed building or a conservation area, but councils can be fussy about the external appearance of buildings, and I would guess they would like it to match the Supreme externally.”
Belinda continued, “The furniture is old fashioned and needs skipping, the en-suites all need updating, the fittings are terribly outdated. I think we should get a decent discount buying 60 sets of things so it should not be as expensive as a one-off home bathroom x 60. Of course, the air conditioning, power and water systems need looking at. I notice there are hot water radiators in every room, why? Has the system been decommissioned but just been left in place or is it needed to supplement the AC? Without getting my specialists in I can only guess. These days people expect a fully controllable AC system in a hotel room so it may be that we will have to upgrade the existing ducted system and remove the radiators and piping. Each room has a TV, but they are old and small, again it needs an upgrade and I suspect it will need a proper re-cable for a digital system linked to the Supreme’s system. This job isn’t going to be cheap, but we have a solid building and that’s a huge plus.”
Jinnie had listened intently to Belinda and couldn’t argue with anything she had said. It was obvious that a lot of redecorating was needed, she had looked into several bathrooms and hated what she had seen. The lighting in the corridors was poor and she wondered if the emergency lighting and signage met the current standards. Jinnie asked the agent, “Does the fire alarm system meet current standards? I don’t see any smoke detectors in the rooms or come to that sprinklers.” The agent said, “I don’t think it does. While the hotel is in its current condition the system is OK but if it is refurbished it would probably need to be upgraded.” Jinnie nodded and said, “If we decide to make an offer, we will have to make an adjustment to the cost for bringing the systems up to standard.”
At the rear of the hotel there was quite a big car park. Belinda looked at it and said, “This is ideal for some Portakabin offices and workers facilities while the project is active.” But the agent was happier describing the car park as having over 100 spaces so big enough for guests and casual diners in the restaurant. Jinnie suggested to Belinda she cost for a barrier that raised on taking a ticket, or read a number plate, residents or diners could present the ticket to reception where their registration number could be entered into the system for free parking. Anyone else would have to pay on the way out. In one corner of the car park sat the AC compound which Belinda approved of saying it was more accessible than on the roof and simpler to upgrade if that is needed, a crane wouldn’t be necessary to lift equipment to the roof.
Outside on the pavement, while Jinnie thanked the Agent and told him they had other places to see and would let him know, Alberto called a taxi to take them to the station. They had a short wait before the half-hourly train to Waterloo arrived from Weymouth and they were disappointed there was no refreshment room or refreshments on the train. However, the four were able to gather around a table in First Class and discuss their excursion. It was quickly agreed that they would make an offer for the Supreme if the owners were asking a sensible price. As for the Belvedere, Jinnie asked Belinda if she had any idea of the cost of refurbishing the hotel, to which she replied, “That’s not easy, there are so many variables. If the council are difficult and, say, demand wooded replacement windows and want special exterior paint it can get expensive, but budget on £1.5 million plus the purchase price, but I think I can beat that though.”
Jinnie said, “Well, they are asking £1.1 million, I would offer £950,000 and up it slowly, so let’s say £2.5 million with refurbishments. If we include recruitment, training, stock and a margin I reckon we budget for £3 million. I can’t see them asking a lot less for the Supreme, do you have thoughts on work there?” “Very cheap,” answered Belinda, “£100,000 tops. I reckon it really depends on the service lift and networking the IT. The rest is painting and decorating, commercial carpet tiles and new lockers. Alberto said, “Well, a back of the envelope costing says we get 120 or so double ensuite rooms for £6 million. I have no idea how that equates to a new build or other people’s numbers.” “A double at the Ennios is upwards of £150 a night, superior and executive go for, say, £200 and £250 including breakfast,” said Jinnie.
“What do you get extra in an executive room?” asked Belinda. “A bigger room,” said Jinnie, “a towelling robe, slippers, a small box of chocolates, upgraded smellies in the bathroom and free canapés.” “Is it worth it?” asked Belinda. “People tend to think so,” replied Jinnie. “The more expensive rooms sell fastest.” “Do we have £6 million to hand?” asked Nigel. “Good question,” replied Jinnie, “of course we wouldn’t have to find it all at once, the refurbishment work would be a deposit and stage payments and I think the recruitment and training would be in a couple of months. Once we owned the Supreme it would be generating income, and it has a 95% occupancy rate at this time of year. August and Christmas is 100% and the rack rates always go up for school holidays.”
“We really need to make some assumptions on costs,” said Alberto, “and get a spreadsheet built. Then we need to get Brian’s input on whether we have the funds.” Jinnie thought for a while, before adding, “If we decide we want to go with the project, and Brian says we can’t fund it internally, I will put in a director’s loan to make it happen.” “But it could be millions,” said Alberto. “Don’t worry I’m good for it,” said Jinnie.
***
The twins and Larry were waiting for her when she got home and came running over to her saying, “We missed you last night Mummy. Daddy is not as good at reading our bedtime story as you.” Jinnie said, “You know it’s high time you read your own stories.” Willie replied, “But sometimes there a big words we don’t know.” Jinnie said, “How about you take it in turns reading a page each and I help with the big words. I have been buying some books about the Magic Faraway Tree which I read when I was your age. They are really for children a bit older than you, but I think you two are good enough to be able to read them.”
Jinnie remembered she had been asked to call Alan at the Cross and slipped away to ring him before he went home for the day. Alan’s assistant put her through, and he said, “Thanks for ringing me, I have a little job for you that needs your special talents. There is no mad rush to do the job, so can you come in say Monday next week about 10 o’clock and I can get everyone together for a briefing.”
“That should be OK,” replied Jinnie. “Any clues as to what you want me to do?” “Not over the public phone system,” said Alan. “But as I said we need your special skills.”
In Chapter 23 – A special mission
© WorthingGooner 2024
