Expanding the empire: Mövenpick's Jean Gabriel Peres
There’s a cool confidence about Jean Gabriel Peres. The kind of confidence you can only acquire over time, through experience, having seen more or less everything there is to see in a certain industry.
It should come as no surprise. The president and CEO of Mövenpick Hotels and Resorts has been in the driving seat since 1999, leading the Swiss hospitality group and its 16,000 employees into a number of markets, and helping to generate impressive revenues, including $3.86bn in 2014.
The company’s portfolio of 83 hotels is spread across 24 countries, with the Middle East accounting for an impressive 30 properties, and more in the pipeline.
Recently announced projects will expand its Middle Eastern portfolio by more than ten hotels in the next five years, four of which will be built in Saudi Arabia, and two in Dubai.
Two of the Saudi hotels, one in Riyadh and the other in Jeddah, will open later this year, while the third property in Al Khobar, the 270-key Mövenpick Residences Al Khobar, will open in 2016. This will be followed in 2017 with the opening of the 353-room Mövenpick Hotel Financial District Riyadh.
Negotiations are also currently in progress with a view to add five more properties across the kingdom.
In the UAE, the 251-key Mövenpick Hotel Dubai Media City and 246-key Mövenpick Hotel Apartments Downtown Dubai — both of which will open in 2017 — will take the company’s portfolio in the emirate from six to eight properties.
Other Middle Eastern markets expected to see developments are Abu Dhabi, Ras Al Khaimah, Muscat, Salalah and Doha.
“We do have quite an aggressive plan,” states Peres. “Not only in the Middle East, by the way, but the rest of the world.
“We are really going to grow in Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia. Obviously the Middle East is a platform for growth because we are now one of the biggest brands here in terms of brand recognition, so we are very excited about what we are doing here and how things will look in the next few years.”
The ambitious growth plans have been built on solid foundations.
Mövenpick Hotels & Resorts was launched in 1973 as part of the much older Mövenpick Group, and has grown steadily since then. Focussing on five-star hotels, resorts, and business hotels, the company is 66.7 percent owned by Mövenpick Holding, and 33.3 percent by Saudi Arabia’s Kingdom Holding. It is also billed as the most Green Globe certified hotel company in the world, emphasising its commitment to sustainability.
All of which adds up to a well-respected household name, and a chain of hotels that have proved popular with their guests.
“They are all doing well and this is a tribute to the brand,” Peres says.
“And I feel the brand is really being complemented by the service which is being delivered to a high standard.”
Mövenpick’s focus on the Middle East in recent years mirrors that of numerous other hotel companies trying to capitalise on the region’s fast-developing tourism market.
“I think it is the region which has expanded the fastest over the past 10 years,” Peres explains.
“Growth in Europe is always challenging because the issue is that there’s lots of competition; it’s difficult to finance projects there. Asia is also growing and I see Africa as a very important platform for growth in the next five to 10 years.
“Since we are based here out of Dubai, we can help grow Africa and support our efforts of expanding the brand out of Dubai, and also from our operational base in Cairo. So it’s a very good support system that we have in this region.”
And according to the CEO things are only going to get busy in the Gulf.
“I think that when you see the plan of the GGC countries, we’re speaking about increasing the number of visitors by 50 percent,” he says.
“I think that we currently expect 65 million visitors in 2020 to the overall GCC countries. It’s a very significant number — it’s 50 percent more than we are welcoming overall in 2015. Saudi Arabia will be the largest piece of the pie with a projection of 27.5 million in 2020. We are blessed to see the brand expanding, particularly in the Gulf area — in Dubai and Saudi Arabia. So it looks promising.”
The good news doesn’t stand alone, however, and there are danger signs for hotels in the region.
Peres explains that the buying power of business has been hit in recent months by the performance of the Russian rouble and the euro, as well as the drop in oil prices, but he adds that he feels this is “a temporary situation”.
More pressing in his mind might be the number of rooms on the market.
“What is important is that we make sure that the supply of rooms is not increasing at too fast a pace compared to the demand. That’s what is happening right now in the Gulf, but I’m sure it will be corrected at some point soon.
“There are a lot of competitors around — many of whom are opening near to some of the hotels that we have. It is obviously a very good reason to make sure that Mövenpick hotels continue to be known as a very different sort of brand compared to the others.”
Differentiators are key for Peres, who aims to ensure customers receive something more than the high standards of service the Swiss are famous for.
“We are the leading Swiss hospitality company in the world today and one of our strengths is in the food and beverage field, which is where we were born. Ice cream, coffee, and so on — it creates real enjoyment for the guest and it definitely creates a competitive advantage for the company.
“As you know, Switzerland is the cradle of the best hospitality in the world. People are looking for consistency in terms of quality perception, but they also want hotels to have a sense of place — hotels that are all different from each other. A collection of refined properties rather than a standardised chain of hotels.”
Speaking candidly, Peres expresses his concern at the possibility of the Mövenpick brand becoming a commodity.
“One issue is that OTAs (online travel agencies) have, to some degree, possibly jeopardised the uniqueness of brands and started to turn them into a commodity,” he says.
“So we need to work a lot on our differentiators and we need to make sure that our general managers are fantastic ambassadors for the brand, and they understand what these differentiators are, and what makes the brand so unique.
“I do see it as a danger because we are in a world of digital revolution, and the danger is to become a commodity.”
Turning to more positive aspects of business, Peres discusses the good work Mövenpick has done in building loyal ties with hoteliers in the region.
“We have developed an outstanding relationship over the years with a number of very prominent hotel owners in this part of the world,” he says.
“We are very close to the owners, we understand their requirements, and I think they appreciate the Swiss culture and what we represent. It means we have been able to grow new hotels with the same owners, so we have been able to grow in a very good way.
“We first find one hotel with one owner and he is then entrusted with additional properties. To give you an example, our hotels in Karachi, in Marrakech, and in Tunis are owned by the same owner — a very prominent Kuwaiti investment fund. This is what we love to do.”
The theme of maintaining existing ties while moving in the future is one which permeates another challenge of Peres and Mövenpick.
The continual changes to the hotel industry mean that new trends are constantly emerging alongside new technologies. But for a company rooted in traditional Swiss hospitality, the evolution of the industry issues them with a balancing act.
“The soul, the culture, the heritage - these are things that are perennial and need to be grown,” Peres states.
“We need to always make an extra effort on this front and go out of our way to make our 17,000 associates around the world understand what natural enjoyment is all about. This is core to the charm of Mövenpick hotels.
“But it’s true, the hotel world has changed tremendously. Even more in the past five years than in the 20 years before that, in my opinion.
“We are in the middle of a digital revolution, and it means that all of our properties and hotels have to be geared to make sure that in terms of information technology, in terms of digital expectations from our guests, we are absolutely at the forefront of what any upscale hospitality company is expected to deliver.
“So we are technology-driven, and we are evolving at a fast pace in this respect, but at the same time what makes Mövenpick so unique in terms of soul and culture is the quality and uniqueness of our service, and that must never be compromised.”
Another aspect Peres views as important is the changing nature of the customer experience — something he believes the company’s general managers need to take a lead in developing.
“For general managers it used to be the case that you took very good care of your guests from the time of the entrance into the property until the time they left the property," he says.
“Now, a lot of the special guest experience is also being played before they enter the hotel and after they have left. We need to educate our general managers, who are already doing it a lot, to understand that the new world we are living in is a world where this exceptional hospitality delivery happens before the guest arrives and after they have left.”
Concluding our conversation, Peres is keen to emphasise that is it these general managers, as well as every other part of the expansive Mövenpick team, that continually give him hope for the future.
“For me it’s very important to see passion for the brand, passion for what the brand represents, not just here in the Middle East but around the world,” he says.
“I am always happy and surprised to see so many exciting things coming up in the years ahead. We are very proud of our past, but I think we can be even more proud of what’s coming in the future.”
