Ajoy Balkrishna, VP-Hospitality of Balwa Group, is a busy man. He has his hands full with the upcoming 206- room Fairfield by Marriott in Andheri, which is due to open in Q2 2022. He is also overseeing the rehaul of F&B destinations at the Radisson Hotel in Goregaon, which will be reintroduced around the same time. And six months later, the development company will launch a 1000-sq ft banquet space in the city.
These openings are the perfect opportunity for him to employ some best practices that the company mastered post-pandemic. “With the power of purchasing, we were able to negotiate and buy at a reasonable value. Though the cost of raw materials and imports shot up by 15% to 20%, we could circumvent this rise,” he stated.
PURPOSEFUL WAYS OF WORKING
While things were already tough before 2020, the pandemic only made things tougher for the hospitality sector. However, since the Balwa Group already had projects in the pipeline, it forged ahead, confident that things would improve.
It also used the lull period to upgrade its existing hotel and worked at double the pace to ensure the new hotel opened on time. “Though we faced few challenges on the product delivery timelines and manpower sourcing to some extent, we did not wait for the pandemic to end to start this work,” Balkrishna claimed. The developer completed the soon-to-be-launched Marriott project by retaining its workforce and earmarking for minor variations in delivery timelines.
However, he consented that rising construction costs did impact growth plans, especially the company’s profitability margins, which were already quite tight. Now it boils down to being inventive with raw material and quickly completing projects to ensure they are financially viable.
SMART MARKETING
The Balwa Group has two Marriott hotels in the pipeline – one due to open in 2022 and the other in early 2025. With the imminent launch of its new properties, it has learnt that marketing is key to short-term success, considering the hyper location it is present in. “The pandemic taught us to be nimble and always work with a Plan B to outmanoeuvre market conditions and dynamics,” Balkrishna inferred.
A great example is the first Meetha experiential mithai outlet at Radisson Goregaon. This was envisaged as a space where customers can experience the joy of shopping, akin to how they would in a saree or jewellery shop.
In addition to opening a new revenue stream, the business from Meetha offset the loss of business due to the closure of Radisson Goregaon’s F&B destinations. These strategies are how Balwa Group retains its edge in the Mumbai market.
