After more than 30 years in hospitality, Chris Wayne-Wills has been through most of the ups and downs that hotels can throw at someone.
Despite the challenges of Covid-19 for the industry - along with current recruitment and regulation problems - his outlook is positive, especially given 'robust' results for the group he's in charge of and a recent award win.
Originally from Cardiff, Wayne-Wills recently marked 27 years since moving to Scotland for work (he now lives in Helensburgh), starting off as a sales manager and working his way up to general manager of the Roxburghe Hotel in Edinburgh.
He then became the regional managing director for Scotland at Macdonald Hotels, before becoming regional general manager for QHotels and then moving on to be cluster general manager for Marriott International, overseeing its hotels in Scotland and the north of England.
In April 2020, he took the helm at Crerar Hotels, pushing ahead with investment across properties including the Isle of Mull Hotel & Spa, the Glencoe Inn and the newly-rebranded Balmoral Arms.
Wayne-Wills is also a trustee of HIT Scotland, a fellow of the Institute of Hospitality, sits on the Institute of Hospitality Scotland board and was recently made Scottish chair of UKHospitality.
- Let's start with the recent results for Crerar Group - turnover was up and losses narrowed last year - which seems like a solid result given the current circumstances and investment strategy?
We're experiencing a robust rebound, I know many in the industry would rather forget about the pandemic, but we must still compare current figures with the last three years.
Trading has been strong, but the recent results still include a lot of drag from ongoing investments, which means disruption while you’re going through it, but a bounce back once the work is finished. The work we did during Covid lockdowns has enabled us to be in a great position.
The money we put in took a degree of courage, but we had a ‘never waste a crisis’ mindset. Obviously, when you’re refurbishing there’s a loss of revenue stream, but it's also how you look after the teams in hotels. For instance, the Isle of Mull hotel refurbishment started while not knowing when that hotel would reopen, based on the restrictions at the time, but we've come out of it in a great position, even winning a World Travel Award for Scotland’s best country hotel.
I think that the way we’ve started 2023 is also very positive, with the return of international guests.
- It's certainly been a bold strategy, with some of your competitors not surviving the last few years; how did you also manage the staff side of things?
I think that the difference between a good hotel and great hotel is down to the people - refurbishments can only get you so far.
Like many others, we used the furlough scheme, and we have a lot of colleagues using live-in accommodation, so during that time we moved them into the hotels to form 'bubbles'. We didn’t charge them, instead fed them and looked after then, so they were there to reopen for us when restrictions lifted.
The industry has certainly had challenges with recruitment, so what we tried to do was pay the best salaries, introduce innovative new benefits and work on our wellbeing proposition - the goal is to be an employer of choice.
- CEO Monthly Magazine called you the Most Influential Hotels Group CEO of the Year - but would I be right in thinking you'd dedicate this award to your staff?
I'm very fortunate to be the conductor of the orchestra, so yes, to be recognised as the most influential CEO is really all about our teams - I believe in the inverted pyramid.
We’ve got seven bustling hotels and impressive levels of loyalty among our guests - but realistically that's down to how well they know the receptionist, the bar staff making them their favourite cocktail, the waiter knowing what they like and dislike on the menu.
- You mentioned the return of international guests as driving performance of late - what have the trends been?
The wider macro economic position played into our favour in the last part of 2022, due to currency fluctuations, while many were also interested in travelling off-peak, during November or January for instance - talking to some guests they maybe feel there’s less Covid risk.
Also, some people are taking once-in-a-lifetime trips being after several years of not travelling. We want to help them ‘live like a local’, really extenuating the authenticity of our hotels and the areas they serve. I don't know, maybe it's the Outlander effect too, but Scotland seems to feature highly on people’s wanderlust lists.
- Of course, you also wear a few other hats, so what's top of the agenda for UKHospitality members and what are you looking to lobby governments about this year?
Broadly, I think it's about recognition for the industry, we generate so much UK-wide economic growth, but there’s a degree of frustration that we could do so much more. At £126bn a year, hospitality is bigger than pharmaceuticals, automotive and aeronautics combined.
Of course, there are also challenges around recruitment. We know we can improve people’s lives with jobs and skills, by investing in salaries, training and benefits - we can be the industry that brings vibrancy back to high streets and rural communities.
- Last week's Budget didn't specifically target the sector, but what were your thoughts on its potential impact?
Clearly the statement sits within a timeline heading towards a general election. We’re always asking for a lowering of VAT, as the growth we can put back would be phenomenal if the shackles were loosened.
It wasn’t a particularly relevant budget for hospitality as you say, but we appreciate the support for commercial energy bills.
We’ve had to be careful around consumption this winter, but fundamentally we’ve been repositioning the hotels, so some of our pricing has changed and we’ve been able to push though.
- I spoke with Ivan McKee recently and he mentioned work being done to market hospitality as a sector where careers can be forged, rather than it just being seen as seasonal or temporary work - presumably you'd support that view?
This is an industry that can make lifelong careers. Clearly part of the Westminster focus is on the economically inactive, so we have to look at differing solutions to things - over 50s recruitment for instance - getting people to restart their careers.
Another one is spa therapists, which have been a challenge to recruit, so we created a specific apprenticeship, but didn’t limit it to younger people, with the result being that colleagues in other parts of the business have asked to get involved.
- Some of the other issues affecting the industry seem to be around with legislative changes to short-term lets and tourist taxes - what's your stance on these?
There's a degree of difficulty with tourist taxes, etc, as we've already got the highest VAT in Europe within hospitality, so there's a danger of becoming uncompetitive in terms of pricing.
My personal view is that additional levies can be positive, but the important thing is understanding where the money gets spent. It must be targeted at projects which improve the appeal of a destination, so we're trying to have good collaboration with councils, which will be raising the levies, to ensure that money doesn't just get spent on fixing roads or street lamps.
I should also mention the Deposit Return Scheme, as that's something we are definitely not in favour of and I'm still struggling to see how it will work in practice.
As an industry we are working hard to reduce our impact on the planet, but crucially, we already have a very effective recycling system in place. So I'm calling for a pause and a rationalisation across the UK.
We're already hearing of smaller suppliers saying they will cease trading, as well as overseas suppliers saying they will pull out of Scotland; so ultimately the consumer will suffer.
- And finally, a word on last week's news that Crerar has been acquired by Blantyre Capital and Fairtree Hotel Investments - how will the deal change the way things are run?
It's hugely positive for us, we see is as an opportunity to build out a significant luxury hotel portfolio within the wider group.
So that’s the plan, although of course we're still working out the details, but I think together we can achieve great things by bringing our people and portfolios together.
This will be our best year yet, with double digit growth forecast in each month.
Crucially, the new owners have a plan to build out the portfolio and are already looking for acquisition opportunities to expand.
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