Repositioning F&B, with Remington Hospitality’s Richard Garcia.

Episode Transcript

Richard Garcia: We really focus a lot of our decisions on data when it comes to the base spirits or the base wine or the base beer. We’re basing all that on data that shows this is what people are looking for. We’re currently right now writing our beverage program for 2024. We’re starting to see the no alcohol or meaning, the zero proof spirit start to come on board. And we need to make a decision on that. Now, if we think that that’s still going to be around in 2024. So I think that data is a huge piece of our puzzle. And I will also tell you this. We listen to our guests and we listen to each individual hotel. 

Robin Trimingham: Welcome to the Innovative Hotelier podcast by Hotels magazine with weekly thought provoking discussions with the world’s leading hotel and hospitality innovators. Welcome to the innovative hotelier brought to you by HOTELS magazine. I’m your host, Robin Trimingham. As we’ve discussed time and again, Covid has forever transformed many aspects of the hospitality industry, and hoteliers around the world have been employing a variety of strategies to do more with less and still satisfy customers. Nowhere is this more evident than in the restaurant industry, which continues to be hampered by rising prices, supply chain issues and labor shortages. My guest today, Richard Garcia, the senior vice president of F for Remington Hotel Management, is joining us today to chat about Remington’s unique approach to systems integration and cost control and to share his thoughts regarding repositioning the F and B experience in the New normal. Join me now for my conversation with Richard Garcia. 

Robin Trimingham: F.O.H is a global food service and hospitality company that manufactures smart commercial grade solutions. Headquartered in Miami, the company designs and manufactures all their restaurant and hotel products. They have showrooms and distribution centers located throughout the globe, and their products are always in stock and ready to ship from any of their distribution centers worldwide. Welcome, Richard. Thanks for joining me today. 

Richard Garcia: Hey, well, thanks, Robin, for having me and looking forward to our discussion today. 

Robin Trimingham: Well, was very interested when I was doing some reading about Remington in order to prepare for our conversation, when I saw that you guys had jumped from 90 properties in your portfolio to 120 in the last year, I mean, that’s an increase of 30 hotels. That’s a lot. Why was this the ideal time for you guys to make a bold move like this? 

Richard Garcia: Speaking from a company perspective, I think that our leadership was really looking to expand on the third party management side of the business for so long. Remington was essentially the management arm for our parent company, Ashford, which owns its own set of hotels. And at the end of the day, we made a really, really bold decision a few years ago to not only continue to manage those hotels for our parent company, but really wanted to expand what we were doing in the industry and start to manage for other people. So the reality is our business development focus has really been on growing the third party arm of Remington Hotels, as well as growing into the Caribbean and Latin America, which is also a major push for us right now. So ultimately for us it’s really about continued growth. Our CEO tells us all the time that our goal is not to be the biggest management company, but our goal is frankly, to be the best management company. So last year we grew pretty quickly because of the acquisition of Chesapeake and Chesapeake. Hospitality is now part of the Remington family and we were extremely lucky to retain Chris Green, who was the president and CEO of Chesapeake. He’s now with us today and is really leading the charge on helping us continue to grow that true third party management arm. 

Robin Trimingham: Well, that makes sense. I think recently you said that because of the pandemic, the industry really has to figure out some new solutions without obviously sacrificing service or quality of food or the overall guest experience when you take on 30 new properties. I mean, that’s an awful lot of outlets. Where do you start assessing what’s working and what needs to be rethought from the ground up? 

Richard Garcia: It’s the old saying, you know, you just got to pull the Band-Aid off as quickly as possible. The reality is we could sit here and talk about implementation strategies and review strategies. But to your point, when you’re dealing with 30 hotels in one shot, the reality is that we had already established a core menu platform at our existing 60 full service hotels that Remington had prior to that acquisition. We knew that our platform was successful with controlling labor. We knew that it was successful in controlling cost of goods. And we also knew that given the properties that we had on the core menu, that we had a really strong profit and or margin attached to this particular program. So the reality was a lot of the incoming hotels were very similar, similar in size, similar demographic and guest profile. So we went into it pretty full force. We did assess to make sure that what we were doing wouldn’t necessarily rock the boat and if anybody was already in a successful position. Between cost of goods sold with good profit margin, then we kind of let them do their thing because again, we didn’t want to fix something that wasn’t broken. But the majority of the hotels had amazing opportunities to either implement the food program, the beverage program and or both. And like I said, we kind of just peeled the Band-Aid off pretty quickly, went into implementation mode, and within about six months had almost all of those hotels on our core menu platform. And today, I think that Band-Aid that came off so fast is really generating some amazing results for us. And we were lucky and able to do that because of those 60 or 70 hotels that we managed that are frankly not going anywhere because of our relationship with our parent company. Ashford. 

Robin Trimingham: Well, obviously you’re being quite successful with your core menu platform, but let’s talk about this for a little minute here, because we’ve all just lived the pain of supply chain issues. You know, if you have a core menu platform and you’re relying on a certain number of what I’m just going to call staple items and all of a sudden you need those in great big quantities. How did you establish relationships that you could trust? How did you work your way through all of that? 

Richard Garcia: It was scary. I’m going to be 100% honest and we took a lot of risk in this particular platform. But I will tell you that we did a lot of research and we understood what we were up against. And what we did was we found a partner in a company called Cuisine Solutions that we knew had what we were looking for. They had the inventory, they had their production schedule pretty much laid out for us for the next 12, 18, 24 months. And we also worked with what they could guarantee us. Look, nobody during that time could really say, Hey, 100% of all my SKUs are available to you. Yeah, but what they could do is say, look, we’re really we’re pretty confident about skew X, Y and Z. So we focused our core menu platform around those SKUs that we knew were still going to be in play regardless of what was really happening with the supply chain. The other thing that we did was we also focused on creating menu items that didn’t necessarily need to have a specific spec. So, for example, a burger. What we wanted was a two and a half to three ounce burger patty that was fresh, but we didn’t go and spec out an exact fat content or we didn’t go and spec out something like Angus Beef because we knew that in some cases our properties would have a challenge finding that spec. 

Richard Garcia: So what we did was make sure that the specs were broad enough where if a property did have an issue with a particular spec, it was pretty easy to move to another product without being non-compliant with our menu. And the reality is this we weren’t dealing with super high end Wagyu beef, for example, where our clients would be able to really tell the difference. We were dealing with a lot of commodity items that the reality is whether we got it from supplier A or B, although we would notice the difference. Our guest, frankly, is not going to notice that difference. So that was the real strategy was to ensure that there was flexibility and also the menus were simple. Robin They were not complicated. They were extremely simple and almost too simple in some cases where we would use those very basic recipes to embellish on those recipes in the properties where we actually had the labor to do so. So that was the other thing that also really helped us out was being able to have one recipe that could flex to a high end hotel and or stay in a very casual, even a select service product that may be serving dinner, was able to use the same menu and the same platform with a few embellishments here and there. 

Robin Trimingham: So oversimplifying, because we’re not all in the fab industry, you’re saying essentially that you’d have a pasta item on the menu and in one property it would be chicken because that’s a value product and maybe somewhere else it’s shrimp a 100%. 

Richard Garcia: And that’s an excellent way to put it. And we also give a lot of autonomy to the chefs that we know can execute on the product. So listen, coming out of the pandemic, we had a lot of operations that did not have executive chefs or frankly, even support chefs or sous chefs. So we needed to create a platform that did exactly what you said we didn’t want to do. We didn’t want to give up our quality and consistency and guest experience. So by creating a platform that, frankly, a line cook could manage, and as they start to develop better business numbers, better financials, I should say, and as they started to get their guest. Count back up, they could start to embellish that menu and start to create what we would consider to be a full blown restaurant menu. But they could do it in phases based on the labor, based on the skill set of the cook, and frankly, based on the occupancy of the hotel. 

Robin Trimingham: Now, I’m very interested in your approach, and I know about half an inch worth of what goes on in the fab world. Is your menu regionalized? It is. 

Richard Garcia: 100%. 

Robin Trimingham: How do you accommodate for things like the 20 mile diet where they’re saying that you should be having farm to table ingredients wherever you can and stuff like that? 

Richard Garcia: When you start to get into that micro local environment and those, you know, within 20 mile type of platforms that are out there, we’re not going to be able to accommodate everybody. But what we do do when it comes to a regional perspective is that we do put it on our chefs to ensure that about 20 to 30% of their menu is sourced locally. We can point to specific distribution channels, different farms, whether that’s dairy, whether that’s produce, whether that’s beef and or whether that’s seafood. When we’re working with local fishermen in Massachusetts, for example, at our Hilton Boston Back Bay, we’ve got a what we call on the recipe a regional Cobb salad. So to give you an example, Chef Julia, who’s up in Boston, she does a lobster Cobb salad. That Cobb salad is upwards of 35, $36. But in another part of the country, down in Florida, at our one ocean resort, you know, they use grouper to top their top, their Cobb salad. And in Texas, we have some properties that are using barbecue pulled chicken or barbecue pulled pork. So what we really want to make sure is that our guest can tell pretty quickly when they read the menu where they are. But what we are not doing at this time, unless you are in a specific hotel that has a signature restaurant, is we are not right now focused on using micro local farms for the core menu platforms, but we are focused on using as much regional product as we can. Well, that. 

Robin Trimingham: Obviously makes a lot of sense. One of the hot topics in the diet world these days is everybody’s going vegan and you have all kinds of different versions of this. You’ve got vegan and paleo and keto and gluten free and nut free. How does your system enable a chef to have enough ingredients on hand to accommodate all of that and not have a lot of like, excess inventory? 

Richard Garcia: That’s a great question. We actually made a pretty bold decision two and a half years ago where we needed a vegan item, but we did not want that item to be your traditional vegan option, a plate of grains and vegetables for the most part. So we actually went out and we did a lot of research and we found a plant based Bolognese sauce that we did blind tests with numerous chefs, non chefs and other people within our organization. And what we did was we found a product that we felt could actually substitute for beef. So we actually went ahead and put a vegan Bolognese on our menu as our pasta option. You did not have an option to get it with meat. It was 100% vegan. Well, what ended up happening, believe it or not, was we we actually had a lot of problems because a lot of vegans were challenging us and they were saying there is no way that this product is vegan. We actually had one chef physically had to take the ingredient list, take it up to the guest room to show them that it was a plant based product. So we did very hard work trying to find a product that we all stood behind that we could actually sell to a guest even if they weren’t looking for something vegan. And I can tell you that that first year out of about 18 menu items, that vegan Bolognese was in the top five consistently across the country. 

Richard Garcia: And we felt that, frankly, we were also now part of the teaching element. We were now teaching people that, Hey, step outside your comfort zone, try something that may not be a traditional item. And we got a lot of success with that. We also made sure that we gave our properties autonomy to go ahead and add menu items that fit their demographic. So in California, for example, especially in a few of our Napa Valley properties, there is a specific demographic that truly is very into wellness. They they want to drink low ABV or no ALC, they want to eat very clean. So in that respect, we do still have the indulgent menu items like the burger on the menu, but we’ve also given. Even though chefs the autonomy to go ahead and add those local and regional items that are wellness focused, gluten free, paleo focused, in some cases keto focused, to really ensure that we are capturing what that particular client is looking for. And the reality is we do know that, hey, you know what? If you’re in Key West, for example, chances are most people down there are on vacation, they’re celebrating and they want to be indulgent. So in that particular case, it’s the opposite. We make sure that we have wellness focused items, but we know that the indulgence is really what people are looking for in that environment. So it leans a little bit more heavy to that versus wellness. 

Robin Trimingham: That’s an excellent point because I think some people who aren’t practicing vegans don’t realize that indulgence can still be an aspect of dining. When you have a wellness or a plant based component to your diet. Okay. Some of the chefs listening are going to be cringing right now hearing our conversation, because what they’re envisaging is a kitchen that’s full of microwaves. And let’s face it, you and I have both have eaten in places where we wished we hadn’t because it was pretty clear that that meal was cooked two days ago or the eggs were powdered or something scary like that. How do you maintain a quality of product that you can be proud of with everything that you have going on in your program? 

Richard Garcia: I can tell you this, that first and foremost, the center of the plate products that we use that come from cuisine solutions. So Cuisine Solutions was the actual founder and the inventor of a technique called sous vide. So cuisine Solutions really is the pioneer when it comes to sous vide. Cooking cuisine Solutions has developed recipes for Thomas Keller, the late Michel Richard, Daniel Boulud, Eric Ripert. I mean, you name some of these top chefs around the world, they rely on the product from cuisine solutions. So what we’ve done is we’ve essentially taken the guesswork out of sous vide cooking, for example, and we have a short rib on our menu, to give you one example of a product that that short rib comes in perfectly cooked to Michel Richard standards. It was a product that he developed many, many years ago. Ultimately, Cuisine Solutions now uses that same recipe for this particular 72 hour short rib. But here’s what happens. It comes to us pretty basic and pretty plain. So if our executive chef was to sous vide a short rib, the reality is the end product that he’s getting before it goes to the guest is frankly the same product that we’re buying from Cuisine Solutions. What we are doing then is we are taking that inventory and we are creating flavorful recipes with them. So we are still giving the chefs the autonomy to create a recipe, to add flavor, to put supporting ingredients in place and really challenge their creativity. Another thing it’s done for us, Robin, is to give you another great example. You know, they’re half chicken is a perfectly cooked rotisserie style chicken that, I’ll be frank, I have challenged it against freshly cooked rotisserie chickens and it is almost identical. 

Richard Garcia: But here’s the unique aspect. We can take that half chicken now and we can serve it as a rotisserie chicken. Some of our more creative chefs are taking that half chicken and they are cutting it into eight pieces and they’re now putting a fried chicken on, using that as a base. Some are actually taking that chicken and creating a braised chicken dish like a butter chicken, for example. So I actually would tend to argue a lot with chefs who are challenging us on using this product. My argument is that I basically have taken the weighting away and still you have to create the dish. So if you take a look at our core menu platform, I can tell you that our core menu platform reads like almost any great restaurant. And I can tell you that the quality and the consistency probably exceeds many of those great restaurants because we know that that base product is the same every single time. And one of the hardest things to do as a chef and I’m a chef by trade is to be consistent. So I can tell you that in my world, if I would have had this product 20 years ago when I was a chef, I don’t feel that my creativity would have been stifled. I feel that I would have been getting a product that I can trust on its quality and consistency every single time. And then the world is my oyster at that point for what I want to do with that. 

Robin Trimingham: Inventory established in 2002 is a woman owned global food service and hospitality company that manufactures smart, savvy commercial grade products, including plate wear, drinkware, flatware, hotel amenities and more driven by innovation. F.O.H is dedicated to delivering that wow experience that restaurants and hotels crave all while maintaining a competitive price. All products are fully customizable, and many are also created using sustainable eco friendly materials such as straws and plates made from biodegradable paper and wood and PVC free drinkware. As to establish brands front of the house focused on table top and Buffet Solutions and Room 360, which offers hotel products. Check out their collections today at FOHworldwide.com. So it’s pretty clear sitting here chatting with you that you’re a really passionate guy and that you really do care. You’ve got very high standards. What got you interested in all of this? 

Richard Garcia: It’s really interesting and I could probably go into a really long story, but I can tell you that my family has been involved with food since the 1800s. In fact, my great great grandfather was a member of the USDA, and he wrote a book called The Fruit Hunters back in 1919. And his job was to travel Central and South America and find the fruits and vegetables that you and I eat today. In fact, he’s credited for bringing the avocado to this country. So you can imagine how many people would would probably want to meet him today because that’s their staple of their diet. But I can tell you that my family’s owned grocery stores. We currently own restaurants in Spain. My family owns a small hotel and restaurant in Guatemala. So I can tell you that food has been an interest to me since I was a kid. That’s what I’ve always wanted to do. But what I found out during my chef career was that the reality is I can have the best food possible. But if the service level is not up to standard, most likely people won’t come back. Doesn’t matter how great the food is. 

Richard Garcia: But on the flip side of that, my cooks can have an off night. But if the service level exceeds expectations, people will come back again and again because of that service level. So what happened to me was I started to realize that, I’ll be frank, I didn’t want to be stuck in the kitchen. I really wanted to make sure that I could create some synergy between the front and the back of the house. And ultimately, I started my trek, taking a step out of the kitchen and getting into the roles I’m in today. That’s probably the high level version of how I got interested. But the reason I really do what I do today is that I feel that we still have a line in the sand a lot between back of the house and front of the house. But I think those successful restaurants and successful hotels and food and beverage operations are those that there’s a major synergy between the two. And that’s really what wakes me up every day, is trying to make sure that I can create that synergy in one of our hotels today. 

Robin Trimingham: I’m going to have to digress for a second here. You’ve reminded me of a really famous story, and I swear this is absolutely true. One of the major fruit packaging companies, huge brand in America, and I won’t name them because I don’t know if they’d be cool with that. How they used to buy land for bananas in South America. They would send guys out in these little propeller planes flying up and up and down over the jungle, and they’re supposed to be looking for prime land to buy to grow fruit. And there’s one guy, he’d been in the plane all afternoon, the pilots saying they’re running out of gas, they circling over the jungle and there’s nowhere to land for him to take soil samples, which is what he’s supposed to do. He throws a bottle out the window, reasoning that if the bottle bounces off the ground, the soil is deep enough for bananas. If the bottle breaks, they won’t buy the land. Well, the bottle didn’t break. They bought the land. And that became the primary way that this company chose the the parcels of land it was going to buy in South America. Wow. 

Richard Garcia: That’s pretty amazing, huh? 

Robin Trimingham: Yeah. I mean, it just goes to show the ingenuity when you’re really put to the test. Let me change the subject here. Yeah. Let’s talk about what goes on behind the bar from an inventory perspective. I think most restaurants would tell you that the money they’ve got tied up in all the wine, all the alcohol, that’s one of the biggest things on their balance sheet. And there’s always different ways of thinking about this one. But at the end of the day, if you are purporting to be a fairly nice place to eat, then you’ve got to have a wine list. That’s interesting, enticing cocktails that people want to try. That’s a lot of inventory that might be just sitting there if nobody’s ordering it. How do you guys approach this problem? 

Richard Garcia: So it’s a problem that I think a lot of restaurants, hotels and even catering operations have, but they have that problem because they’re not building beverage programs to move. They’re building beverage programs a lot of times to a particular ego. And I don’t say that in a disrespectful way, but they build it to what they know. And a lot of times what they know isn’t necessarily what’s really sold in that particular area. So for us, we actually do have a core beverage program and our core beverage program is split up into three tiers. So we have our premium tier, our super premium tier, and then essentially our ultra premium tier. And what we do in those particular cases is we actually drive the. Cocktail development for every single hotel in the company, and we focus on the classics. So if you took a look at our cocktail menu, it’s going to be an old fashioned a Negroni. The Cosmopolitan is hot, the espresso martini is hot. But what we do is we really focus our energy on these cocktails that frankly, have been in probably the top 15 to 20% for years. I mean, we’re talking ten plus years. So we know that those cocktails are going to move one way or another. 

Richard Garcia: But what we do focus on is the quality of that product based on the tier that you’re in. If you really peel the layers of the onion back, you know, when you look at a lot of our Tier one hotels, they’re typically either a select service hotel, a downtown urban hotel that’s focused on the specific business traveler. Well, we know that in that particular hotel, they’re not looking for a tiki drink. They’re not looking for a bottle of Opus, for example. But what they are looking for is they are looking for those very traditional call options. And also, we know that when it comes to beer and wine, to your point on the wine label, that in those types of hotels, we understand that, yeah, we might need to have a couple bottles. But I can tell you that their wine list when it comes to a bottle is only about eight bottles large. And we do that very strategically. But as you move up our tier, we start to really focus on that particular experience. So our Tier three hotels, which include all of our hotels in Napa Valley, I can tell you that those hotels I’ll tell you frankly, our sweet spot at those hotels for moving bottles of wine is about $125. 

Richard Garcia: If that bottle is not $125 in that particular area, or at least in our hotels, the demographic that’s coming doesn’t necessarily feel that it’s a quality bottle. So we know that we need to flex in those hotels and what they do is they actually still run our core menu program, but they are allowed to go above and beyond based on what their particular client and their demographic is looking for. So we do not handcuff, nor do we pigeonhole anybody. And also what you’ll notice is our tier one well is very different than our Tier three. Well, so for example, our Tier one well is typically, let’s call it an 8 to $10 bottle of vodka, whiskey, tequila, whatever. In our Tier three, we’re looking at a 13 to $16 well, at that point. So we do make accommodations based on the tier. So that to your point, when you’re dealing with 120 different hotels, the base programs are all the same, but they are allowed to embellish and go above and beyond to ensure that they are hitting what their client is looking for. 

Robin Trimingham: So to what extent are you guys doing food and wine pairings or is that not part of your program? We do food and. 

Richard Garcia: Wine pairings at the particular hotels where it matters. Again, we really focus a lot of our decisions on data, and the data is telling me that the airport hotel in a particular city, right. Is not really looking for X, Y and Z. So we just don’t do it. And I think that that’s the beauty of what our program can do, is that when it comes to the base spirits or the base wine or the base beer, we’re basing all that on data that shows this is what people are looking for. As soon as that data starts to change. And we literally last week were in a meeting with every one of our beverage partners reviewing that data so that we can make the right decisions for the end of this year and 2024. So we’re also about 12 months ahead of the game. We’re currently right now writing our beverage program for 2024, 2024. Trends are going to change. We’re starting to see the no alcohol or meaning, the zero proof spirit start to come on board, and we need to make a decision on that. Now, if we think that that’s still going to be around in 2024. So I think that data is a huge piece of our puzzle. And I will also tell you this. We listen to our guests and we listen to each individual hotel. I think when our CEO tells us that we don’t want to be the biggest, but we want to be the best, that continues to align with how we do business. And what I mean by that is by only having 120 hotels, we are still able to touch and talk to every one of them and understand their needs. Once we get to a point where if we ever get to a point where we’ve got, you know, let’s call it 1500 hotels, that starts to become very difficult for me to individually understand what the portfolio needs. So I think right now we’re in a really good position where we can still pivot very quickly. Based on one hotel’s needs as opposed to the entire portfolio, but we approach it with a portfolio approach. 

Robin Trimingham: Well, that’s a very reasonable way to proceed. Let’s talk about a bit of a sticky issue here. Shrinkage is definitely a thing in the restaurant industry for all kinds of reasons. Rather than put you on the spot and ask to what extent is that a problem for Remington? Let me just draw on your knowledge base, if you will, please. What’s your advice to any hotelier, any chef that’s listening regarding handling shrinkage? 

Richard Garcia: First and foremost, the elephant in the room is this The majority of the shrinkage does come internally. And I don’t care whether that’s us, whether that’s another company that has been proven. But I also believe that a lot of that shrink can be controlled by ensuring that you are communicating with your team. To give you a great example, grab and go. Market’s very, very easy for the grab and go market to experience high levels of shrinkage just because of the ease of access to that. And most people would immediately assume that, oh, the guest is not honest. Well, what we found is, frankly, our hotel guests are pretty honest. But what we do find is that it’s very easy in the back of the house and what mean back of the house. I’m talking storage here, but it’s very easy in storage for a Pepsi or a Coca Cola or a bag of Skittles or a bag of chips to be gone. And frankly, no one’s ever going to pay attention to that. Right? So I think that what we do to really control that is a number one, there are no there are no secrets. We are very open when it comes to to to explaining to our team, hey, here is the profitability that we’re looking for in the market, for example, and we make sure that we talk about things like shrinkage, but we also make sure that our team has access. 

Richard Garcia: So for example, if we bring in a new drink to our grab and go, well, we make sure that our team gets to try that drink and they get to experience that drink. And I think in most cases, and I can’t speak for every single one of our hotels, but in most cases we also offer an employee discount to still be able to enjoy these things. So I think one of the biggest things that that you can do is make sure that your teams have access to these things If they want to try a new espresso based drink, well then let’s let them try it, Make it part of the experience, the Pre-shift experience. If you are having trouble with shrinkage in any area, whether it’s restaurant grab and go, etcetera, I do think that the first thing you have to do is have that conversation, talk about it. But also I think that when you peel the layers of that onion back, most of the time the shrinkage is really coming from places of need, if that makes sense. I don’t think a lot of people are taking things because they really want to. I think in a lot of cases it comes down to need. So are you providing, for example, water for your team? And I know that sounds very basic, but if the reality is you’re not providing a place for your team to get water, well, they’re going to go find water somewhere. 

Richard Garcia: And a lot of times that could be your market. So I think really just evaluating what access your teams have, what SOPs and policies and procedures you have in place, and ensuring that you’re not blocking access to certain things. Now, we talked about high end wine earlier. I think that there is an expectation that the high end wine is locked up, it’s controlled. And I also think that when you give those types of visual cues to your team, you’ve got less risk of that essentially walking out the back door as well. And if you don’t have those control measures in place, it’s not that I’m saying, hey, too bad, so sad. But I think that there has to be both ways. If we don’t want something to leave, we need to make sure that we’ve got the policies and the procedures and the resources in place. If we don’t have those things in place, I think it’s time to really look to ensure that we can control shrinkage. And hopefully that’s the long winded answer to say have the conversation with your team if it’s happening and honestly give them access to things that maybe they don’t have today. And I think you’ll find that your shrinkage will slip. 

Robin Trimingham: I think that’s a good advice for anyone. And I also think it’s really important to decide rather than trying to micromanage every last detail where you want to place the emphasis. Yes, I have a relative who had a summer job at a hotel, and it was his job to take the leftover cakes from afternoon tea back to the kitchen. He winds up standing in a service elevator next to a sous chef who comes out with a great big pour, takes a huge slice of cake off the trolley into his mouth, down in one go, and looks at my brother like, Okay, what are you going to do about it? So staff is going to happen and hopefully it’s small and insignificant as opposed to a crate of steaks. 

Richard Garcia: Well, listen, and I think there’s also something to be said for what can you tolerate, Right. We know in our industry that in the grab and go markets, for example, we somewhat expect around a 5% shrink in that particular area. I can tell you that we aren’t very close to that. We definitely have shrink, but we don’t feel that we’re at that 5%. But to your point, where is the management going to exude that energy, right? If we’re within a good threshold, you’ve got the right policies in place. At the end of the day, it’s going to be very hard to control everything. So I really like your position about, you know what, let’s not dig too deep into something that maybe doesn’t need to be dug deep into. And sometimes people do kind of create their own issues in that way, right? 

Robin Trimingham: Yeah, that certainly does happen. Listen, we’ve got a couple of minutes left here. Let’s change the subject again and talk about something that’s actually, I think, really serious. I recently did another recording with a very prominent restaurateur, and we were talking about the widespread addiction issues plaguing the restaurant industry. What is Remington’s approach to I’m just going to call it work life balance. 

Richard Garcia: Listen, I’m going to tell you this, that Remington’s approach to work life balance to me is hands down. One of the reasons that I am with this company today, that when it comes to wellness, when it comes to engagement of our team, I think that we’ve got one of the best platforms that I’ve ever been a part of. And what I mean by that is our company really goes above and beyond to ensure that from a wellness perspective, we’re thinking outside the box. We have a gentleman by the name of Dan aswell who I mean, he lives and breathes this stuff and I was listening to him actually on another podcast where he was talking about men. To give you an example, he was talking about how men really don’t like to go get help in person, you know, when it comes to therapy, for example. So he went out and found a virtual platform that we have access to. And his data shows that the uptick in men using that platform significantly increased because it was a virtual platform. So I think that Remington is really and that’s just one small example. Remington is really going out of their way to ensure that that they’re meeting us where we are. And I think that’s a major, major statement that Dan makes from his team is that they’re not sitting there waiting for us to go and knock on their door and ask for help. They’re coming to us and they’re saying, Hey, where are you at? And we’re going to meet you where you are. Another great example is different digital platforms. So we’ve got access to 2 or 3 different weight loss and wellness platforms that I can tell you none of my colleagues in the industry have access and we’re talking fully paid memberships to some of the best weight loss apps in the globe that have been proven to to help, and we pay for that. 

Richard Garcia: We also really make sure that we engage as leaders in the field. So to give you another great example, you know, about six months ago, all the CEOs of our company joined in a wellness challenge and they all had different teams and we were all encouraged to join one of the teams. And it really became a group effort. I mean, we had 5 or 600 people essentially competing against each other, but the company makes it fun, they make it visible and they put it in front of us so that we use those resources. So I think to answer your question on the terrible tragedies that are happening out in the industry today, the only thing I really want to mention and say is that Remington is giving us the tools and the resources so that whether it’s one of us or whether it’s a family member. We don’t have an excuse not to go and get the help. So hopefully that answers your question. But I think that that to me is why Remington is really the place where passionate people thrive. That is our tagline. But at the same time, they live it. They give us the tools and the resources and they’re meeting us where we are, which I think is a huge, huge step to try and help and continue to be a solution to a lot of the challenges that we have in our industry. 

Robin Trimingham: Yeah, I think this is an issue where you really do have to lead from the front and, you know, set the right example and do everything you can to show people that there is another way. 

Richard Garcia: Totally. And a lot of people know my story, but to be very short, I came from a world that was pretty rough. And the reality was, I learned in my career and through going through the military that there was another way. But I’ll be 100% honest. I had to do that on my own. I had to build the courage and the confidence to be able to say, Hey, I raised my hand, I asked for help, and I was able to find it. And fast forward 25 years, you know, I think I’ve done pretty well. But the challenge today is that unfortunately, there are a lot of people that maybe don’t have that same passion to get out and really help themselves. And I think that Remington has really been able to not only take care of the people like me who have that ambition, but they’ve also been able to identify when people don’t have that ambition. And to your point, we’re leading and we’re going to them and we’re finding that it truly is making an impact.  

Robin Trimingham: Rich, I want to thank you so much for taking time to chat with me today. You’ve been listening to the innovative hotelier. Join us again soon for more up to the minute insights and information specifically for the hotel and hospitality industry. You’ve been listening to the Innovative Hotelier podcast by Hotels magazine. Join us again soon for more conversations with hospitality industry thought leaders.