By Rashmi Pradhan

THE FIRST-ever Hospitality Purchasing Managers’ Forum (HPMF) Convention and Award 2015 was held recently at Hyatt Regency Mumbai. Over 175 hospitality purchasing managers (PM) from India and abroad took part in convention that brought them all under one common platform. The two-day event featured several presentations and panel discussions on pressing issues of procurement. There were leading panelists from various fields who were present. The theme of the Convention was ’Hum Sab Sath Hai’. There was a concurrent B2B event where the 30 top suppliers of India had one-on-one meetings with 175 buyers.

Formed in 2010, HPMF presently has 965 members across India and Middle East. HPMF is a consortium of purchase managers from the hospitality industry representing star hotels, catering companies, standalone restaurants and chain restaurants, airlines.

HPMF also initiated their first ever awards by the fraternity for procurement excellence in hospitality industry. These awards aim to help the fraternity get motivated and boost resulting in better performance of their members. The other highlight of the event was the launch of CHPM (Certified Hospitality Procurement Manager) Certification by American Hotel and Lodging Education Institute. This is the first ever such certification for the procurement fraternity in the world and HPMF members will be the first recipient of this certification.

Nitin Shankar Nagrale, Founder and General Secretary, HPMF and Director Materials, Radisson Blu Plaza Mumbai Powai, said, ’I am happy and excited to share that HPMF’s fifth anniversary celebrations was a grand success. Each and every participating member had pleasant experience. It was a great community feeling and I just loved the camaraderie between all delegates. The synergy, coordinated efforts and the passion will surely lead to better environment in hospitality procurement. Once again providing the positive energetic mode to everything we do’.

The Convention kicked-off with the lighting of traditional lamp by the Chief Guest HH Giriraj Singh ji Lotwara, President of Shri Rajput Sabha Jaipur ’ Rajasthan and among other delegates were D Sivanandan, Ex Commissioner of Mumbai and Thane Police; Mohan Deshpande, Chairman, HPMF; Mala Singh, Founder & Chairperson, PEC Greening India and Madhu Chandhok, Director & Founding Partner PIP2020.

Addressing the delegates, Deshpande said, ’For a long time, purchasing as a function in the hospitality industry, was looked upon as a mere appendage for hoteliers concentrating on food and services. There is not a single job in the hospitality industry that does not involve purchasing in one way or another. Formed with the objective to improve the procurement profession in the hospitality and allied industries, HPMF see itself playing a crucial role in shaping up hospitality procurement by making it more organized and technically equipped through training initiatives, lecture and seminars in the hospitality purchase segment.’

Making a presentation on ’Excellence in whatever you do’, Sivanandan mentioned that a leader monitors, delegates, committed, confident, positive, a good listener, decisive, takes risks, motivator, flexible, team work, accurate, focus and equanimity. These are the traits of a leader. Dr Chef Soundararajan, General Secretary, IFCA and Corporate Executive Chef, Mahindra Holidays & Resorts India Ltd. also made a presentation on how an association can be grown and taken to new heights.

The first panel discussion ’Benchmarking procurement strategies, procurement pain points and case study’ was moderated by Bhargava Raju, Purchase Manager, Hilton Bangalore Embassy GolfLinks. Among the panelists were R Bharanidharan, Director Procurement, Marriott Hotels India; Sanjay Verghese, Director - Materials, The Imperial, New Delhi; Rajesh Nair, Materials Manager, Ibis & Novotel Bangalore; Ouseph Francis, Vice President ’ Central, Oberoi Hotels; Anthony Dsouza, Materials Manager, The Taj Mahal Palace Mumbai and Joseph Tito, Corporate Head Materials, GRT Hotels & Resorts. Sharing their knowledge the panelists said that the procurement manager should be updated with the happening in the industry; maintain a trust and long-term relationship with suppliers; empower the vendors; understand the perspective of the user before procuring a product.

Arvind Dang, President ’ Purchase and Corp services, M3M India Pvt Ltd, Delhi made a presentation on ’Ethics in procurement’. The second panel discussion on ’Sustainable development in hospitality procurement ’ Implementation of green purchase policy and how to develop sustainable network of supplies’ witnessed panelists including Harvey Rodrigues, Director - Procurement, Meluha The Fern Mumbai; S Ramesh Babu, Corporate Purchase Manager; Mahindra Holidays & Resorts India; Sanjay Goyal, Vice President - SCM, Field Fresh foods Pvt Ltd; Nilabja Kumar Dey, Business Head, Food Service, Prabhat Dairy; Shrinath Neendoor, GM Procurement, Ireo Residences; Colonel Abdul Razak Khadar, Head Supply Chain and Procurement, Oriental Cuisines. The session was moderated by Mala Singh, Founder & Chairperson, PEC Greening India. The panel discussed on sustainable ways of operations like Reuse, Reduce and Recycle and various other techniques of energy and water conservation.

The session ’Procurement ’ Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow’ was moderated by Jaideep Gupta, Hospitality Consultant, Mumbai and among the panelists were Madhu Chandhok, Director & Founding Partner PIP2020; Jairaj Singh, VP Purchase, Shri Group, Noida; Shiv Shankar Menon, Mentor, HPMF; Anthony Monteiro, Materials Manager, The Oberoi Bangalore; Lalit Kapoor, MD, Hospitality Procurement Management Services and Sanjay Chaturvedi, Materials Manager, Hilton, Jaipur. The panel shared their experiences and knowledge on procurement scenario few years ago and currently what is the driving force and what would be the future of procurement. The panel agreed that technology will be a game changer in future.

The event witnessed launch of a new logo of HPMF (see logo photo) by Nitin Nagrale, Founder and General Secretary, HPMF. The objective of changing logo was to involve more international participants as HPMF Members. Unveiling the new logo Nagrale informed, ’We are changing for better and want to achieve the global status soon. With this thought in mind we have changed our logo which is more futuristic and the new logo design reflects the philosophy linked to vision of HPMF. A green globe for the eco-friendly awareness with India map prominently visible in front showcasing our pride of being Indian and India First! The globe also has the following element of our own existence; the origin of materials we buy as procurement professionals.... It’s symbolic of 5 elements of nature that is fire, water, air, earth and space.’

He further explained, ’The hand supporting globe to showcase the care and affection towards the earth. It signifies that whatever we buy we will consider the environment first and will ensure that all aspects are evaluated and measured before the buying decision is taken. People around globe for integration and team work. Networking is the key to success. We will hold each other’s hands to not just help each other but will collectively progress and grow. A splash of tricolour from the Indian flag to make it colourful and show the originating nationality. Whatever we do will have an Indian touch of hospitality to it. The text are in different colors to make it look joyful and vibrant. Once again providing the positive energetic mode to everything we do. Neat & Modern font and graphics to make it look global, international and ultra-modern.’

 

Procurement Excellence Awards by HPMF

Emerging Procurement Person Of The Year

Rajendra Prasad Sahu, Purchase Manager, Nakshatra by Standard Realtors Pvt. Ltd. Mumbai

Procurement Person Of The Year

Pankaj Sharma, Assistant Manager - Procurement, Duet India Hotels, Gurgaon

Female Procurement Person Of The Year

Manasi Talekar, Assistant Manager Purchase, Jet Airways, Mumbai

Best Hospitality Procurement Team

Procurement Team of Four Seasons Hotel, Mumbai

(Ganpat Dalvi, Mohan Nawadeen, Sam Charles, Swapnil S, Maxim Vivek Patil, Datta Prasad, Sanket Shelar, Sanket Sawant, Nitesh Salvi, Pradnya Parab)

Best Sustainable Development Sensitive Procurement Team

Meluha The Fern Mumbai

(Harvey Rodrigues, Nilesh Pawar, Vivek Rane, Satish Kanvillkar, Sachin Pagare)

Living Legend Awards

Ramesh Iyer, AVP Materials, Delta Corp Ltd, Panjim, Goa

Arvind Dang, President ’ Purchase and Corp services, M3M India Pvt Ltd, Delhi

Jairaj Singh, VP Purchase, Shri Group, Noida

Chef Satish Arora, Director - Food Production, Taj SATS Air Catering Ltd.

Unsung Hero Awards

Sanjay Verghese, Director - Materials, The Imperial, New Delhi

Sanjay Chaturvedi, Materials Manager, Hilton, Jaipur

Jaideep Gupta, Hospitality Consultant, Mumbai

Arokiam B, Manager - Materials, GRT Grand Kakinada

Photo: The HPMF Core team pose for a photograph.

The author is Assistant Editor of BW Hotelier.