Hospitality operator favours home-grown brands

The question of importing foreign names under the platform of franchising in the hospitality business was last week brought to the fore as Austin Eruotor, president, White House Hotels, argued that the arrangement was too costly to Nigeria’s economy.

While asking the Federal Government to look into the possibility of re-dressing international franchising in the hospitality industry, Eruotor argued that “such deal of operating business that exclusively carries an international company’s name creates employment for the licensees against the licensed company’s home economy. “Those franchise deals of answering foreign names are creating employment for foreign countries where those names are imported instead of Nigerians. I don’t see how they are better than the local hotels on ground. They bring expatriates and pay them huge salaries and they also collect commissions even when the business is largely run by Nigerians. I think government should look into all these to encourage the local people on ground.”

On possible reason Nigerians seek foreign permit to use established names in business, Eruotor said some operators don’t have the patient to build their own brands to international standards, arguing that after all those international brands started from somewhere.

“Again, some people investing in the hospitality business are not really into the game. They believe that if they bring the foreign brands they would be able to recover their investments quickly. I believe in building a Nigerian brand, which White House is doing. Once you give quality service, people will accept you and you become your own brand from there. It is better to start on your own way,” he said.

The confident White House president said the unique features about his 40-room hotels located at Toyin and Joel Ogunaike streets, both in Ikeja, Lagos, were the quality of service and ambience, saying “we have corporate patronage from all sectors including oil and gas industry, banks and Nollywood.”