Hot Seat

Mr fix-it

Offering purchasing solutions to the hospitality industry, Lalit Kapoor has a solution for everything. By Praveen K Singh

With over 25 years of experience in project management and purchasing, Lalit Kapoor has been in the hospitality industry for over two decades. He has headed local procurement as well as international sourcing for hotels like The Rajvilas Jaipur, The Cecil Simla, The Trident Jaipur, The Udaivilas Udaipur, Ananda Rishikesh, Ista Bangalore, Ista Hyderabad, Shanti Ananda Mauritius and Friget Islands.

Working with Purchasing Management International (PMI) now, he will be involved in introducing a new concept to the Indian market - providing purchasing solutions to new constructions as well as renovation of existing hotels. "We are trying to establish a concept in the Indian market that is common in US and Europe. I am hopeful that it will become popular here as well. Our joint venture partner company in US PMI International has been in this business for the last 25 years and has worked with most of the international brands. Its expertise will definitely help us in providing the right set of services to our clients in India. Also, our own team in India is well experienced," he says.

"There is a huge potential for this in the market. There are about a few hundred hotels, which are being planned in the country currently and our only motto is to get for clients the right product at the right price and most importantly, at the right time," Kapoor adds, claiming that the response from most of its prospective clients has been extremely encouraging.

The memoirs

Born in New Delhi in 1964, Kapoor completed schooling and college education from Delhi, subsequently finishing his Masters in Public Administration and post graduation in Business Management. Starting his career with Modi Xerox, he later did a stint with Times of India, joining Oberoi Group of Hotels later where he was to spend five years being responsible for project co-ordination and procurement for the company.

In 1998, he joined IHHR Hospitality and served the organisation for nine years as its vice president and headed procurement for Ananda Rishikesh, Ista Hyderabad and Shanti Ananda Maurice in Mauritius. His current company, PMI, provides solutions in furniture, fixtures & equipments (FF&E), operations supplies and equipments (OS&E) and capital items (CI) categories for upcoming hotels and renovation and refurbishments of existing hotels. It also provides purchasing solutions for daily operations of hotels within the premises of hotels.

It has direct contacts and associates in countries like China, Malaysia, UAE and Turkey.

Describing the thriving hospitality sector in the country, he says, "It is going to see a major change in the coming years. All those international brands, which kept themselves away from India for such a long time, are all entering the market now." Kapoor feels that Indian hotel companies have concentrated more on the luxury segment somehow keeping themselves away from the budget segment. However, he says that a lot of budget hotels coming up in the country will give travellers an option to pay for and utilise what they actually need.

Despite that, he feels that the industry is witnessing a major mismatch of demand and supply. Another major problem, he cites, is land. "There are so many hotels planning to come up but there is no land available in most of the metros and whatever is available is very expensive making it unviable for any company to build any budget hotels," he remarks.

Also, shortage of trained manpower is a critical issue in front of the industry, he says and adds, "To resolve these issues, the industry need to be more organised. The supply of hotels needs to grow manifold and the government needs to ensure that there are enough plots of land available at reasonable prices by looking at long-lease options."