One of the few remaining Irish family-owned hotel groups received special recognition when it was awarded the Deloitte special platinum award in the Convention Centre on Friday evening.
CEO of the company Padraig Sugrue said that he attributed the hotel group's success to 25 years of continuous investment in its hotels and the training and development of loyal and friendly staff.
"Our corporate culture is built on the three pillars of respect for our customers, respect for our staff, and respect for the local community," said Mr Sugrue - and this has paid great dividends for the Hodson Bay Group whose hotels are performing very strongly and which are preparing for the next phase of their expansion.
"It was a great source of pride for the company to be the first hotel group in the country to receive this exceptional accolade," said Mr Sugrue, and he paid tribute to the staff and his fellow directors for their "relentless pursuit of excellence in the areas of people, process, and product development".
The company’s commercial director Garry Walsh said that he had returned to the company last year because, in his opinion, Hodson Bay Group is best positioned to exploit the great growth potential in the Irish tourism industry at the moment. Having previously worked with the HBH group, Mr Walsh subsequently held positions as director of ancillaries revenues with Ryanair and commercial head of digital with Independent News and Media. He now looks forward to putting his experience to good use in the flexible environment of a family-owned business. "As the economies in the UK and US return to almost full employment, tourism into Ireland is once again a significant growth area. I was thrilled to be invited back to lead the next phase of growth for the company," he said.
The group currently owns more than 500 bedrooms in the Hodson Bay Hotel on the shores of Lough Ree; the Galway Bay Hotel on Galway city’s seafront; the Sheraton Athlone Hotel; and is currently in the process of exploiting an opportunity for growth in the Dublin market.
The annual Deloitte awards took place on Friday evening at the Convention Centre. The Deloitte Best Managed Companies Awards Programme recognises indigenous Irish companies across the island of Ireland which are operating at the highest levels of business performance.
