Stonebridge Companies, Denver, CO
Scott Gericke, Vice President, Hotel Operations
Scott Gericke was familiar with the Avendra story, but it took an apples-to-apples cost comparison to make it clear how much Stonebridge Companies could save as an Avendra customer.
“The savings in some of the food and beverage items ranged from 7-18 percent,” he recalls of the initial cost analysis Avendra prepared. “Even today, we will do a spot check periodically on some non-food purchases, and prices are consistently 5-10% below standard rates.”
That means a lot to a company like Stonebridge Companies, an award-winning hotel development and management company with a portfolio of limited and full-service properties. From corporate headquarters in Denver, CO, Stonebridge oversees 36 western US locations, from Colorado to Alaska.
In addition to overseeing corporate procurement activities, Scott manages a portfolio of hotels which are responsible for purchasing at the property level. What he finds helpful is Avendra’s field support team, which provides contact and back-up on a regional basis. While Scott had become accustomed to filtering all the procurement issues and solutions, today most properties contact the Avendra team directly. “It is great that they have someone knowledgeable to talk to,” he says.
The Domino Effect
In 2002 Stonebridge began its Avendra relationship based solely on the food and beverage programs, but it has expanded its contract to include office supplies, maintenance and guest room programs.
A good example of the Avendra benefit, according to Scott, comes from the office supply category - specifically printer and toner cartridges. With regional differences, prices for these expensive consumables were coming in all over the board, and some of the offers looked too good to be true. Scott’s team was also concerned about quality and knew it could vary from one supplier to another. He says, “Once we implemented Avendra’s Administrative Services program, we knew exactly what we were going to get, were satisfied with the quality and we still saw up to 50 percent savings.”
And what is the big picture, in terms of Avendra? According to Scott, it is not only cost, it is time saved and focusing on operations and service. “Purchasing is a time-consuming responsibility. Avendra takes care of so many of the questions and problems which allows the property level associates to focus on the guests and drive revenues.”