Speke Hotels hail UBL partnership

By Benon Ojiambo

They started business operations about 20 years ago with a single brand, Speke Hotel Limited, but they have since expanded into a conglomerate of hotels and apartments. They are the Speke Group of Hotels.

They have grown to be one of the country's largest hospitality operators with over 15 high-quality properties in operation and more being developed. The company has since expanded into a collection of seven hotels and 300 well-serviced apartments in different locations in Kampala city, providing employment to over 2,500 Ugandans.

The hotels are the Speke Hotel, Commonwealth Resort Munyonyo, Speke Resort Munyonyo, Kabira Country Club, Dolphin Suites, Tourist hotel and Forest Cottages They have been driven by the passion for the hospitality industry and this has seen them not compromise their beliefs and they have set out to give the best since their beginning.

This has made the wholly-owned subsidiary of the Ruparelia Group build a high level of facilities with the guests' comfort and convenience in their mind. However, Prabhat Mishra, the general manager of Speke Group of Hotels, partly attributes their success to the smooth collaboration they have had with Uganda Breweries Limited (UBL).

UBL, the pioneering brewery that was the 18th company to be registered in the Pearl of Africa, is celebrating 70 years of existence since its formation in 1946. "They have contributed tremendously to the growth of the group because they supply us with their products that we sell at our outlets," Mishra told the New Vision in an interview yesterday.

However when asked about the quantity of drinks the brewer company supplies to the group, Mishra only said they purchase substantial amounts, but declined to give more details, saying it was internal information that cannot be shared with the public.

According to Mishra, the co-operation between the two companies partially contributed to naming of the group chairman, Sudhir Ruparelia, as the brand ambassador of Johnnie Walker Blue Label, an honour he has held for over two years.

"With the collaboration from UBL that is growing day by day, we are going to flourish in business," Mishra added. Though different collaborations come with various challenges, Mishra explained that they have been fortunate because they have not experienced any major challenges while dealing with UBL and attributed this to the pragmatic understanding the companies have between themselves. He also believes that with UBL collaboration, the group shall flourish in the future.