Rikan General Trading have come on board for a second year running as the headline sponsor at the Hotel News ME, GM Leaders Conference, taking place on 16 May 2016, at the St. Regis Dubai.
Riaz Khimani, Managing Director, Rikan General Trading explains why the company will be supporting the event. 
What are your core products services?
Leather accessories for rooms such as guest folders, blotters, tissue boxes, remote holders and for F&B we custom design menus and also supply a wide variety of fruit trays, bread baskets, customised buffetware and table top accessories. Metal and resin accessories are used for bathroom amenity trays, soap dishes and flower vases. to name a few.
Why have you chosen to partner with The GM Leaders Conference 2016?
Rikan is an established brand in the hotel industry, but we strongly believe in staying in touch with the industry at every level. Right from the grass roots to the top leadership. This conference offers the right platform to be in touch with the leaders. We as a company are always very keen to learn from our clients and study the ever changing trends in the market.We solely sponsored the same event in 2015 at the Four Seasons Jumeirah and would love to be associated with this event this year and every year.
What are the top trends driving the hospitality industry currently?
Emerging overseas markets and steady growth in the local business due to the buildup for the EXPO 2020.
What are the top positive and negative trends driving business in your specific sector?
The top positive trends are the huge scale of development of hotels in the region right from midscale to high end. This always keeps us on our feet to keep offering new user friendly products to midscale segment and at the same time keep creating bespoke products for the high end hotels.
The major negative trends are competition from small overseas companies entering the market purely because of the scale of development but unable to offer consistency in quality or service. This leads to a unhealthy situation for local companies also affects the hotels who buy from these companies because they may save a nominal sum but in exchange do not get the right product or service now or in future. Competition is always welcome and healthy between established brands and companies but patronizing unknown overseas suppliers or small players has negative impact on the industry as a whole.
