TRENDING
SANSIRI ’ S STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURE
Thai real estate developer Sansiri PLC ’ s US $ 40.5 million in Standard International Holdings ( parent of The Standard lifestyle brand ) in August increased its stake in the New York company to 59 % from 37 %. Sansiri aims to increase the brand ’ s footprint from six hotels and 1,200 rooms to 25 hotels in the next five years , including four in Thailand , as well Milan , Paris , Lisbon , Bordeaux , Mexico City , Jakarta , Melbourne and Chicago .
Sansiri CEO Apichart Chutrakul ’ s answer to omnipresent disruption is collaboration among his disparate yet like-minded holdings . “ We collaborate to do some of the disruption work for each other , and help each other cope with this new , changing environment ,” says Chutrakul , who views the Standard investment as combining the strengths of like-minded real estate and hospitality companies to find growth opportunities in a new vertical .
The company ’ s focus on lifestyle has included investing in trendy magazine and influencer Monocle ; a Singapore co-working group ; an online art gallery ; and Hostmaker , a London-based management company for Airbnb hosts . In Singapore , Sansiri created Siri House , which combines a restaurant , art gallery , property showroom and lifestyle concept store .
Aggressive , yes . But Chutrakul is well aware of the work required to manage Standard ’ s growth while minding his billion-dollar real estate business . There are no plans to add brands , but the deal does bring extra vitality to Standard ’ s recently acquired Austin , Texasbased Bunkhouse Group of hip hotels . Bunkhouse has three hotels in the offing in New Orleans , Atlanta and Austin , Texas , with other deals in development .
Certainly , Sansiri is bringing capital to the table to jumpstart Standard ’ s expansion , but what Standard CEO Amar Lalvani says has been really important is how Sansiri ’ s infrastructure has helped Standard quickly set up an Asian base of operation in Bangkok .
“ We rely on them for things that they ’ re very good at , which is construction project management and relationships in the region ,” Lalvani says . “ With Sansiri we ’ ve been able to be basically local and on the ground with this real credibility and relationship … They have something like 2,000 employees and made it a priority to support us .”
With Standard planning its first residential component in Phuket , Thailand , as well as others in that country and another in Lisbon , it is also able to lean on Sansiri once again . “ Their residential expertise is important , which means how to design , how to plan , how to market , how to sell residential , including the database of people they have built over the last couple of decades ,” Lalvani says .
One thing Chutrakul is learning about hotels : “ It ’ s a hard business . It ’ s a service business , which is a little bit different from buying and selling . But , of course , we have a property management company in the service business – so we know a little bit . But hotels are daily and hourly business , so it ’ s taxing , a little bit . But it ’ s OK . It ’ s been a good experience .”— JEFF WEINSTEIN
Sansiri CEO Apichart Chutrakul
14 hotelsmag . com October 2019