October 2018 NSW Masonic Club 5 October 2018 NSWMC Magazine 5 GENERAL MANAGER’S REPORT Greetings, Members and Guests, and welcome to the 2nd souvenir edition of the magazine in the Club’s 125th year. I start this report by acknowledging how privileged I am to be in this position, to lead this unique Club and team. I have now been in my role for 3 years (time flies !) and together we have seen some huge advancements in that time. When I first arrived, the Club was not trading profitably. Unfortunately, very little was spent in back-of-house areas and essential services, salaries were low compared to the Sydney CBD market, occupancy was 20 percent lower than Sydney’s average, and the rooms were tired-looking. A review of organisational needs, resourcing and staff development was undertaken. This took some work to turn around, but we are now on track, and the future is looking brighter. Some of the highlights of the 2017/18 Financial Year include; • A record Hotel room revenue of over $4.2 million, with over 80% occupancy for the year. • We reinvested a total of $400,767 into the building in capital expenditure projects and spent a total of $397,484 on building maintenance. • Achieved an After Tax Profit of $537,140 for the year. • Maintained low staff turnover and a high Member and Guest satisfaction rate. We have had our fair share of challenges. We traded through a number of disruptions, including the complete demolition of the 14 story building abutting our Southern boundary wall as part of the Sydney Metro, a legal challenge of the Windsor Hotel’s relocation into Liberty Place (to allow up to 680 patrons indoors and outside) and the City of Sydney Cycleway rearing its head again. On the brighter side, your Club turned 125 years of age, and our building turned 91 years of age this year, and various celebrations were held in the middle of September 2018. All who attended the 125th Anniversary Dinner thoroughly enjoyed themselves and were offered a bottle of possibly the first ever specially labelled wine from the Club. Anniversary bottles are now for sale through the bars and reception. The plaque unveiled by the Governor of NSW and the Grand Master on the night of the Anniversary Dinner is located just inside the lobby, for all to see. I thoroughly enjoyed researching the history of the Club to prepare a presentation for the night. What a history it has been as seen on page 6. We also introduced a Member Benefits Program where Members gain points for every dollar they spend on outlet food and beverage. There is still much work to do to improve the Club for our Members and Guests. Over the coming financial year, we will focus on: • New-look hotel rooms. The hotel operation is our lifeblood, supplying over 94% of the Club’s revenue. We must reinvest into the rooms to keep pace with the new supply of hotels coming online in the Sydney CBD. In early October, after over 12 months in the planning, we commenced work on renovating four prototype hotel rooms. These will be finished by 21 December 2018. After this date, the Board will plan out a full refurbishment program of all Hotel rooms. • We will complete a full review of the Food and Beverage operations. This will include physical changes within the lower floors of the Club. • Completion of a number of back-of-house capital works and improvement projects, including patching and painting the Southern façade wall, a full refurbishment of the service elevator at the rear of the building, cooling tower maintenance and replacement stairs, upgrade to plumbing services and so on. • A renewed focus on sales and marketing efforts, including a new Hotel website. • New events, and food and beverage promotions, for our Members and guests to enjoy. The Club is now in a much stronger financial position. There were a number of factors that contributed to this financial year’s result, including some payments from Sydney Metro, and the settlement of a legal claim. Be advised that the 2018/19 financial year will have a very different result to the last financial year, due to our infrastructure reinvestment, maintenance program and a general softening of the Sydney accommodation market, as experienced from July to September. As always, I would like to thank the Board, who all generously give their time, energy and support to the Club and myself. I also recognise and sincerely thank my hardworking team for their dedication to continually improve their services and, finally, I thank you, our Members and Guests, for your ongoing support. You are the reason the Hotel and Club exists now and will do so for many more years to come. Please keep utilising the Club at every opportunity and encourage your friends to join as Members. Word of mouth is the cheapest and best form of Marketing. Take care, and ‘bye for now, Paul Brasch General Manager NSW Masonic Club and Castlereagh Boutique Hotel