Sawridge turns its unique history into top-notch hospitality
Regional Company of The Year
The logo is subtle — crossed brushstrokes resembling a teepee — but it perfectly represents the Sawridge hotel chain’s First Nation’s ownership and its commitment to aboriginal culture. The hotel is a success story for the 35-member Sawridge Cree First Nation and its late chief, The Hon. Walter Twinn, who created the Slave Lake Hotel so his people could benefit from the northern Alberta oil boom of 1972. Twinn became chief of the Sawridge band in 1966, just after oil was discovered on reserve land, and he had the vision to create the hotel business with oil royalties. He was a strong leader, serving as a senator from 1990 to 1997, until his untimely death of a heart attack.
After opening and operating the first hotel in Slave Lake for several years, the brand negotiated a long-term lease with Parks Canada and constructed the Jasper Sawridge Inn and Conference Centre in 1982. Next, came a hotel in Fort McMurray, a hotel in Peace River and, most recently, the acquisition and re-branding of a former Holiday Inn in south Edmonton. Thirty-eight years later, the brand owns five Sawridge Inns and Conference Centres in northern Alberta communities — successful small hotels with a culture all its own.
Geared to the business traveller and conference organizer, these full-service hotels are the main gathering points and social hubs in the rural communities in which they’re located. It’s the reason why, says company CEO John MacNutt, they continue to grow, even in tough economic times.
“We have a lot of professional people who care about the company, care about the guests and are influential people in the community,” says Mac- Nutt. “It’s the people that make this company work.”
“Each of the locations focuses on customer service, maintaining a high level of staff morale, creating strong relationships with their suppliers and clients, while remaining active in their respective communities,” adds Jim Hill, the company’s vice-president of Hospitality. In fact, last year the company contributed more than $300,000 to local charities.
Another unique twist that builds on the brand’s success is its management model. Both MacNutt and Hill are part of an arms-length management team who work for an independent board of directors, hired by the Sawridge band to operate the hotels. It’s a unique governance model, says MacNutt. Unlike other First Nationsowned hotels and resorts across Canada — operated by the Nations themselves or through partnerships with large, international hotel brands — this management team works for the Sawridge hotel company board.
“The Sawridge First Nation took legal steps to separate the political and economic interests of the band and recruited a five-person board of directors, which is 100 per cent independent of the band,” says MacNutt. “In the last five years, we’ve developed a rigid and accountable model of governance, which has added a great clarity of focus. We meet and review our strategies with the First Nation annually; our goal is to provide long-term growth for the First Nation, to be its economic engine.”
And, the economic engine keeps rolling. In a world where budget chain hotels seem to pop up like mushrooms in small resource-based communities, along busy highways and airport approaches, the locally owned Sawridge Inns distinguished itself as the homegrown, full-service alternative. More than a place to sleep, Sawridge properties offer varied amenities, from restaurants and pubs to gaming lounges and health spas.
“With the boom in these oil communities, there’s been a tremendous growth in supply (of hotel beds), and we realized our point of difference can’t be solely our brand,” says Mac-Nutt. “So, we’ve worked to develop full-service facilities. It costs more to develop, but when times get tough, we have a few more arrows in our quiver.”
Times have been tough in the Alberta hotel business in recent years, but Sawridge Inns has weathered the downturn. Thanks to its unique spaces and services, the hotel is able to focus on various target markets. In Fort McMurray, the banquet rooms can seat 1,000 guests. In Slave Lake they offer full meals and live entertainment venues to host everything from concerts to boxing matches. In Peace River there’s a new fitness facility and Fort McMurray and Jasper offer spa services with a First Nations spin.
Foodservice is the other area where the company has distinguished itself. In Jasper, the award-winning Walter’s Dining Room has pioneered cuisine featuring local and indigenous ingredients. Dishes such as seared duck breast with dried fruit; bison meatloaf; elk satay with Saskatoon berries; and buffalo carpaccio reflect the brand’s Native heritage and have been popular, especially with international tourists.
In Fort McMurray, where many of the local oil patch workers hail from Canada’s East Coast, seafood is often on the menu, and the hotel is renowned for its Friday-night All-You-Can-Eat seafood feasts, featuring king crab and mussels.
“We used to have a Jigg’s Supper for the Maritimers, but when others started to do it, too, they said they wanted seafood, so that’s what we did.”
The latest feather in the company’s foodservice cap is Creations, the new dining room and lounge in the Sawridge Inn Edmonton South. The soaring space — 9,000 square feet — was designed by Vancouver’s Mona Foreman with natural materials, ranging from stone and driftwood to rustic pine. A 12-foot fireplace and water feature separates the lounge and restaurant, with a unique wall of mylar threads mimicking a Northern Lights show and defining a gallery space for constantly changing Canadian artwork.
The locally inspired cuisine has already been lauded by critics as some of Edmonton’s finest. Menus incorporate the Cree language — Mâcihtawin (the starting point) for appetizers like Alberta bison maki rolls or bison chili; Kîscikânis for salads like venison salami with arugula and Saskatoon berry vinaigrette; Iskotêw (from the fire) for barbecue duck burgers and pan-fried Alberta elk tenderloin in wild boar bacon with chocolate jus and wild mushroom barley. “We really wanted to step up the menu to create a Canadian cuisine that used a lot of nuances of native culture,” says Hill. “We serve fresh pickerel from Slave Lake and our duck burger is our biggest seller.”
According to MacNutt, management was surprised by the severity of the economic downturn but has worked creatively to fill its 800 rooms. The company has partnered with regional tour companies and outfitters, offering packages for Northern Lights tours in Fort Mac- Murray and Marmot Basin ski tours, whitewater rafting and fishing specials in Jasper. In Edmonton, guests can buy a Seduction Package complete with coupons and free shuttle service to the nearby West Edmonton Mall, which includes dinner, a Jacuzzi suite and breakfast in bed, or a ‘Mallapalooza’ weekend. And, the results are paying off. Net operating income will be higher in 2010, and occupancy is forecast to be up by 2.7 per cent.
“We started renovating the Edmonton property right in the eye of the storm, but we’ve bucked thetrend, and we’re managing nicely now,” says MacNutt. “We went to our properties in early 2009 to talk to our people about how to manage the business in tough times,” he adds. “It’s all about staying focused — on capital improvements, on staff and always on our customers.”
photography by bluefish studios
