06 Jul Professionalising without losing one’s roots: the challenge for family companies in the hospitality sector

Felix Martí reflects on the step-by-step progress in hospitality and at Resuinsa, underlining the transformation in innovation and sustainability

Textiles were a functional feature in a hotel room for decades. Today, they are part of an establishment’s experience and personality, as well as how guests view their stay. Understanding this transformation, remaining one step ahead and working on innovation and sustainability have underpinned progress at both Resuinsa and in the sector as a whole.

For Resuinsa CEO Félix Martí, the key lies in marrying long-term vision, professionalisation and the ability to adapt. This is a particularly relevant consideration at a time when many family firms are facing generational change and transformation in dynamic sectors such as hospitality: ‘Family firms provide a hugely important extra to personal and vocational development, as long as they are modern and professional themselves’, he outlines.

Growing in step with an ever-changing

Hospitality has undergone deep transformation, as too has the role of linens and textiles at hotels. Where guests would find similar linens as they had at home in the past, nowadays expectations are very different. ‘We have gone from expecting similar linens to the ones we have at home to wanting them to be so extraordinary that we would like to take the experience back with us’, Martí explains.

This shift has led to manufactures and hoteliers moving forwards together in order to meet ever more demanding expectations from guests, in a sector where guest experience has become a standout distinctive feature. So much so that Félix Martí credits much of the firm’s progress to one simple idea: listening.

‘We have learnt everything from our clients’, states the Resuinsa CEO. In this vein, he recalls a conversation from a few years ago with one of the top hotel chains in Spain that led the firm to commit deeply to textile certifications, sustainability and new quality standards.

This commitment to innovation and sustainability is seen today in projects like Circularis, the first bath linen collection to be partially designed from waste hotel linens and a circular economy initiative set to begin its large-scale industrial implementation stage.

Competing in a global market

When Félix Martí became CEO in 1996, Resuinsa was the fourth or fifth largest linen supplier in the Spanish hospitality industry. ‘I remember visiting clients who barely knew anything about us, talking about how unattainable it was to become the leading firm in the sector, like a milestone we couldn’t even aspire to’, he recalls. Three decades later, the former top dog is no longer in business and Resuinsa has cemented its place as the benchmark firm in Spain and as one of the most important players internationally, with a footprint in over 150 countries and subsidiaries in America, Africa and Asia.

Martí shared these recollections at the celebration in honour of Resuinsa’s 50^th and Resuinsa Group’s 100^th anniversary. A journey that began a century ago when his grandfather, Mateo Martí, set sail on the good ship Esperanza (‘Hope’) to Barcelona with just five pesetas in his pocket and a desire to learn everything he could about the textile trade. ‘Today we’ve added the flags of ecology and innovation to the Esperanza’s masthead’, he concludes.