Félix Martí

Resuinsa hits pre-pandemic highs thanks to continuous support and service to hotel sector businesses

The pandemic represented a true challenge for the hotel sector, although it also opened up a new range of opportunities and learning to propel the sector forward. Within this context, Resuinsa—a leading global company in the hospitality linen sector—hit turnover levels similar to three years previously in 2022, thanks to its speedy adaptation to changes and ongoing support for clients and sector businesses.

In this sense, sales figures are now back to 2019 levels in excess of 45 million euro, with 55% coming from Spain and 45% from overseas (exports). The multinational has a footprint in 140 countries and over 8,000 clients, developing specific strategies in different areas of the globe where it operates and supporting large hotel chains in their international expansion plans.

Resuinsa CEO Félix Martí explained that the company has remained strong over recent years during the sector’s crisis. ‘We stood alongside each and every one of our clients, both those who had to temporarily shut down and those who remained open. Moreover, we have been faced with a context of major price hikes for raw materials and more expensive products. Despite all this, Resuinsa remained steadfast, always providing service.’

Better economic outlook

The company commissioned a consulting firm to produce a report in June 2020. The aim was to forecast the impact from possible scenarios coming out of the pandemic, since 99% of sector companies had put their business on hold around that time. ‘Fortunately, our economic outlook and prospects have greatly improved today. The report set out a ten-year forecast comprising two different short- and long-term scenarios: whether the pandemic ended in 2020 or remained ongoing, which is precisely what happened. In fact, its effects are still being felt at present’, Martí explained. ‘Right now, our clients are facing changing habits and contexts, and Resuinsa is supporting them through our investment plans.’

 

Sustainability, technology and CSR

According to Martí, ‘one thing we have learnt in this time is to be ready to return to a genuinely new and improved normality. In our case, we made our biggest-ever commitment to sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), using the advantages offered by new technology to move towards digitalisation and a 100% circular economy’.

All this has materialised into different projects developed alongside the Centre for Development of Industrial Technology (CDTI) to obtain eco-friendly textiles. They represent a green alternative for the hotel sector, which generates tonnes of textile waste every year that could be recycled and reused. In this vein, an opportunity has come around to adapt to the new environmental requirements set by the UN.

Resuinsa signed up to the UN Global Compact in 2020—the world’s largest corporate sustainability initiative, with a presence in over 160 countries. Based on the universal principles of human rights, employment, the environment and anticorruption, it aims to achieve the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set out in the 2030 Agenda.

‘In short, we have remained at our clients’ side at all times, providing service in spite of the circumstances. We are moving forward, taking advantage of what we have learnt and all our proven expertise to improve the sector’s environmental and economic footprint’, concluded Martí.