{"id":229641,"date":"2025-12-12T18:44:13","date_gmt":"2025-12-12T18:44:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/229641\/"},"modified":"2025-12-12T18:44:13","modified_gmt":"2025-12-12T18:44:13","slug":"were-having-debates-about-food-menus-its-whether-or-not-to-include-the-filet-steak-at-a-big-price-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/229641\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018We\u2019re having debates about food menus… it\u2019s whether or not to include the filet steak at a big price\u2019 \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cOver there is Carrigtwohill business park,\u201d says Fergal Harte pointing out the window from a suite on the top floor of the five-star Fota Island Resort<\/a> in Cork<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The industrial area is home to multinational companies such as Stryker, Gilead Sciences and GE Healthcare, among others. \u201cThey\u2019re very important for the local community in terms of employment and activity,\u201d he says, including for the resort he manages. <\/p>\n

Harte is group hotel general manager for the Fota Collection, which comprises Fota and the four-star Kingsley hotel in Cork city. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe uncertainty around tariffs earlier this year was a challenge because the multinationals and pharma would be a big part of our business,\u201d he says, adding that corporate makes up about half of its revenue at the Kingsley and about a third in Fota. <\/p>\n

While corporate performed well in the first half of the year, there has been a slowdown since Donald Trump\u2019s tariffs took effect, with the postponement or cancelling of business groups and conferences, particularly in the pharma and food sectors. <\/p>\n

On a brighter note, he says enquiries are coming through for 2026. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere was definitely a softening [in corporate business] in quarter three and the next few months look soft from the pharma sector,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Fota was also affected over the October holiday school break by the closure of the neighbouring Fota Wildlife Park, due to avian flu. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Fota Wildlife Park to reopen before Christmas after avian flu outbreakOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cWe lost a lot of business off our books initially when it closed and then as it got closer to the week of the midterm break business picked up. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt wasn\u2019t a disaster for us but it was noticeable how close the brand is connected to the wildlife park. That had an impact on us.\u201d <\/p>\n

All that said, Harte says it has been a \u201cpretty good year\u201d for Fota. \u201cWe came into the year with a lot of concerns but we had a good start to the year and it has continued. Occupancy is relatively flat but the rate in both hotels has increased.\u201d<\/p>\n

Harte says occupancy levels at Fota would be around the mid-70 per cent mark, and 82 per cent at the Kingsley. On the day we met in November, rates on average at the Kingsley were about \u20ac225 per night for bed and breakfast for two people, while at Fota it was closer to \u20ac300. <\/p>\n

Harte describes them as \u201cgood rates\u201d but highlights headwinds ahead. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere are some headwinds across the winter months and the cost of doing business is a real challenge, particularly on the food and beverage front.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re having debates about what to include on food menus because of the cost of beef, it\u2019s whether or not to include the filet steak at a big price.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fota serves up a 6oz filet steak at the moment for \u20ac42-\u20ac44, which Harte accepts is a \u201cpunchy\u201d price.<\/p>\n

Customers are a \u201cbit more price sensitive\u201d in the Kingsley, he says. <\/p>\n

Is he considering taking beef off the menu, which would be considered sacrilege in a county such as Cork with its rich farming heritage? <\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the debate we\u2019re having in the Kingsley at the moment. I\u2019d prefer to keep it on and give people the choice but you are opening yourself up to people questioning your pricing,\u201d he says<\/p>\n

But \u201cthe plan\u201d is for it to stay on the menu in Fota. <\/p>\n

An increase in the minimum wage, the introduction of auto enrolment and other measures have put pressure on payroll costs. <\/p>\n

In addition, a shortage of accommodation in the local area means that 40 staff are living on site at Fota in about a dozen lodges, units that would previously have been available to let by guests. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re looking at building a staff unit on site. A lot of places have gone down that road. The alternative is to look at accommodation to buy or rent in the local area but obviously there aren\u2019t a huge amount of options out there,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

The issue is under debate internally. \u201cIf we spend a lot of money on accommodation on site, will we need it in the future? It\u2019s hard to predict.\u201d<\/p>\n

For the current financial year, Harte is targeting group revenues of \u20ac38.5 million, up from \u20ac37 million last year, while operating profit is projected to hit \u20ac5.8 million, up from \u20ac5.2 million last year.<\/p>\n

And the \u201chope\u201d is the group will return to a bottom line profit this year after making a \u201csmall loss\u201d last year.<\/p>\n

Fota accounts for about \u20ac24 million of group revenues, he says.<\/p>\n

Just more than 600 staff are employed across the two hotels. The Kingsley has 132 bedrooms while Fota has 131, including six suites. There are also 120 family lodges on site at Fota, of which the hotel manages 70. <\/p>\n

Sitting on 780 acres, Fota also includes a spa, woodland paths, 27 holes of golf, a clubhouse and playing pitches and changing areas that were used last summer by the likes of Celtic football club, Wycombe Wanderers and the Liverpool women\u2019s team. <\/p>\n

Cork City football club and the county\u2019s GAA teams also use the facilities regularly.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re talking to a [German] Bundesliga club about next year and the FAI have been looking at us for the European Championships that they\u2019ll be co-hosting in 2028,\u201d he says. \u201cThe games are in Dublin but they\u2019ll use us as a base, including for those teams playing in the UK,\u201d he says, adding that the pitches are \u201csuperb\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are like a bowling ring. It creates a great buzz around the place when teams are here.\u201d <\/p>\n

Fota has also hosted the Irish Open men\u2019s golf tournament on three occasions, most recently in 2014. <\/p>\n

And he\u2019s hoping to get a \u201cspin-off\u201d from Adare Manor hosting the 2027 Ryder Cup event, even though its 110km away by road. \u201cAmerican visitors are happy to travel and they wouldn\u2019t see the two hours from here to Adare as a major challenge at all. We\u2019ve a lot of rooms already held off for it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Has he nudged up its prices for the Ryder Cup? \u201cThe market will dictate that,\u201d he says coyly. <\/p>\n

The reduced 9 per cent VAT rate for food services, which is due to take effect in the middle of next year is \u201cgreat news\u201d and will mean that prices won\u2019t go up rather than coming down. <\/p>\n

\u201cAlso it will hopefully allow us to provide more variety on our menu and more creativity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Harte has been with Fota since 2008, when it was under the Sheraton brand, having been opened by developer John Fleming two years earlier. He joined in August that year in a senior sales role with the bottom falling out of the market in September due to the global banking crash.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything just changed immediately,\u201d he says, noting that the Sheraton contract ended early the following year, a little more than two years into a 25-year agreement.<\/p>\n

Redundancies followed, business contracted and the property ended up in Nama. Harte survived the cull and the property was bought by a Chinese family in 2013. <\/p>\n

They also bought the four-star Kingsley hotel in Cork City, which had been closed for four years due to flooding.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was my opportunity … I pushed to get a role there [at the Kingsley] as the GM,\u201d he says, noting that his role at Fota had switched from sales and events to operations in the hotel and clubhouse. <\/p>\n

The Kingsley reopened in July 2014 and Harte now runs both businesses for its current Chinese owner, Haili Yang, who lives on site in Fota.<\/p>\n

Harte grew up near Trim in Co Meath and his introduction to the world of hospitality was as a 15-year-old in the Station House Hotel, working in the restaurant. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe chef sent me out for a long stand to the maintenance guy. It was a tough environment but it didn\u2019t put me off. They eventually let me out of the kitchen and put me on the floor and I enjoyed dealing with customers as a waiter. And that\u2019s how I got the bug.\u201d<\/p>\n

He later did hotel management through the then State training body Cert in Amiens Street in Dublin. \u201cThat was brilliant. It was three or four months in college and the rest of the time you were on the job, I was in the Sligo Park Hotel. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt was long shifts, working breakfast, lunch and dinner and you might get an hour off in between. We lived on site and I still have great memories. It was such a good place to learn. It whetted my appetite for the industry.\u201d<\/p>\n

He moved to London in late 1995, to work at the Cumberland Hotel, which was then the biggest hotel in the city with 900-1,000 rooms. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt was right at Marble Arch, on the corner of Oxford Street and Park Lane and we lived on site. There were about 400 people living there and we had single rooms. That was just brilliant and there were so many Irish people over there. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe were working really hard in the hotel and then over playing five-a-side football in Hyde Park, and going out at night to local bars.\u201d<\/p>\n

He moved into events at the Cumberland, becoming the Christmas co-ordinator with them. To \u201ctry something different\u201d he moved to a design company in London that had a lot of major corporate clients. <\/p>\n

He managed the catering side of their events, rubbing shoulders with the Spice Girls, Prince Andrew, Ryanair chief Michael O\u2019Leary and celebrity chef Jamie Oliver. <\/p>\n

What were the Spice Girls like? \u201cVery nice actually, I brought them up from the atrium level to the meeting room upstairs. I was probably afraid of my life to say anything to them. They were massive stars at the time and were there for a launch of a new album.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2002, he returned to Ireland with his English wife and got a job in Westport at the family-owned Knockranny House Hotel. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey took me under their wing, we had two kids born in Castlebar, bought a house and did the whole thing. I was the sales manager and doing a lot of travelling back and forth to the United States and Dublin.\u201d<\/p>\n

He spent six years there before moving to Cork when an opportunity arose for a role at Fota. His parents and two brothers were also living in Cork so the move \u201cmade sense\u201d from a number of perspectives. <\/p>\n

Unlike many of his counterparts in the industry, Harte will get a break over Christmas, with the hotel shutting on December 23rd and not reopening until the 27th. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s nice for staff to have a break for a few days. This is a 24-hour business and it\u2019s always rolling.\u201d <\/p>\n

Looking to the future, a major investment plan is under discussion. <\/p>\n

This would involve a \u20ac15 million to \u20ac20 million investment over the next few years to maintain and improve the product. \u201cIn hotels, the investment never stops,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

His vision for Fota is clear. \u201cFota would lend itself to health and wellness tourism, the woodland cabins and walks, the outdoor spa facilities, the promenade around the edge. If we can move in that direction, we\u2019d look to do it in stages over a number of years. It would set us up nicely for the future.\u201d <\/p>\n

CV<\/p>\n

Name<\/b>: Fergal Harte<\/p>\n

Job<\/b>: Group hotel general manager of the Fota Collection<\/p>\n

Age<\/b>: 52<\/p>\n

Family<\/b>: Three children<\/p>\n

Hobbies<\/b>: He\u2019s done a number of marathons (Dingle last year was his most recent one) and trail running in the Alps. \u201cI\u2019ve also just gone back to playing tennis.\u201d <\/p>\n

Something we might expect<\/b>: He loves to visit nice hotels and restaurants. \u201cIt can be difficult to relax because I\u2019m always watching what other hotels are doing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Something that might surprise<\/b>: He organised an event in London for the launch of a Spice Girls album. <\/p>\n

Best hotel he has stayed in Ireland?<\/b> \u201cLove the Europe Hotel in Killarney, and the sister hotel, the Dunloe. Loved Galgorm in Ballymena, have stayed there twice now and like the experience of the spa and the woodland cabins. And the Merrion Hotel in Dublin is a lovely experience. Would like to stay in Adare Manor but haven\u2019t had the chance yet.\u201d<\/p>\n

Best hotel abroad?<\/b> \u201cI stayed in a hotel called the Grand Resort in Bad Ragaz in Switzerland in August. It was fabulous. It was partly the location, a ski resort in the winter and hiking the rest of the time, with Michelin-star restaurants on site. Wildly expensive but completely loved it, really enjoyable.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cOver there is Carrigtwohill business park,\u201d says Fergal Harte pointing out the window from a suite on the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":229642,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[79,1877,356,18,95089,6600,19,17,5986,1411,24727],"class_list":{"0":"post-229641","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-cork","10":"tag-donald-trump","11":"tag-eire","12":"tag-fota-island-resort","13":"tag-hotels","14":"tag-ie","15":"tag-ireland","16":"tag-tourism","17":"tag-us-tariffs","18":"tag-vat"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115708078669535329","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229641","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=229641"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229641\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/229642"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=229641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=229641"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=229641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}