Recently I spoke to Adriaan on the phone. We talked about how things are going. Sales and production (the most important part of the company) seem to be under control. Now that we have put corona behind us, our biggest concern is getting guests to the hotel and running the new restaurant in the lobby.
When we opened the hotel in October 2021 and invited the press, we had to close before we could even receive them. The momentum to draw attention to our greatest achievement yet seems somewhat lost. Now the plan is to generate a lot of attention all at once before the summer, when the Grand Café in the street opens again. In the meantime, we want to invite journalists individually to the hotel. This is a completely new problem for us because the only thing that always comes naturally is getting press attention. Adriaan responded that he was going to send an e-mail to get a piece in a newspaper. Almost immediately afterwards I received an email that the Financial Times wanted to write a piece and we were put in touch with journalist Helen Barrett.
This weekend, a large article about our place was published in the Financial Times. Helen Barrettt describes our meeting and her experiences in our place and in the city. It is a great honor and very special that we get such a large piece in the Financial Times. Adriaan gives us the attention we are used to, the attention is certainly not self-evident, and that is why we appreciate it even more.
Our biggest problem has now been overtaken by a bigger problem; We thought we had an energy contract, but to my great surprise, that turned out not to be the case. So, energy bills are extremely high. So high, that I thought: how are we supposed to earn this again? Gas is not that bad for us because a few years ago we bought a kind of super-deluxe briquette stove with which we burn our own waste. The tenants at our place use gas, and electricity has become outrageously expensive for all of us. So, the plans are changing again: we are going to install solar panels as soon as possible and we are purchasing another super-deluxe wood gasifier. Every disadvantage has its advantage. Afterwards we will tell each other that this crisis has also brought a lot of good. In the company, economical use of energy is suddenly the number one point of attention for everyone, which is super positive!
We will first install solar panels and the boiler, and we will open the Grand Café later (somewhere after the summer). That is not so bad because the summer has not been our best period with the restaurant so far. By moving the opening of the Grand Café, we can fully focus on the hotel, the lobby restaurant, roof bar and bistro and we have been helped by the fantastic piece in the Financial Times. That seems like a pretty good idea!
Various objects and projects are described in the Financial Times piece. Below you will find information about this:
The Waste Table in Scrapwood, 2001
The Waste Waste Organic Table, 2021
Through the factory corridor windows, visitors can watch him and his team at work. As they wander among the homewares, fashion and antiques in the galleried design superstore, they can look down on the factory floor where carpenters and ceramicists are busy with wood and clay. As Eek describes it: “I want you to stand next to the products, then look through to the workshop where they are made.” (Source: Financial Times)
You are welcome to visit our shop and showroom at Halvemaanstraat 30, Eindhoven. Or take a peek at our webshop here!
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