Empire marks 3rd year
By Huraizah Ahmad

Executive Director Hajah Norhayati PDH Husin delivering a speech.

Happy staff members celebrating.

To mark its 3rd anniversary, The Empire Hotel & Country Club held a special hi-tea reception for its team members at the Indera Kayangan Ballroom on Thursday afternoon.

Gracing the commemorative event were Hajah Norhayati PDH Husin, Executive Director of The Empire Hotel & Country Club; Sheikh Jamaluddin, Director of Brunei Tourism as well as ambassadors and high commissioners.

The hotel's general manager, Phillipe Requin, said 'During the Annual Staff Party last year, I made the wish that for the year 2003, we would like to see The Empire Hotel & Country Club busier and fuller than it was in 2002.

I am very proud and extremely pleased to share with you that this is happening despite the challenging times we had during the first half of the year with the war and SARS. We did extremely well in August and September with August breaking all records in occupancy and revenue and September surpassing this, which proves that we are in line with the mission set by the Board of Directors of JPH Sendirian Berhad'. He said all of the hotel's team members should push themselves further and strive to exceed the budget set with the festive season coming soon.

Hajah Norhayati PDH Husin said 'The Empire Hotel & Country Club has established itself as a premier hotel in Brunei Darussalam and a landmark hotel within the Asian region. We have a world class product, which few can compete and it gives me great pleasure to say that our product is complemented with a team of people who genuinely have the passion and commitment of weathering any kind of hardships together'.

The Employee of the Month for Front of House went to a receptionist, Ms Pipit Purnama Sari, who was presented her award by the High Commissioner of India, Mr Ajai Choudhry. Bringing home the award for Back of the House was a project co-ordinator in the Engineering Department, Pedro Fontanilla Jr, who received the award from the Ambassador of the Republic of Philippines, Madame Virginia Benavidez.

Leader of the Quarter Awards resulted in a tie between Front office Manager, Sven Saebal and Assistant F&B Manager, Rusmaidi Fetra. Both were presented with their awards by the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany representative, Mr Adalbert Rittmuler and Embassy of the Republic of Indonesia representative, Mr Suhardi Condrosentono, respectively.

Courtesy of Borneo Bulletin