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| CP Balani | Mohan Deshpande |
FHW Staff – Mumbai
The Hospitality Purchasing Managers’ Forum (HPMF) recently celebrated its fourth anniversary at Sahara Star Hotel, Mumbai. The event had a total guest count of over 250, which included more than 100 purchasing professionals from Mumbai and neighbouring cities along with few dignitaries, general managers, executive chefs, housekeepers, engineers, F&B directors and IT managers of various hotels. The forum comprises of purchasing managers from the hospitality industry such as hotels, catering companies, stand alone restaurant chains, airlines etc, HPMF was formally launched on November 26, 2010. It was created to support and develop purchasing managers from the hospitality industry. From three members in the beginning, now the strength has reached over 650 members from around 400 organisations across India.
At the event, three senior most members of HPMF who spent more than 40 years each in hospitality procurement, were awarded with ‘The Living Legend Award’- Jagdish Prasad Sharma, CP Balani and Mohan Deshpande. These three senior most members have trained and mentored several industry procurement professionals. The awards consisted of a certificate and trophy which were handed over to all three recipients by the chief guest Shashi Chaturvedi; guest of honour Marcel Parker and other prominent industry personalities consisting of chef Satish Arora, corporate chef , Taj SATS; Anuj Prakash, VP and GM, The Resort; Philippe Charraudeau, regional VP and GM, ITC Grand Maratha and Manish Sodhi, GM, Sahara Star Hotel. A powerpoint presentation on the achievements of HPMF in the last four years was done by founder Nitin Nagrale.