SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 2022

GRIFID Hotels | GOLDEN SANDS | MAY 2023


GRIFID Hotels
OUR COMMITMENT

We at GRIFID Hotels realize the importance of the environment and its preservation for the existence and development of our business and for future generations.
We as Holiday service providers are pursuing a policy that protects and preserves resources and strives to manage our business in a way that reduces the harmful impact of our operations on the environment by using good practices and modern methods in our work.
We at GRIFID Hotels engage all our employees in our efforts to operate a sustainable and green business.
We work in several key directions that help us in our goal of running hotels that along with their successful performance also contribute to protecting the environment.

Our main areas of work are:

ENVIRONMENT:

- Conservation of natural resources through saving and management of energy and water consumption
- Minimizing waste and carbon dioxide emissions
- Use of alternative renewable energy sources - e.g. solar panels
- Raising awareness among employees and customers for the importance of sustainability and the impact of travel on the environment

LOCAL CULTURE:

- Our operational activity is closely related to the destination and the local culture - employees, partners, and community. We offer our guests an insight into the local culture, heritage, and environment and the experiences associated with them
- We are a Bulgarian hotel group and have established lasting ties with local producers, communities, and partners. This allows us to conduct an effective policy by involving staff, local society, and guests in the events and initiatives we organize to protect the environment
- We are actively working with all employees to make everyone aware of and contribute to the goals that our management has set for the sustainable development of our business
- We take care of the working conditions and the welfare of our employees

RESPONSIBLE BUSINESS:

- We are aware of and respect the laws and regulations relating to the protection of the environment and the reduction of the negative impact of our operational activities on nature
- All our actions towards sustainable development are traceable and registered

GRIFID Hotels - WHO ARE WE

GRIFID Hotels is a Bulgarian hospitality brand. Our first hotel was opened in 2001 and the trademark was established in 2006.
The group operates seven 4-star and one 3-star hotels located in Golden Sands Resort near the city of Varna.

GRIFID Hotel Arabella

The first GRIFID Hotels: which opened in 2001 set the beginning of our very successful experience with the All-Inclusive formula. Over the years we have continuously built, developed and perfected our hospitality product, added new restaurants, a bar, a patisserie, gym with a panoramic view, and renovated the accommodation and the common areas of the hotel.
Today GRIFID Hotels  Arbella has stylish and modern design rooms overlooking the sea, 4 restaurants, 3 of those a la carte, a lobby bar, bar lounge, pastry, mini club, 2 outdoor pools, and an indoor pool, spa, multifunctional playground.
GRIFID Hotels  Arbella has all it takes to be the perfect choice for a family holiday.

GRIFID Hotel Bolero

It is the second GRIFID Hotels opened in 2005. This hotel is the perfect choice for a relaxing holiday in terms of location and facilities, a huge variety of recreational and entertainment options, an excellent ULTRA All Inclusive formula, sophisticated specialties, cozy and comfortable rooms and a fun team of animators, as well as courteous service, sports opportunities, evening entertainment, a rich daytime animation program, cozy and relaxing atmosphere. The hotel offers to its guests 2 buffets and 3 a la carte restaurants, a bar lounge, a pool bar, and a relax bar, it has extensive outside areas with classic shaped and landscaped outdoor pools, an indoor pool, an aquapark with over 400 meters of water slides, designed for children and adults with 3 additional beautiful pools and situated in close proximity to them a children's complex with a mini club and a children's playground.

GRIFID Hotel Vistamar

Joined the family of GRIFID Hotels in 2011. It has an extremely attractive direct beachfront location and deservedly adopted its new name Vistamar. The majority of its hotel rooms offer unrivaled sea views. Grifid Vistamar embodies GRIFID Hotels' desire to rediscover and revive traditions, reconstruct, change, develop projects that have a history. During the winter season of 2018/2019, the hotel was renovated, and one of the blocks of the hotel was recently built, which features a modern reception block with a la carte restaurants and a lobby bar, a new buffet restaurant located on the second floor with breathtaking sea views and modern furnished new rooms. The old rooms of the hotel are also completely renovated.

GRIFID Hotel Metropol

Was presented in the brand GRIFID Hotels first in 2013 as an extremely ambitious, categorical, different, and modern project - PREMIUM All Inclusive, adults only, all-inclusive with a la carte service in all restaurants and bars on the grounds of the complex, Fusion restaurant with gourmet cuisine, 9-course Degustation Menu, Molecular Cuisine, extremely individual service and Concierge care, Grifid Beach with Lounge Bar and reserved access of Grifid Metropol's Guests, incredible Sky Bar, Bio Pool with natural stones - this project became our little gem! We found and developed the adults-only concept - for over 16 years - for those of our guests who are looking for and prefer peace and privacy during their holiday. Here our staff is extremely discreet and unobtrusive to create an atmosphere of relaxation, intimacy, and undisturbed personal space. Challenge for us who create these unique products and reward our distinguished guests!

GRIFID Encanto Beach

Joined the group only in 2016 as a result of the acquisition of a competitive business in financial difficulties. This is our last completed project - completely renovated in 2017/2018. This lovely hotel with a great location has modernly furnished rooms, most of them with wonderful sea views restaurant is located on the second floor with a direct sea-view terrace, a spacious foyer with a lobby bar, an infinity pool on the 5th floor, and an indoor pool. It has the widest and cleanest beach in the resort, with a beach bar and a modern restaurant. Through the hotel-based medical center, GRIFID Hotels Spa entered a new market for health and recreational tourism.

SENTIDO Marea

Although marketed under a brand owned by REWE GROUP (who bought it after the bankruptcy of the leading European tour operator Thomas Cook) is actually operating and being run as part of our own GRIFID Hotels chain. This hotel also joined GRIFID Hotels as a result of the deal for the acquisition of competitive hotels in 2016. In the same year, we started a major reconstruction of the hotel, completely renovating its appearance. We built a new modern and bright reception block, having completely changed the entrance of the hotel to improve the safety and peace of the holidaymakers. The accommodations, common areas, and exterior areas were completely renovated. Today the hotel has a main restaurant located directly facing the beach, a la carte restaurant, 4 bars including beach and pool, 3 swimming pools, one with wonderful water facilities for children, and next to the beach.

GRIFID Foresta

It is our smallest hotel, opened in 2016 as a brand new hotel in place of a former car repair service base. Today it functions as a small boutique hotel, scattered on the outskirts of the Golden Sands Resort. In addition to its accommodation, the hotel operates outside of the tourist season as a training center for hospitality professionals and a qualification center for our staff. During the season there is also our own laundry facility, as well as auxiliary production workshops for confectionery and butcher production.

GRIFID Moko Beach

The 4-star hotel was acquired in 2021, went through the renovation of the swimming pools in winter 2022, and had its first summer season as GRIFID Hotels. In Winter 23 the hotel through complete renovation of rooms and bathrooms.

It is located in a quiet part of Golden Sands Resort, on the promenade, and offers amazing views of the Black Sea from its excellent position on the first line of the resort. The hotel attracts guests with a wide and clean beach of fine sand and it makes it the perfect place for vacationing with young children. The hotel also offers all the amenities needed for a great holiday - swimming pools for adults and children, a beach restaurant for lunch and a la carte dinner, a main buffet restaurant for breakfast and dinner, a lobby, and a beach bar. One can reach the center of the resort by a tourist mini-train or by walking along the beach promenade.

We hoteliers are much more than sellers of accommodation and catering. We work with the idea of constantly improving by offering experiences, emotions, care, unforgettable moments, sensations, delight, imagination ... we sell memories ... and that is our greatest responsibility!

The realization of all these projects is possible thanks to our main asset - our employees. We have the pleasure of working with young and ambitious people, a generator of new ideas, and determined to open new horizons that work with heart and enthusiasm. We are aware of the fact that the care of our staff is a concern for our guests - we develop a favorable social policy, and every year during the off-season we organize language courses and qualification courses, incentive management trips to high-class hotels abroad and cruise ships. We have also found our own Staff Training Center, our Grifid Academy.
We are confident that investing in our staff is an investment in the satisfaction of our guests.


GRIFID Hotels - WE PRACTISE SUSTAINABLE TOURISM

We at GRIFID Hotels engage all our employees in our efforts to lead a sustainable and "green" business. We observe strictly all the norms of the Bulgarian and European legislation as regards the protection of the environment, working conditions and human rights, health, financial norms, and requirements.

We always set and reach new goals, not only in terms of the satisfaction of our guests but also those that aim at reducing the consumption of electricity, gas, water, environmentally hazardous detergents, etc.

We inform, invite and encourage our guests and employees how to save electricity and water, throw away their garbage separately, and engage in cleaning and environmental protection activities. Use more than once the towels in their rooms to reduce the influence of detergents. Additional information about the development of sustainable tourism is provided by inviting leaflets in the rooms and on the information boards in lobbies and common areas in each of our hotels.

The rooms and common areas of our hotels are equipped with energy-saving lighting units, motion sensors and shut-off sensors of the AC for open doors. All showers, sinks, toilet cisterns, etc. have minimal water consumption.
Since 2012 we have gradually replaced our hotel air conditioning systems with modern multi-unit highly energy efficient VRF(variable refrigerant flow) HVAC systems with very high COP (coefficient of performance) values exceeding 5, all using the R407 refrigerant, which is so far the safest for the planet's ozone layer.

Since 2011 all our newly purchased faucets have to comply with a max 5,9 l/ min consumption (standard ones 10-11 l/ min), sanitary systems with 3 & 6 l/ min consumption (standard ones 8&9 l/ min), head & hand shower 9,5 l/ min (standard ones 15 l/min)
Established in 2015 GRIFID Hotels Laundry is equipped with machines with the highest class of energy efficiency and low consumption of water and detergents.

The detergents that are used in our kitchens, restaurants, bars, and hotel hosts are nature-friendly - quickly and completely degradable.
Separate waste collection and waste separation is organized for paper and paper packaging, metal and metal packaging, plastic and plastic packaging, glass and glass packaging, biodegradable and household waste.
All goods are delivered in large packaging to minimize waste packaging.
In order to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from cars for all employees we provide organized company-run transportation to and from the workplace.

Besides our guests, workers are equally important to us as well. GRIFID Hotels, employing nearly 1360  people in an active season, strive to offer some of the best working conditions:

All 8 hotels in the group are located in the resort Golden Sands. Further to and from the city of Varna, the company provides transport to other settlements in the area such as Dobrich, Varna, Beloslav, Izvorsko, Stozher, Lyuben Karavelovo, Dalgopol, Provadia, and others.

The company provides uniforms and safety clothing.

In the off-season, workers can take advantage of company-paid language courses depending on their needs.

Since 2015 Grifid Training Center has been open. It is dedicated to training candidates for the professions "Waiter", "Cook", "Ship cook", "Baker", "Bartender", and "Maid". Upon completion of the theoretical part of their training, the students receive the right to practice at GRIFID Hotels. The Center is licensed under Bulgarian law and the diplomas awarded are internationally recognized.

We from GRIFID Hotels organize and participate in social and charity events, donations, and more in order to improve the tourist infrastructure, cultural and natural resources of the Varna region.

We make sure that the food products we buy for our restaurants are from local producers. We encourage our tens of thousands of visitors to visit more cultural and natural tourist sites during the summer season.

We use e-mail as a means of communication to reduce paper-based correspondence and paper-based information.


GRIFID Hotels - ACCOMPLISHMENTS - MAY 22 - APRIL 23

ENVIRONMENT PROTECTION POLICY

It is the shared commitment of the management and owner of GRIFID Hotels to ensure sustainable protection of the environment during the management of the holiday product.

What are the main goals of our Environmental Policy:
- Comply with all applicable laws and regulations in the field of environmental protection;
- To educate staff about environmental protection so that employees understand the role they play in meeting our goals
- Invite our guests to support our efforts to reduce waste in the environment;

Some of the activities we have done:
-  Due to the increased number of auto tourists, GRIFID Hotels rented parking spaces outside the Golden Sands complex and exported car traffic and respective gas emissions outside the complex.
-  We introduced 2 charging stations on the territory of GRIFID Hotels for electrical autos
-  We are submitting waste as batteries, TVs, and Air conditioners to authorized companies


HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGEMENT POLICY

This is the shared commitment of the management and the owner of GRIFID Hotels to ensure that all our employees are provided with the best possible working conditions at all times.

The following achievements in terms of human resources can be highlighted:
-  Due to the war in Ukraine we have 4 of our hotels used as refugee homes - Grifid Arabella, Grifid Moko Beach, Grifid Foresta, and Sentido Marea. Some of the refugees willing to work were employed in GRIFID Hotels for season 22.  
-  GRIFID Hotels have joined government programs to support employees in sectors with a significant decline in activity and participated in programs to preserve the jobs of employees in companies in downtime or very limited economic activity, as well as to maintain the remuneration of permanent employees undertaken with a significant decline in revenue.
- We continued the policy to stimulate the employment of employees from underdeveloped economic regions of the country by investing in expanding the accommodation for employees - we bought and invested in the reconstruction and modernization of Mercury Holiday Base, which we turned into a modern dormitory for employees with renovated interior and central air conditioning, high-speed Internet.
-  We have expanded the network of departmental transport for the employees of GRIFID Hotels, integrating new destinations and routes through less economically developed regions in the vicinity - the village of Stozher, the village of Lyuben Karavelovo, the village of Izvorsko, the village of Gradinarovo, the village of Blaskovo.
-  In order to create conditions for hiring candidates from less economically developed regions outside the country, in addition to providing accommodation and meals, the company is committed to covering the costs of employees for transport to and from the country.
-  We have expanded the scope of our programs for dual education and professional training practices, and in addition to the traditional schools in the region with which we cooperate - Vocational School of Tourism Varna, College of Tourism - Varna, Vocational School of Tourism Ignatievo, we added new schools in the country from the towns of Kardzhali and Vidin. We continue the excellent cooperation and Erasmus internship program for students from vocational schools in tourism in France.
-  We have hired an additional labor force from abroad- Ukraine, Turkey, and Kirgizstan for different hotel departments (kitchen, restaurant and bar, housekeeping, beach and pool)

As a result of the undertaken activities for the period May 2022-April 2023, We achieved the following results:
-  The share of persons from minorities among the company's employees has increased, providing them with equal conditions for access to work and pay. Thanks to these efforts, minority candidates were given a chance for realization, decent pay and career development;
-  Increased the share of employees from underdeveloped regions in the country, found in the company;
-  The share of employees from less developed economic countries remains significant.
-  We have increased the number of jobs for employed people in all our companies.
-  Incorporating students from Bulgaria for their professional training program, part of the educational school agenda
Regarding the human resources management policy and in the future GRIFID Hotels will work in the direction of:
Increasing the accessibility to work in the hotels of persons from minorities, permanently unemployed, from regions with high unemployment and difficult transport accessibility and with permanently reduced working capacity;
Expanding the scope of our dual training contracts with other vocational schools in regions with high unemployment;
Training at Grifid Academy for the permanently unemployed and providing opportunities to work in GRIFID Hotels and raising the qualification of GRIFID Hotels' own staff in order to develop in the organization;


COMMUNITY POLICY

  • This is the shared commitment of the management and owners of GRIFID Hotels to pay attention to how its operations affect the local residential and business community.
  • Through our Community policy, we set the following goals:
  • To prove that we protect the local community;
  • To support the local economy;
  • To prioritize the recruitment of local staff to promote the development of the societies in which the company is present;
  • To preserve the local culture and traditions.
  • We prioritize the purchases from local suppliers not only to provide good quality fresh products for our customers but also to give support to the locals.  

GRIFID Hotels are not only ready to support the community but also during the war with Ukraine crisis, GRIFID Hotels immediately took part in the Government program to support the refugees, being on a daily basis and 24 hours in contact with the Refugee Headquarters in Varna, available for any kind of assistance.
- We accommodated refugees in 4 properties and provided three meals per day, laundry services, different kinds of support and care
- We gave directions for the refugees and helped them with job applications and necessary documents for registering as citizens in Bulgaria
- Together with the local municipality we organized kids' daycare and various activities for the children such as painting, reading, crafts and others
-  We have organized a donation campaign, where employees collected and personally donated items and goods that were needed by the refugees  
- We asked the municipality for possibilities for support with providing  books and school materials for the children
- We provided possibilities for work within GRIFID Hotels

In terms of the international community:
Together with our partners from a Tourism school in France, French professional cooks and local chefs from Varna, we hosted a Special dinner Grifid Chefs and Friends where culinary delicacies were served to guests in-house and from the local area (Varna, Dobrich)
We support young talents from Bulgaria and abroad - we offered the professionally equipped stages at Grifid Bolero and Grifid Vistamar as a venue for the performance of the 36th edition of the International Art Festival ,,Morning Star,,
We hosted dancing groups - children from Ukraine at the stage of Grifid Vistamar to perform in front of an international audience and bring awareness to the situation in Ukraine