BUYING FOR HOTEL

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31161, 10 September 1966, Page 3

BUYING FOR HOTEL

Orders Worth £3.3 Million

f N Z Preus Association )

AUCKLAND, September 9. Mr E. R. Lewant. manager of the purchasing division of the Intercontinental Hotels Corporation, is in Auckland with the biggest shopping list in New Zealand.

He is here to buy the furnishing and equipment for the £3.3 million Auckland Intercontinental Hotel being built in Princes street.

His shopping list has about 40.000 items on it. It includes 12.000 square yards of carpet. more than 6000 pieces of furniture and piles of cutlery, crockery, glassware and bed linen.

“We can buy anywhere in the world," he said, “but we prefer to buy in New Zealand. New Zealand manufacturers can meet most of our needs. It’s a matter of whether they will put themselves out to meet our specifications and prices."

He is enthusiastic about New Zealand native timbers and is trying to persuade furniture makers to forget mahogany and quote for tawa and beech.

Mr Lewant said his job appeared more difficult than it really was. "Before I left New York, a computer told us exactly what we would need for a 332room hotel in Auckland — right down to the last curtain hook."