References

Briefly

The Inari Kultahovi Hotel has a long history, over 80 years, as a tourism attraction in its region. Operated as a family business, the hotel is located in the Juutua rapids landscape and offers travelers experiences that bring them closer to the northern way of life and Sami culture. In 2020, the hotel’s Aanaar restaurant received significant recognition when it was chosen as the Restaurant of the Year by the Finnish Gastronomes Society. Following an extended Clarity collaboration aimed at a business sale, the hotel has new owners and is now known as the Wilderness Hotel Juutua.

Aamu Clarified Strategic Guidelines

The collaboration between Kultahovi and Aamu began when the hotel business sought help in planning its finances, analyzing its operational data, improving predictability, and updating and documenting its strategy. This was aimed at facilitating a future business sale. The collaboration was built to develop the hotel business into a better sales condition. Aamu’s role was primarily to be an external sparring partner for the company’s decision-makers.

The collaboration started by creating a plan of actions to support business development for the coming months. First, the most important components and actions were identified to make the operation more efficient, predictable, and profitable. As a result, Kultahovi developed new, clear goals to guide both efficiency improvement and revenue growth. Data was collected into the Clarity service, which made it easy to read, absorb visually, and later communicate during business sale negotiations.

Aamu Accelerated the Journey to the Business Sale

In monthly meetings, Kultahovi and Aamu went through the root causes of various events and focused on concrete development targets in the company’s business during different seasonal phases. Aamu also supported the hotel company’s administration and financial management, as well as data-based analysis and decision-making. The data collected on history, current state, and future significantly helped justify the company’s value to the buyer. As a result of the collaboration, Kultahovi’s management had a clearer understanding of their financial figures and the untapped growth potential of the company.

Kultahovi and Aamu’s collaboration was strongly future-oriented, and at Aamu’s suggestion, the hotel business began to market its brand more strongly and focused on new customer segments on the way to business negotiations. Alongside operational management support, Aamu’s team determined the company’s valuation, modeled different scenarios for long-term revenue and profit development, compiled a company presentation for the business sale, and identified a partner from their network to support the final practical arrangements of the business sale.

Collaboration Outcome – Satisfied Buyer, and Satisfied Sellers

In October 2022, the business sale was finalized, and Aanaar, as well as the hotel itself, now continue as the Wilderness Hotel. The Clarity collaboration began in the fall of 2021, when the owners of Kultahovi did not have a ready template for how to practically implement the sale of the company. In half a year, the company was brought to a point where active measures for implementing the sale could be logically started, and the deals were concluded six months later.