Crowning glory for Procure Wizard

A FLEDGLING Scottish technology company has added the Queen to its list of customers as it seeks to corner the market for procurement software in the hospitality industry.

Hotels veteran William Gorol remortgaged his house to set up Procure Wizard in 2009 after he spied a gap in the market for software that could help general managers keep track of their purchases.

Although he had no background in IT, he hired programmers and produced a system that allowed a hotel or restaurant to order all of its supplies on the internet, investing £250,000 in total.

He quickly secured a number of high profile customers, including Q Hotels, Barcelo Hotels and Patisserie Valerie. The strong initial uptake meant the firm had paid off its debts after its first full year of trading, with turnover of £270,000 and operating profit of £80,000 in the 12 months to 30 November.

Gorol, who was a general manager at various Macdonald Hotels before becoming an entrepreneur, has just struck deals with two of the major hospitality purchasing firms in the UK.

The first contract, with Pelican, has brought clients including independent schools and the Crown Estate. Later this month Windsor estate will starting using Procure Wizard.

Another third party contract, signed with Beacon Purchasing in the last few weeks, saw Edinburgh-based hotel chain Portland added to Procure Wizard’s list of users.

Gorol said: “There are five or six major purchasing groups in the UK and we’ve already signed contracts with two. My ambition would be to work with them all.”

Gorol, who has a staff of ten, expects to double the size of his business this year.