Craig and Susan Richman reflect on 10 years owning The Sebel Launceston (4/2/25)

Craig and Susan Richman reflect on a decade of owning The Sebel Launceston. Video by Aaron Smith (4/2/25)

Transcript

00:00So we first moved back to live in Tasmania at the end of 2014 with the three children

00:07and we took the property over I think 15th of January 2015.

00:15It was a really interesting time, not having a background in hospitality, we had a lot

00:22to learn.

00:23We had a very strong team and we relied very heavily on the existing team that we inherited

00:29through the acquisition.

00:31Some wonderful people who taught us a lot and tolerated a lot of our stupid questions

00:35in the early days.

00:36So it's been very rewarding, I mean the ten years that's flown by it feels more like three

00:42or four to me really.

00:43We've achieved a lot, I think we've been able to really improve the property as we've gone

00:47along.

00:48I mean we've just had a coffee in Bluestone Bar and Kitchen and we've spent quite a lot

00:52of time expanding that and putting in a bar and we've worked a lot with the Tasmanian

00:56producers.

00:57So the wine list, just to take that as an example, when we first came here it was a

01:02very basic hotel I would suggest wine list, where we very very quickly realised what we

01:10had here in Tassie with regard to the beautiful wine.

01:15So now we've got a very very strongly weighted Tasmanian wine list and wherever we can we

01:20get our local produce etc for the restaurants.

01:24We definitely have a big focus I think on trying to support our locals here, I think

01:30it's really really important, we all benefit when we do that.