Benjamin West, one of the hotel industry's largest purchasing firms, has opened offices in Honolulu and London.

The new Hawai'i office is working with local hotel industry leaders, including ResortQuest and Starwood Hotels & Resorts, to help with purchasing furniture, fixtures and equipment for their hotel and condominium inventory, as well as upcoming new construction projects, Colorado-based Benjamin West officials said in a news release.

Benjamin West said it becomes the first major purchasing firm with a Hawai'i office, which will better enable hotel owners and operators to furnish their properties.

"Hawai'i is unique in its isolation, which makes it more challenging to source quality goods and pricing," said Alan Benjamin, company president. "By using our sources and systems, coupled with efficient logistics, we have significantly reduced the time involved in the purchasing process and found that, on average, we have been able to provide hotels with savings well into the double digits compared to current practices."

Kelvin Bloom, president of ResortQuest Hawai'i, said a local supply office of a major supplier creates efficiencies and advantages for Hawai'i hotel companies such as ResortQuest, which purchases furniture, fixtures and equipment from a variety of suppliers on the Mainland and overseas, and has previously done business with Benjamin West.

Some local suppliers also compete in the business, but mostly for smaller projects, Bloom said.

Benjamin said the company's new office also creates an opportunity to expand into Asian markets.

"This office will allow us to better source materials and establish a beachhead to support the huge upsurge in new hotel construction taking place in China, India and other Far Eastern countries," he said. "We expect that over time we will push into the Far East with one or more offices."