Purple haze for Sheffield
SHEFFIELD will be seeing purple in 2008 with the launch of a new hotel brand in the city.
Hotel group The Real Hotel Company (RHC) has named Sheffield as one its planned UK destinations for new brand – Purple Hotels.
The first two hotels to carry the new brand are at Braintree in Essex and Glasgow Airport, with a further nine, currently operating under the Sleep Inn banner converting in February.
The news comes after RHC, which owns, leases and manages 65 hotels throughout the UK, France, Germany and Belgium, announces its the transfer of franchise operations Comfort, Sleep, Quality and Clarion to Choice Hotels International.
It will however remain as a Choice franchisee operating 30 hotels in the UK. Proceeds from the transaction, estimated at £0.3m will be used to fund general working capital.
RHC said it expected to show an improvement of last year when it announces its results in March, but that it was still some way below the board's previous expectations.
Although its budget hotels are performing well, its mid-market properties haven't done so well particularly in the regions. However, midweek corporate business has been strong.
Peter Catesby, RHC's chairman, said that the launch of the new brand and the firm's exit from franchising represented a major step in the firm's growth plans.
“We are obviously disappointed that sales performance was not as strong as we
had forecast for 2007,” he said.
“This has served to reinforce our decision to focus on the premium limited service sector, and to exit the UK Master Franchise Agreement with Choice.
“While we will remain a large franchisee of Choice for our mid market brands, selling & servicing franchises on behalf of a third party no longer fits with our business strategy.”
As well as Sheffield, RHC, which was previously known as CHE Hotel Group, manages a number of regional hotels including the Quality Hotel in Leeds and the Sleep Inn in Doncaster.
