Malmaison and Hotel du Vin not impacted by MWB's share suspension, says chief exec
Gary Davis, chief executive of Malmaison and Hotel du Vin, has said that the two hotel brands are unaffected by the news of the suspension of shares of parent company MWB Group.
However, he admitted that he is in talks with prospective new equity partners for the business which includes 12 Malmaison and 15 Hotel du Vin properties. A 13th Malmaison is currently under development in Dundee and Davis said that he expect to announce further new sites for the brand in the coming weeks,
"The Malmaison and Hotel du Vin businesses have great brands and we continue to invest in the estate," he explained. "We have a talented team who provide consistently high standards of service as demonstrated by the excellent customer feedback we receive."
"Both businesses have performed in line with expectations this year. Occupancy and room rates have been resilient while recent management initiatives are delivering growth and margin improvements."
Davis has undertaken a number of cost-cutting exercises - which has helped improve margins and profitability during the second half of the year - since taking over as chief executive from Robert Cook in January. This has included a number of redundancies throughout the group and the centralization of marketing, public relations and human resources functions.
Last month Davis announced that he was looking to expand Malmaison into surburban locations with the launch of six to seven properties on the edge of major towns and cities.
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By Janet Harmer
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