HTF secures future with hctc sell-off

By David Shrimpton

The Hospitality Training Foundation (HTF) claims to have secured its financial future for the next 10 years with a multi-million-pound sell-off of its troubled training provider, the Hotel and Catering Training Company (HCTC).

The HCTC, which had been losing money, laid off 40 staff in May in an effort to balance its books. It was expected to return to profitability by March 1999 (Caterer, 14 May, page 8).

But the division has now been sold to a new management team led by Fredrik Korallus, previously with Radisson Hotels Worldwide, and Nick Rowe, a former head of Diners Club UK. Financial backing has come from ECI Ventures, a subsidiary of NM Rothschild.

Korallus would not reveal the exact price paid, but claimed it was a "multi-million-pound transaction". HTF chairman John Brackenbury claimed it gave the HTF an assured future for the next decade.

HTF director Declan Swan said the move would avoid any perception that there was a conflict of interest between the foundation's co-ordinating role as a National Training Organisation, which is required to remain impartial in its dealings with training providers, and as a provider of training itself.

"It means we can concentrate on what we're meant to be doing," he added.

Korallus said the HCTC was already trading healthily this year. "We see it as an organisation that's on the right track," he said. "New efficiencies and systems will be introduced that will allow it to prosper in the future. The whole area of vocational training education is a highly lucrative market."

The new owners plan to introduce a software package for National Vocational Qualifications.