Designer-budget hotel company Bedfactory Hotels has bought a second property, in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, with plans to expand the group to five within three years.
Bedfactory Hotels is owned by entrepreneur Cosmo Fry - of Fry's Chocolate fame - and is backed by Hollywood star John Malkovich and Virgin co-founder Robert Devereux.
Fry plans to spend 5m transforming Ashley House, a vacant 1970s office block in Cheltenham's city centre, into a 63-bedroom hotel scheduled to open in October 2006.
Fry said he was now looking for other dilapidated properties in London and on the South Coast. "We're impatient to expand," he said. "We waited two years for the Cheltenham property but hope the next projects will be through leaseholds, so we can grow more quickly."
Fry became friends with Dangerous Liaisons and Ripley's Game star Malkovich when they were neighbours in the South of France.
The company currently has one operational hotel, the Big Sleep, in Cardiff, which opened in 1999.
Get your copy of Caterer and Hotelkeeper every week - click here to subscribe and save 25%.
Sudoku
Join the craze and play Sudoku online! |