Attracting domestic tourists and avoiding exposure to the troubled London hotel market helped boost profit and turnover at Derbyshire-based Menzies Hotels.
In the six months to 31 July, turnover increased by 9% to £16.7m, compared with £15.3m for the same period a year earlier.
Operating profit at the private hotel group was up by 15% to £4.7m from $4m in 2002.
Menzies said that its larger four-star properties in Edinburgh, Newcastle-upon-Tyne and Bath had all traded strongly during the period, increasing turnover by 7% and profitability by 25%. Revenue per available room across the group's 19 hotels was up by more than 7% to £34.14, with occupancy increasing by three percentage points to 61%.
Chairman Nick Menzies said: "We have enjoyed strong support from our local core corporate, conference and domestic leisure markets, which has been assisted by effective yield management, well-capitalised hotels, no reliance on the US incoming tour market, and no exposure to central London."
He added: "Like-for-like revenues continue to be positive, and early indications are very encouraging from our recent acquisition, the Menzies Welcombe hotel and golf course in Stratford-upon-Avon."
Menzies bought the Welcombe earlier this month for a rumoured £16m.
The group expects to report double-digit increases in like-for-like sales and profits when it publishes its full-year results next May.
By Samantha McClary
Source: Caterer & Hotelkeeper magazine, 21 - 27 August 2003