Activities

The privately owned company, founded by South African hotelier Beatrice Tollman, owns and manages a small international collection of four- and five-star hotels, along with a restaurant/bar in London and a country house hotel and village inn in Dorset.

Timeline

• 1984: Red Carnation buys its first hotel, the Chesterfield Mayfair in London, from Grand Metropolitan. A second hotel, the Chesterfield Palm Beach hotel in Florida, USA, joins the fold a couple of years later.
• 1990s: Jonathan Raggett comes on board as managing director in 1997. The group adds four London hotels to its portfolio in the latter half of the decade – Montague Gardens, near the British Museum; the Rubens at the Palace; the Milestone Hotel and Apartments in Kensington; and 41 on Buckingham Palace Road.
• 2001: Red Carnation buys the Hotel d’Angleterre in Geneva, Switzerland, from Accor and opens bbar, a 50-seat restaurant and bar in London serving a fusion of Pacific Rim dishes with Mediterranean flavours.
• 2002: In April, the group signs a long-term management contract on the de Oudekraal hotel in Cape Town, South Africa, which is renamed the Twelve Apostles hotel. The group also opens the bbar next door to the Rubens hotel in London.
• 2003: Red Carnation buys its first UK property outside London, the three-star Summer Lodge hotel in Evershot, Dorset. It invests £4m in upgrading the hotel to four-star standards.
• 2004: The group snaps up the Acorn Inn, an upmarket inn with nine bedrooms and a restaurant, in Evershot, Dorset.
• September 2005: Red Carnation buys the 30-bedroom Egerton House hotel in Knightsbridge, London.
• November 2006: The group acquires the Oyster Box hotel in Durban, South Africa. It closes the three-star property in the autum of 2007 for refurbishment to five-star quality. It is expected to reopen towards the end of 2008.
• June 2007: The five-star Bushman's Kloof Wilderness Reserve and Retreat in South Africa's Cederberg Mountains - which has been in the family for some time - officially joins the Red Carnation stable. It is a member of the exclusive Relais & Chateau consortium.

Operating data

Number of employees: 1,001

Number of hotels: 12, including seven in the UK

The group also owns the Acorn Inn in Evershot, Dorset, and the bbar in London.

Hotels: UK (7)
Milestone Hotel and Apartments, London (five red stars)
41, Buckingham Palace Road, London (five red stars)
Chesterfield Mayfair, London (four-star)
Rubens at the Palace, London (four-star)
Montague on the Gardens, London (four-star)
Egerton House, London (five red stars)
Summer Lodge Country House Hotel, Restaurant and Spa, Evershot, Dorset (four-star)

Hotels: overseas (5)
Chesterfield Palm Beach, Florida (four-star)
Twelve Apostles, Cape Town (five-star)
Bushman's Kloof Wilderness and Reserve and Retreat, South Africa (five-star)
The Oyster Box: Durban, South Africa (five-star when it reopens in late 2008)
Hotel d'Angleterre, Geneva (five-star)

Strategy

The group ideally wants to own around 12 top-end hotels.

Source: Jonathan Raggett, Caterer and Hotelkeeper, 2003

Key directors

Managing director: Jonathan Raggett
Executive director: Terry Holmes
Executive vice-president of marketing: David Eck
Vice-president of sales: Paul Hemmings
Vice-president of finance and administration: Sarah Dovey
Vice-president of human resources: Liz Mcgivern
Vice-president of public relations: Arnelle Kendall
Founder: Beatrice Tollman

Contact

35 Charles Street
London
Greater London
W1J 5EB

Tel: 020 7514 5633
Fax: 020 7514 5643

E-mail:
Website: http://www.redcarnationhotels.com

Commentary

The group’s desire to operate around 12 top-quality hotels means more acquisitions or management contracts are on the cards, and Raggett has made it clear that New York is top of his wish list.

While the group focuses on top-end hotels in gateway cities, its development has taken a few unexpected turns – the opening of a standalone restaurant in London and the acquisition of an inn and country house hotel in Evershott, Dorset, in recent years.

Summer Lodge offers a retreat outside London for Red Carnation’s American guests, while the Acorn Inn offers alternative accommodation when the hotel is full, and an opportunity for Summer Lodge clients to dine in a different environment. However, Raggett says the group has no current plans to buy any more properties in the provinces.