Activities

Corus hotels is the owner and operator of mid-market hotels in urban and rural sites in mainland Britain (and a handful overseas) serving the corporate and conference markets. Corus is owned by Malayan United Industries (MUI), which also holds a 62% stake in The Restaurant Partnership, an operator of eight restaurants in the UK.

Timeline

• 1993: The Regal Hotel Group is launched.
• April 1995: Regal floats on the London Stock Exchange.
• May 1996: Regal almost quadruples in size when it buys Granada’s 60-strong White Hart chain.
• 1997: Regal buys 13 Country Club hotels from Whitbread and announces a £40m cash investment from MUI affiliate Regent Corporation, which helps it buy its first London hotel, at Hyde Park.
• 1998: MUI Group buys the controlling stake in The Restaurant Partnership in May. In November, Regal announces its new Corus brand and changes its trading name to Corus and Regal Hotels, to avoid confusion with Regal International.
• January 1999: The group buys the 25-strong County Hotels group in January, and announces the sale of 35 non-core hotels in May.
• October 2000: MUI completes its takeover of Corus and Regal Hotels through associate company London Vista.
• October 2001: The company gains five international hotels and puts another seven UK properties on the market for £14.65m.
• February 2003: The group changes its name to Corus Hotels and announces the planned disposal of 25 non-core hotels, almost one-third of the estate, for £100m.
• June 2005: Corus sells eight non-core hotels to London & Edinburgh Inns for £32.9m.
  

Financial snapshot

Full year
Turnover: £115.1m (2002: £130.2m)
Pre-tax profit: -£3.4m (2002: £3.9m)

Financial year end: 31 December 2003

Operating data

Number of UK hotels: 55

Number of international hotels: four (two in Australia, two in Malaysia)

Number of employees: about 4,000, including 3,500 in the UK

Number of restaurants: eight – The Gay Hussar, Elena’s, L’Etoile, Thierry’s, Le Cabanon, three Simply Nico’s (all in London or Heathrow); and Nico Central in Manchester.

Strategy

“The group continued to focus on increasing awareness of its Corus brand and positioning itself as a leading mid-market hotel group in the UK. The growth of the Corus brand is seen as vital to the future success of the group. Since its launch in 1998, it has made only a minor impact on the hotel sector, and in 2003 the group stepped up its efforts to develop a strong brand. We have strategies in place to grow average room rate and yield as the national and global economies continue to improve.”

Source: annual report and accounts, 2003

Chief executive

Loy Yet-King

Key directors

Director of operations: Peter Kirschner

Non-executive chairman: Khoo Kay Peng

Contact

Blakelands House
Yeomans Drive
Milton Keynes
Buckinghamshire
MK14 5HG

Tel: 01908 553 100
Fax: 01908 553 113

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

Commentary

The key priority for Corus, which saw profits plummet by 50% in 1999, is to get back into profit and to raise the profile of the Corus brand, which it admitted in 2003 was still low. So we can expect more of the repositioning strategy it has employed since 1999 – the sale of non-core, smaller hotels that won’t convert easily to the Corus corporate model, and the extension of the Corus brand name across the remaining estate of individually named hotels.

When the flog-off is complete – and only a handful of properties remain to be sold – Corus will have slimmed down from its 1999 peak of 126 hotels to become a 50-strong group.

By the end of 2004, 15 properties had been converted to the Corus brand and the company expects to complete this exercise within the next two years.

If this period of refinement and rebranding is successful, then expansion will be back on the agenda. Corus will look to plug gaps in its UK coverage and, in the longer term, to move into new international markets such as North America and Europe.

Meanwhile, it continues to invest in its current estate and staff. It recently completed an £11m renovation of its flagship 390-bedroom Corus Hyde Park hotel in London and, in 2003, it linked up with the Hotel and Catering Training Company to start developing its own next generation of chefs. Its Chef School trained 20 new chefs in year one, and has taken on another 40 for year two.