Activities

Rezidor owns, manages, leases or franchises a stable of full-service and resort hotels under four brands licensed from US group Carlson Hotels Worldwide. It is also developing its own Cerruti and Missoni lifestyle brands with the two international fashion houses.  

It holds the master franchise for Carlson’s four-star Radisson, five-star Regent, and mid-market Country Inn and Park Inn brands in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA).
 
The company is a subsidiary of Scandinavian airline group SAS, which is owned partly by the governments of Norway, Sweden and Denmark and partly private sector interests in the three Scandinavian countries. In March 2005, Carlson bought a 25% stake in Rezidor.

Timeline

• 1950: SAS Hotels, a subsidiary operation of Scandinavian airline SAS, opens its first hotel, the SAS Royal hotel in Copenhagen. The hotels are initially part of SAS Catering, an in-flight catering company, which later becomes SAS Catering and Hotels.
• 1985: The company is reorganised and renamed SAS International Hotels (SIH).
• 1989: SIH buys 40% of Inter-Continental Hotels, an interest which it holds until 1992.
• 1994: SIH signs a 30-year franchise agreement with Radisson Hotels & Resorts (part of Carlson Hotels Worldwide) to develop the Radisson brand in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. SIH’s 29 hotels are rebadged under the Radisson SAS name.
• 2000: The group acquires the brand name and rights to the expansion of boutique hotel chain Malmaison from Wyndham International in a joint deal with property firm Marylebone Warwick Balfour (MWB).
• October 2001: SIH, the parent company and operator of Radisson SAS Hotels & Resorts, changes its name to Rezidor SAS Hospitality to reflect its new direction as a global multi-brand operator.
• October 2002: Rezidor SAS signs a 30-year master franchise agreement with US-based Carlson Hotels Worldwide to develop Carlson’s Regent, Country Inn and Park Inn hotel brands in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Rezidor sells its 50% stake in Malmaison to MWB. 
• March 2003: Rezidor announces plans to develop a chain of Cerruti-branded boutique hotels with the international fashion house.
• May 2004: Rezidor opens the UK’s first Park Inn on the site of the former Le Meridien hotel at Heathrow airport, which is owned by the Royal Bank of Scotland. It is followed in June 2005 by the Park Inn Hyde Park in London, which is owned by the Gresham Hotel Group.
• March 2005: Carlson buys a 25% stake in Rezidor in return for the extension of  the use of its brands by twenty years (to 2052) and for improved commercial terms on the master franchise agreement that saves Rezidor €11m in 2006 alone. The first Irish Park Inns open in Dundalk and Mulranny.
• June 2005: Rezidor takes on the management of the Park Inn Hyde Park in London after signing a management agreement with owner Gresham Hotel Group.
• October 2005: Rezidor completes a deal to lease eight former Moat House hotels in the UK and run a ninth on a long-term management contract. All of the hotels, owned by new holding company Jefferson Hotels, are to be rebranded as Park Inns.
• November 2005: The group announces a new lifestyle brand with Italian fashion house Missoni. It plans to open three hotels under the Missoni flag by 2007 and to have 30 sites open or under development in city centres and resorts within 10 years.
• June 2006: The SAS group announces plans to offload its 75% stake in Rezidor by floating the hotel division on the Stockholm Stock Exchange within the next 12 months.

Financial snapshot

Full Year (2004)

Turnover: €587m (2004: €498m)
Pre-tax profit: €31.6m (2004: €4.2m)

Full Year end: 31 December, 2005

Operating data

In 2005, Rezidor boosted group revpar by 11% to €67. Revpar in Europe grew by 3%-4%. 

Total number of hotels: 268 in 48 countries in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (including 46 under construction)

Total number of employees: 13,000 worldwide

Number of UK hotels: 22
Radisson SAS hotels:  10, in Belfast, Birmingham, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds, Limavady, Liverpool, London (the Portman), Manchester Airport, London Stansted Airport
Park Inn: 11, including 9 owned by Jefferson Hotels. 

Number of hotels in Irish Republic: 10
Radisson SAS hotels: eight, in Athlone, Cavan, Cork, Dublin, Galway, Letterkenny, Limerick, and Sligo
Park Inn hotels: two, in Dundalk and Mulranny

Strategy

“In 2006, the company will continue with its vigorous development strategy with an increased focus on developing Russia, CIS [the Commonwealth of Independent States or former Soviet Union countries] and East European markets while retaining a strong presence in the home markets.

Rezidor SAS Hospitality opened 15 new hotels across Europe and the Middle East from December 2005 to January 2006, and is well on track with its target of having 700+ hotels by 2015."

Source: chief executive Kurt Ritter, February 2005

Chief executive

Kurt Ritter

Key directors

President & chief executive officer: Kurt Ritter
Advisor to the president: Bahram Sadr-Hashemi
Executive vice president & chief finance officer: Knut Kleiven
Senior vice-president special projects, joint venture Middle East & Africa: Werner Kuendig
Senior vice-president, openings, projects and franchise operations: Fredrik Korallus
Senior vice-president brands & concept development: Gordon McKinnon
Senior vice-president business development: Martin Rinck
Senior vice-president sales: Olivier Jacquin
Regional director for the UK and Ireland: Christian Gartman

Contact

Avenue du Bourget
44 B-1130
Brussels
Belgium

Tel: 00 32 2 702 9200
Fax: 00 32 2 702 9300

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

Commentary

Rezidor has expanded rapidly since signing its first franchise deal with Carlson in 1994, growing from 29 hotels to 190 by the end of 2004.

And there are no signs that the pace will slacken. The group started 2005 with 245 hotels in operation or in the pipeline and it intends to end this year with 300 properties under its belt. Longer-term, it has ambitions to operate 700 properties by 2015.

The 2002 deal that added the Regent, Park Inn and Country Inn brands to the Rezidor pot hit the bottom line the following year when the group reported a €27.7m loss. However, it bounced back into the black in 2004 to complete a decade of continual growth broken by just one year of losses.

Expansion will focus on accelerating the roll-out of the mid-market Park Inn brand. By the start of 2005, when Rezidor converted seven former German Holiday Inns into Park Inns, the group had taken the brand from zero to 49 properties in the EMEA region. The number of Park Inns in operation or under construction is planned to grow to 150 by 2007.
 
They will include Park Inns at Newry in Northern Ireland and Ballinasloe in the Irish Republic which are scheduled to open in March 2006. The brand will also make its debut in central and eastern Europe.

The first Cerruti hotel will open in Dusseldorf, although the opening date of autumn 2005 has been delayed. Others are earmarked for Vienna, Brussels, Dubai and Kuwait.

Rezidor will also beef up its presence in southern and eastern Europe and in Africa.