Royal Orchid to invest Rs 500 crore in seven new hotels

Hospitality major Royal Orchid Hotels is planning to launch seven more hotels with an investment of Rs 500 crore by next financial year. By the end of December, the company will open a five star hotel each in Hyderabad and Jaipur with a total investment of Rs 320 crore. It will also take over a hotel in Navi Mumbai under its brand on management contract by end of May. “We have plans to take our hotel count to 20 by next financial year from the existing 13. We will invest around Rs 500 crore to increase our footprint in tier-I, tier-II and tier-III cities,” said Chender Baljee, chairman and managing director, Royal Orchid Hotels. Baljee said the hospitality business in India is growing rapidly and the company would take both organic and inorganic routes for growth. At present, the company has a total of 1,100 rooms, comprising four major brands: Royal Orchid, a five-star hotel, Royal Orchid Central, a four-star hotel, Royal Orchid Galaxy, a three-star leisure property and serviced apartments under the brand name Suites in Bangalore, Pune, Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Mysore and Goa. The company plans to add 1,200 more rooms by the next financial year, said Baljee. He said the 240-room Royal Orchid hotel coming up in Hyderabad, entailing an investment of Rs 200 crore the 160 room Royal Orchid hotel in Jaipur, costing Rs 120 crore, will be ready by the end of December. He said the four-star Royal Orchid Central in Navi Mumbai with 70 rooms would be ready by the end of May this year. The company is also planning expansion through the contract management route. “We are initiating a drive to standardise the service level across all properties,” he said. The focus will be to create a brand name for all the hotels under the management contract. The hotel chain is also planning to open an overseas property in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania in 2012. “We have bought about 300 acres of land in the country where we will set up a 150-room hotel-cumresort,” Baljee said. The company had raised Rs 112 crore through an initial public offer in 2006 to fund its expansion plans. “We have already invested over Rs 250 crore and an additional Rs 250 crore will be invested in the next 10 months,” the chairman said. Baljee, an IIM-Ahmedabad graduate from the batch of 1972, took over the family business in the 1950s. “My father had a restaurant, which he turned into a 50-room Baljee Grand Hotel in Shimla,” he said. In 1973, Baljee, now 59, borrowed Rs 5 lakh from his father and set up a four-star hotel with 80 rooms in the garden city of Bangalore. He named it Royal Orchid Harsha (now Ramada) in Bangalore. Today, the company operates 13 business and leisure hotels in seven cities. The company clocked a turnover of Rs 140 crore in the previous financial year and hopes to gross a turnover of Rs 200 crore this year. Source:http://www.realtyplusmag.com/rpnewsletter/fullstory.asp?news_id=8521&cat_id=1 Filed under: Builders/ Developers , Hotels/ resorts , Hyderabad , Navi Mumbai , New projects Tagged: Hyderabad , Jaipur , Mumbai , Navi Mumbai , New Hotels , Royal Orchid