Bewley's adds third UK hotel

Ireland-based Bewley's Hotels has bought the 226-bedroom Holiday Inn Garden Court at Manchester Airport.

The property, which was owned by Manchester Airport plc, was sold for an undisclosed sum off a £16m asking price.

It will continue to trade under the Holiday Inn name until the end of this year and convert to a Bewley's Hotel on 9 January 2003.

A £7m project to refurbish all the bedrooms, then add a further 120 rooms and conference facilities, will start in the next few weeks.

Bewley's is also building a 280-bedroom hotel in Leeds, due to open in August 2003.

Managing director Andrew Langwallner said: "We're targeting all the major UK cities. Our prime target is Birmingham. We hope to get to 2,000 bedrooms in the UK in the next five years."

The group currently has about 2,000 bedrooms across the whole of its estate in the UK and Ireland, including 120 bedrooms at its hotel in Glasgow, which opened two years ago.

Bewley's Hotels was launched in 1996 by Irish meat trader Bert Allen with a 260-bedroom hotel in Newlands Cross, Dublin.