CHE group ‘stable' despite £4m loss
Troubled hotel group CHE, formerly Friendly Hotels, said this week it was now in a "stable condition" despite recording a loss of more than £4m last year.
In the year to 31 December 2001 the group, whose hotels include the Comfort Inn, Sleep Inn, Quality and Clarion chains, recorded a pre-tax loss of £4.2m, compared with a loss of £200,000 the previous year.
It said the loss was down to a number of "one-off" costs totalling £2.4m, including the closure of 10 leased hotels in Germany after they made a loss of £500,000 in the first few months of the year.
Exceptional charges of £5.2m (including a write-down in the value of its hotels of £4.9m), the foot-and-mouth outbreak and 11 September were also cited as reasons. Turnover fell by 9.2% to £86.4m, from £95.2m a year earlier.
Occupancy at the group's UK-owned and leased hotels fell by 0.4 percentage points to 65.2% on a like-for-like basis. Average room rate increased by less than 1% to £36.31, up from £36.06 a year earlier. Revenue per available room (revpar) increased by 4p to £23.69.
Like-for-like turnover in the group's UK hotels was down by less than half a per cent to £57.4m, compared with £57.6m a year earlier.
During the year, the group sold 14 hotels - 10 in the UK and four in Continental Europe - for £17.9m, which has been used to reduce debt.
It intends to reduce debt further through the sale of some remaining non-core properties and some sale-and-leaseback deals.
Finance director David Cook said the group was considering pulling out of hotel ownership to concentrate on managing them.
by Samantha McClary
