Craxton gets Macdonald touch

Macdonald Hotels will add 50 bedrooms to the Craxton Wood Hotel in Puddington, Cheshire, which it acquired last week for £1m in cash.

Work will start early next year on the 15-bedroom hotel which was owned for 30 years by the Petranca family. The hotel showed a loss of £4,000 in the year to April 1997.

"We will be looking to put the hotel into profit as quickly as possible," said Donald Macdonald, chief executive of Macdonald Hotels. The site has planning permission for a leisure centre and conference facilities.

Macdonald's hotel turnover increased by 32% to £23.6m in the six months to 28 September, with operating profit up 32% to £5.9m.

Occupancy of 67% was achieved and the average room rate rose by £3.51 to £46.15, resulting in a 7% increase in yield to £30.97.

Turnover within the management contracts business was maintained at £1.3m, generating operating profit of £500,000. However, there were no plans to increase the number of management contracts, said Macdonald.

Group turnover was up 29.6% to £24.9m and profit before tax rose 21% to £5.6m.