Former Adopted Business invests in fourth location

Apex Hotels has invested £13.5m in its fourth hotel that opens in Dundee, Angus, at the start of next week. The 153-bedroom new-build Apex City Quay Hotel & Spa is the group's first property outside Edinburgh. It will be a full-service hotel aimed at the four-star market.

Occupancy in the first year is antici-pated to be 65%, with an average achieved room rate of £70. Projected turnover in year one is £5m.

Apex Hotels, a former Caterer Adopted Business, started out life in Edinburgh in 1996 as a budget brand with limited services but has since moved into the design-led full-service sector. The other properties in the group are the Apex City hotel, the Apex European hotel and the Apex International hotel, all in Edinburgh.

Chairman Norman Springford said that, in the short term, Apex wanted to be a dominant player in secondary cities and that was why Dundee had been chosen. Aberdeen, Glasgow, and Gateshead in Tyne & Wear were also on the list. The eventual aim is to have 12 hotels, funded by borrowing, with London the ultimate prize. "We'd love to do London, but it is too big a leap at present," said Springford. "We would have to spend £20-30m to do London properly and we could get two hotels in other cities for that."

Apex Hotels expects to turn over £15m by the end of this year. It employs 340 people.