LHM gets ready for Alias expansion

Hotel group LHM has unveiled ambitious expansion plans to triple the size of its Alias hotels chain.

The group has teamed up with accountants BDO Stoy Hayward to raise about £40m to expand the hotel brand across the UK from five to 15 hotels over the next five years.

Chairman Nicholas Dickinson said he thought there was potential for Alias to expand beyond that figure. "We have identified 80 target locations where it could work," he said, "but we have to take it step-by-step."

The group opens its fifth hotel, the 70-bedroom St Louis in Liverpool, early next year and is in advanced negotiations to acquire a sixth property, a 64-bedroom new-build hotel in London. Dickinson said he hoped to make a more detailed announcement about the hotel in the next few months.

LHM is also in varying stages of negotiation on sites in Bristol, Plymouth, Cardiff, Poole and Southampton and is looking at a further seven or eight locations.

Dickinson said the group had been "limbering up for fast growth" ever since it opened its latest Alias hotel, the Seattle in Brighton, last February. He added that the group had also recognised the potential to take the chain to Europe, but said that was unlikely to be among the next spate of openings.

Late last year LHM announced plans to spin off its four Luxury Family hotels into a stand-alone company so it could concentrate on developing the Alias brand. That process is now complete and LHM is likely to change its name to Alias in the near future.

Source: Caterer & Hotelkeeper magazine, 4 - 10 March 2004