Macmillan in charge for Premier Hotels

Budget group Premier Hotels has appointed Gus Macmillan managing director of its management company.

The company is primarily responsible for running Premier's hotels as opposed to building them. Macmillan will also be responsible for negotiating deals with franchise partners in the UK and Europe, and seeking out acquisitions.

He has spent 20 years in corporate banking and for the past 10 years managed the international franchising business of the Royal Bank of Scotland, which included names such as McDonald's and Holiday Inn.

In 1998, Cendant Corporation of the USA awarded Premier the master franchise for its Days Inn chain in the UK, and the Howard Johnson chain in the UK and eight European countries.

Premier, which also operates Express by Holiday Inn hotels under franchise from Bass, announced a deal last August to convert Welcome Break's 17 motorway hotels into Days Inns.

In November, it bought Oriel Leisure's eight Express by Holiday Inn hotels for £42m.