Malmaison's new MD plans changes

New Malmaison managing director Robert Cook has admitted he will need to make some "changes and tweaks" to make the lifestyle hotels group more appealing to staff and customers.

Cook, who took over from the outgoing Charles Holmes on Monday (12 January), said he had been appointed "to bring the group forward through expansion and revitalise the brand, bringing it up to its former glory".

It is widely accepted that the company has floundered since the departure of founder Ken McCulloch in 1999 and the series of ownership changes leading up to property firm MWB's taking over total ownership last September.

"I don't think the brand has necessarily lost its way, it just needs to do a health check on itself, re-energise the brand and focus on people issues," said Cook. "We've got a new team at the top and we're going to take a long, hard look at where the company is."

Cook said MWB aimed to grow Malmaison to 15-20 hotels over the next five years to gain critical mass and give Robin Hutson's Hotel du Vin chain "a run for its money".

Malmaison plans to open its eighth hotel, in Oxford, in 2005 and will announce more openings "very shortly", although Cook declined to give details.

Cook joins Malmaison from Ken McCulloch's Famous Hotel Developments, where he was managing director of the Columbus and Dakota hotel brands. Before that he was at Malmaison, joining in 1997 as pre-opening general manager of the Newcastle hotel before becoming GM at its Manchester hotel and then regional operations director.

Source: Caterer & Hotelkeeper, 15 - 21 January 2004