Premier's founders depart
Three of the five founding members of Premier Hotels have left as part of a restructuring of the company. Premier holds the master franchise for the Howard Johnson and Days Inn budget chains in the UK.
Chief executive Latif Horton, director John Warwick and finance director Michael Heathcote have left. Former managing director of hotels Richard McKevitt has become chief executive.
McKevitt said the changes reflected the company's move toward managing and franchising hotels rather than building them.
He said the departed founders were more comfortable with property development than management procedures.
They developed Express by Holiday Inn hotels under licence from Bass.
When attempts to find a management company to run the hotels did not work out, Premier decided to manage and franchise its own hotels through its master franchise on Cendant Corporations' Howard Johnson and Days Inn.
McKevitt said the company would hire more staff with operational and franchising skills.
