Regal blames labour costs for profits slump
01 January 2000
Regal Hotels' profits tumbled by more than 75% in the first six months of this year compared with the same period in 1998.
Pre-tax profits were down from £7.4m to £1.7m. Regal, which announced plans to sell 35 hotels and make redundancies in July, blamed an increase in labour costs and depreciation of its properties for the drop. Turnover for the period increased by 5% to £56m with average achieved room rate up 6% to £44.27. This gave a yield per available room of £27.19, an increase of 5%.
Chairman Professor Arthur Li said: "In the past eight weeks we have seen a slightly improved trading situation. We are cautiously optimistic about this trend continuing for the remainder of the financial year."
