Restaurant sell-offs slash Accor earnings

French hotel and restaurant giant Accor has reported a 29.9% slump in sales in its restaurant division. The group said the fall was caused by the sale earlier this year of all its restaurants in Spain and Brazil.

In the nine months to 30 September 1999, diners at Accor's restaurants spent £227m on food and drink, compared with £324m for the same period last year.

Its hotels in the UK also reported a difficult nine months, with occupancy down by 4.6 points to 71.9%, while revenue per available room was down by 4%.

Average room rates increased by 2.1%, however.

Worldwide, Accor's hotels fared much better, with a 14.9% increase in turnover on an annual like-for-like basis. Last year, the group's total hotel sales were £1.5b, against £1.7b this year.

In the first eight months of 1999, 563 hotels, representing 61,000 bedrooms, were added to Accor, giving it a total of 3,170 hotels worldwide with 348,515 bedrooms. Almost 5,000 of these bedrooms are in the UK (Caterer, 7 October, page 8).

Accor's sales across all its divisions - which also include travel agencies, car rental, casinos and onboard train services - climbed by 7.3% from £2.7b to £2.9b.

by Louise Bozec