Scandic holds back from UK expansion
Swedish-based Scandic Hotels has not expanded in the UK in the past year despite having said 12 months ago that it wanted to do so.
In August last year the company said it planned to take on more management contracts in Britain (Caterer, 19 August 1999, page 6).
It still has only one hotel in the UK - the 368-bedroom Holiday Inn Nelson Docks in London.
Scandic used to operate the Crowne Plaza in Edinburgh and the Victoria Holiday Inn in London, but when their management contracts expired two years ago they were not renewed.
In the six months to 30 June Scandic achieved sales of £190m, compared with £186m last year.
During the period it signed agreements to operate six hotels in Norway, Germany, Finland, Sweden and Denmark. In June it bought the Swedish company Provobis Hotel & Restauranger, which has 16 hotels and four restaurants, all in Sweden.
Last year Provobis achieved an annual turnover of £63m and £3.6m in pre-tax profits.
Scandic has 153 hotels with a total of 26,533 bedrooms. Its largest market is Sweden.
