Britannia Hotels reports pre-tax profit boost

Britannia Hotels has reported an 18% boost in pre-tax profit for the year ended 31 March 2023.

The company, which was voted the UK's worst hotel chain by Which? for the 11th year in a row, grew profit before tax from £33.4m in 2022 to £39.4m in 2023.

By contrast, in its results for the year ended March 2021, the group had reported a pre-tax loss of £9.5m.

The volume of sales in 2023 increased modestly compared to the previous year, with figures rising by 31% compared to 300%. Meanwhile, turnover jumped from £117.8m to £154.8m.

The total number of staff grew from 1,818 in 2022 to 2,365 in 2023, with the hotel group reiterating it has "tight controls on labour costs".

The directors added it will continue to maintain occupancy levels and minimise costs in a bid to tackle an "increasingly competitive" UK hotel industry.

Britannia also revealed the mitigation of increased fuel costs will be a "main focus for the year ahead" through the implementation of monitoring systems designed to reduce utilities consumption across all sites.

"Our energy and sustainability team focuses on reducing both water and energy consumption with initiatives like replacing existing lighting with low energy LEDs and remotely monitoring consumption of water, electricity and gas," the group said.

Britannia operates 64 UK hotels and acquired the Midland hotel in Bradford from Peel Hotels in April last year.

It also bought holiday park company Pontins out of administration in 2011.