Legacy Hotels & Resorts signs deal with Surya Hotels adding six hotels to portfolio
The agreement sees four hotels - Great Hallingbury Manor and the Kingscliff Hotel in Essex, the Duke's Head in Norfolk and Legacy Mill Hotel in Suffolk - move under Legacy with two Ramada hotels - in Guildford and Farnham - set to follow at the end of the month.
Legacy chief executive Andy Townsend said he had first come into contact with Surya Hotels - a branch of the global Surya food group - after Legacy managed the 43-bedroom Great Hallingbury Manor on behalf of administrators Zolfo Cooper in 2011.
Expansion
After buying the property, Surya Hotels took management back in-house, but with plans to expand rapidly Townsend said the company now wanted to bring in help to manage their growing portfolio.
"Surya Hotels want to expand fairly rapidly over the next two years," he said. "but they realised they didn't have the infrastructure to manage their hotels, so it made sense to contract that side of the business out to us while they look for the right properties to invest in.
“Entering into business with Surya Hotels is an extremely exciting and significant development for us in our ninth year of trading – to have an investment partner with the desire and financial ability to acquire hotels assets and follow through with the funds to significantly refurbish and reposition the properties is a distinct strength to our growth plans.”
Future plans
The deal means that Warwickshire-based Legacy will have an exclusive contract to manage Surya Hotels while the latter company has a small share in Legacy. Surya Hotels’ former commercial director Brian van Oosten also joins Legacy as regional operations director.
Townsend said while Legacy's core business would remain holding long-term management contracts, the company would continue to run properties that had fallen into administration.
He said the company would also grow the branded side of the business through its Branded Hotel Management joint venture with Longrose Buccleuch, which has preferred operator status for the new Pullman Hotel in Liverpool, due to open in 2015.
However, Townsend, a former divisional director at Macdonald Hotels confirmed that a major merger or acquisition, such as those seen recently between Interstate and Sanguine and BDL Management and Redefine, was not on the cards for the foreseeable future.
He said: "Growing organically is tough, so it is great that we have someone like Surya that gives us an opportunity to grow, but we aren't interested in becoming part of a large organisation. Big isn't always beautiful."
