Peel Hotels reveals 'modest' financial improvement, thanks 'long suffering' shareholders
In the year to 3 February 2013 the company, founded by Robert Peel in 1998, increased its turnover to more than £15m which resulted in a 9 per cent growth in EBITDA and a 53 per cent rise in operating profits.
The financial results represent a marked improvement on a year ago when the hotelier announced it had suffered its 'toughest' financial year after profits slumped 54 per cent.
Peel Hotels' problems have stemmed from its crippling level of debt. As of 3 February the net debt level stood at £12,366,301; however this is down from 2012 after the company managed to cut £477,258 of its debt in the last year.
"The group achieved a modest improvement," said Robert Peel, chairman of Peel Hotels. "The cost of finance is coming down, albeit slowly but this will accelerate further...in April 2014."
RevPAR up
The company's hotel trading performance also improved - occupancy levels remained flat but a growth in average room rate led to a 2.3 per cent jump in revenue per available room (RevPAR).
Peel Hotels owns and operates nine hotels in a range of UK towns and cities including Peterborough, Bournemouth and Leeds.
In the last year the firm spent £439,308 on capital expenditure, mainly on an on-going programme of bedroom refurbishments. However the firm revealed there would be more options to increase the level of spending on its portfolio in the future.
Robert Peel explained the company's financial structure was likely to be more certain over the next four years: "Sales growth has been flat in the first quarter of the new financial year and energy costs in particular have been substantially more.
"The positive news is that in financial year 2014/2015 substantial on-going savings will be made. This will dramatically improve our profitability and give us wider options in terms of increasing capital expenditure, accelerating debt repayments and paying dividends to our loyal and long suffering shareholders," he added.
