'Cultural transformation' at Accor leads to 68% profit rise

Chairman and chief executive officer of Accor Sébastien Bazin, said growth had been strong in most of Europe, with the exception of France. Growth was particularly strong in the UK, Germany and Poland. All emerging markets, excluding Brazil also performed well. 

First-half revenue for 2015 went up 5.1 per cent to 2,726 million Euros while EBIT was up 23.8 per cent to 263 million Euros.  ​

Bazin said the company's decision to divide the business​ into HotelServices - a hotel operator and brand franchisor - and HotelInvest - an owner and investor end of 2013 had been a good one.. 

"Our teams have united around our strategic priorities – restructuring of the property portfolio at HotelInvest, swift rollout of the digital plan, selective hotel development, revamping of the food and beverage offering and cultural transformation," he said. 

"The benefits from these initiatives have contributed to our good results in the first half, which include a significant increase in revenue and EBIT, strong cash flow generation, more robust positions in the fastest-growing markets and an improvement in the value of our hotel assets. 

"These conditions enable us to set an objective for the full year of significantly improving our performance while at the same time ramping up our digital investment, despite persistently mixed environments in Brazil and France. All of this encourages us to proactively pursue our goal of transforming AccorHotels through our boldness, vision and pioneering spirit, with the same single objective in mind – better serving our customers."