Covid-19 pandemic pushed India's Taj Hotel chain to look to cut costs

Indian Hotels, the luxury hotel chain run by the Tata Group, used the coronavirus-imposed lockdown to see where it could save costs.

 

“This was the historic opportunity to review our fixed and variable costs,” Chief Executive Officer Puneet Chhatwal said on Wednesday. “The industry never experienced such a revenue decline in last 100 years.”

 

The firm, which owns the iconic Taj brand and operates The Pierre in New York City, didn’t cut any jobs but redeployed some staff elsewhere in the Tata empire, Chhatwal said.

 

The company slumped to a Rs 3.8 billion ($51 million) loss in the six months ended September 30 from a Rs 1.4 billion profit a year earlier, as a 73 per cent plunge in revenue eclipsed 36 per cent cost savings.

 

Its shares have rebounded 82 per cent from a six-year low in May as India’s economy gradually reopens.