Itc Plans Rebranding Exercise For Hotels Chain

The ITC group is planning to rebrand its hotel chain by prefixing the ITC brandname to the names of all its hotels across the country. At the moment, the hotels owned by the ITC group are loosely branded under the name of "Welcomgroup" , "Heritage" and "Fortune" but individual hotels have separate names with no clear chain identification.

As part of major focus on hotels, ITC Ltd is also mulling a proposal to buy out a substantial portion of the 27.5 per cent equity stake in ITC Hotels which is held by financial institutions, FIIs and the public.

ITC Ltd already controls over 71.5 per cent equity in the company. In case it picks up the entire stake in ITC Hotels, the company would become a fully owned subsidiary of ITC Ltd.

 

The Calcutta based cigarette company is working on a plan to become the largest hotel chain in the country within 10 years.

This will include a foray abroad, with hotels being planned in Southeast Asian cities, including Bangkok, Singapore and Kuala Lumpur, among others. Under the plan, the group will invest Rs 2,000 crore in the next three to five years to put up new hotels.

ITC is also looking at a joint venture agreement with the Sheraton with which it has a marketing tie up. However, it will not give the international chain a majority equity stake in any company or project.

The cigarette giant has faced problems of chain identification unlike their competitors like the Taj and the Oberoi group. At the moment, hotels like the Maurya Sheraton in Delhi or the Mughal Sheraton in Agra and Windsor Manor in Bangalore do not have any clear chain identification. The plan is to affix the ITC name before all these hotels so that there is a clear chain identification for the individual hotels.

ITC is working on a plan to put up hotels in every key Indian city. While ITC Ltd will invest Rs 1200 crore, the remaining portion will be invested through ITC hotels Ltd.

At the moment, the group is implementing two major five-star deluxe hotels_one each in Calcutta and Mumbai, where it has been conspicuous by its absence. The Mumbai project will be handled by ITC Ltd's hotels division but will be managed by ITC Hotels. The two projects are expected to cost the company over Rs 600 crore.

The group is also implemeting expansion of the Delhi property and is setting up hotels in Bangalore, Calicut, Jaiselmer amongst others.

ITC Hotels has been licensed to manage hotels owned by ITC Ltd in various cities which include Bangalore, Jaipur, Chennai , Agra amongst others. It also manages properties owned by third parties in the Andamans, Baroda , Gwalior , Bikaner and Kota. The last two properties are managed under the brand name of WelcomHeritage a brand owned by a 50 -50 joint venture between 1TC Hotels and Marudhar Hotels Ltd promoted by Maharaja of Jodhpur. This company manages most of the palace hotels in the group. The Fortune brand is primarily aimed at the mid segment market and is owned by Fortune Park Ltd a 100% subsidiary of ITC Hotels Ltd.

The group at the moment manages and partly owns 28 properties out of which 14 are under Welcomgroup brand, 3 under the Fortune brand and 11 under the WelcomHeritage brand name.