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Batra to invest Rs 25 crore in Centaur hotel

BS Corporate Bureau in Mumbai

Batra Hospitality, the new owner of the Centaur Airport hotel in north Mumbai, will be investing around Rs 25 crore (Rs 250 million) to refurbish the property, which will soon be rechristened Radisson.

Built on a 30,000 square metre land, it has 300 rooms, five restaurants and three banquet halls.

Ashok Kapur, vice chairman of Batra Hospitality, said, "In the first phase, we will be refurbishing the public areas consisting of lobby, food outlets, banquet halls, health spa and shopping arcade. In the second phase, we will be renovating the 180 rooms."

"We have signed a memorandum of understanding with the US-based Carlson Hospitality Group. The arrangement is for using its brand franchisee for our property. Also, Carlson will be providing reservation, sales and marketing support, training of manpower and guidance for the food and beverage outlets."

The Carlson Group owns the Regent, Radisson and Country Inn brands. The Centaur property will be the Radisson’s sixth implemented property in India, and so far it has signed arrangement with 19 properties in the country.

Unlike other hotels such as JW Marriott and Le Royal Meridien in north Mumbai which are managed by international hospitality chains, the erstwhile Centaur property will be managed by Batra Hospitality, and it shall pay a royalty to Carlson for the brand franchisee.

Batra Hospitality acquired the Hotel Corporation of India’s property for Rs 83 crore (Rs 830 million) and took over its operations on June 7.

Batra Hospitality is a 50:50 joint venture between the Ashok Kapur of the Rs 250 crore (Rs 2.5 billion) Krishna Maruti group and AL Batra of the Radisson Delhi.

Batra said, "We will be looking at expanding the hospitality business, when the Centaur property generates profits. The expansion will be through acquisitions of properties."

The company expects that it would post a turnover of Rs 20 crore (Rs 200 million) for the year ended March 31, 2003, and would break even in 2004-05.

The hotel patronage include corporates, walk-in customers and airlines. The hotel currently has a occupancy rate of 35 per cent. It expects that the occupancy levels will increase to 50 per cent towards the end of the current year.

The hotel has around 800 employees and are trying to utilise the potential of the existing people. However, the company may also reduce the work force to 500 by offering voluntary retirement schemes.

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