7 Days Group Holdings announces faster-than-expected hotel openings
7 Days Group Holdings Limited, a leading economy hotel chain based in China, announced today that it opened 231 net hotels in 2010, including 85 net leased-and-operated hotels and 146 net managed hotels. As of December 31, 2010, the Company had a total of 568 hotels in operation, consisting of 321 leased-and-operated hotels and 247 managed hotels.
In 2010, the Company continued its rapid growth momentum with 231 net hotels opened, exceeding its original full year expansion plan of 170-200 net new hotel openings. At its current rate of expansion, taking into account both the expected hotel openings scheduled for 2011 and the estimated hotel development pipeline by the end of 2011, 7 Days expects to achieve its target of having 1,000 hotels in operation and under development (including leased-and operated hotels under conversion and managed hotels contracted but not opened) by the end of 2011.
Mr. Alex Nanyan Zheng, 7 Days’ Chief Executive Officer and Director, commented, “We have consistently demonstrated our strong execution capabilities by successfully delivering on our rapid expansion strategy, and I am proud of the accomplishments of our experienced hotel development team. We are pleased to see that the scalability of our business model – supported by our powerful eCommerce platform and our industry leading membership club – is proving stronger than the management team had originally anticipated. Looking into 2011, I am confident that we will be able to maintain our expansion momentum, which will help to increase brand awareness and is ultimately aimed at better satisfying the growing demand from our over 14 million loyalty club members for more convenient access to our high quality hotels and services.
“In addition, we believe our consistent track record of growth and well established operating systems will help to attract more franchisees and increase our operating scale as we continue to grow. As we currently have approximately 200 hotels under conversion, we are confident that we will be able to meet and exceed our target of 240 net hotel openings in 2011, which will allow us to solidify our position as one of the fastest expanding companies in the industry in China.”