The finalisation of the accounts for the 2001 financial year at Mövenpick Hotels & Resorts (MH&R) has shown clearly that this international hotel group only fell marginally short of its last year result, despite the difficult situation in the tourist in-dustry after the September 11 the terrorist attacks.
Although total sales including leased and management opera-tions was below last year’s level at CHF 409.5 million (com-pared
with CHF 455 million in 2000), in light of the circum-stances profit at the EBIT level can be said to have held up above expectations at CHF 14.1 million (2000: CHF 14.7 mil-lion). This amount excludes the operating profits of the hotel
real estate companies. It even proved possible to raise the EBIT margin on consolidated sales of CHF 180,2 million, from 7.7 to 7.8 percent.
Although total sales including leased and management opera-tions was below last year’s level at CHF 409.5 million (com-pared
with CHF 455 million in 2000), in light of the circum-stances profit at the EBIT level can be said to have held up above expectations at CHF 14.1 million (2000: CHF 14.7 mil-lion). This amount excludes the operating profits of the hotel real estate companies. It even proved possible to raise the
EBIT margin on consolidated sales of CHF 180,2 million, from 7.7 to 7.8 percent.
Occupancy rates in Europe came to 66.3 percent, and in the Group as a whole to 62 percent, and it is satisfying to record that the average room rate over the Group as a whole was maintained at last year’s level. This is attributable to a strict
Yield Management policy which enabled the profit situation to be managed more effectively. In Germany, for instance, REVPAR (Revenue per available room) rose by 1.8 percentage points although the market as a whole recorded a decline of 0.8 percentage points.
“As a flexible management team we were able to react directly to the tourism crisis and establish a cost-saving plan, which re-sulted
in lowering our break-even points in many properties
without compromising on our strict quality standards” explains Jean Gabriel Pérès, President & CEO of Mövenpick Hotels & Resorts. “This plan was introduced successfully all over the world and made a decisive contribution to our good results. Moreover, we were less affected than other firms who are more heavily committed to the American market. Our most important markets are still Germany and Switzerland. There were setbacks in Egypt and Jordan but prospects for 2002 are
improving. Bookings for Easter are picking up again”.
Currency exchange-rates also affected revenue adversely. The soft Euro and the weakening of the Egyptian Pound had an im-pact of CHF 19 million versus last year`s sales.
“Taking all the adverse circumstances of 2001 into account, Mövenpick Hotels & Resorts can regard its performance as satisfactory”, emphasises Bruno Schöpfer, CEO Mövenpick Group.
MH&R’s expansion policy was pursued further as planned in
2001. In addition to signing a large number of contracts for ho-tels in key European cities, the Mediterranean region, and the Middle East, several new hotels were also opened with great success. One was the Group’s first hotel on the Italian market,
the Mövenpick Hotel Central Park in Rome, and another was a top-quality resort hotel, the Mövenpick Ulysse Palace & Thal-assoon the Tunisian island of Djerba. Further examples of ad-ditions to the MH&R portfolio were a 5-star hotel in Tangiers (Morocco) and a 4-star business hotel in Doha (Emirate of Qatar). Another 19 hotels and resorts are in the development
phase for the next few years.
Mövenpick Hotels & Resorts operates 42 hotels in 10 countries and fo-cuses on two hotel types. The business and conference hotel and the
holiday resort, catering to the respective needs of the guests. Business hotels are located in city centres or at airports and offer an optimal in-frastructure for the business traveller. The resorts are situated in typical
holiday destinations. The hotel group is present in Germany, Switzer-land,
the Netherlands, Italy, the Czech Republic, Jordan, Egypt, Mo-rocco, Tunisia and Qatar.
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