Sales at Moran Hotels up €5m in first six months of year

Sales at the Irish-owned Moran Hotels chain, which includes the Red Cow complex in Dublin, rose by €5 million year on year in the first six months of 2013.

Group finance director Pat Power said sales so far this year were up 6 per cent, room occupancy up 4 per cent, its rate was up 7.8 per cent and its RevPar (revenue per available room) up 12.5 per cent.

The improved performance was down to there being a “bit more money” in the economy, Mr Power said, with activity from meeting rooms, food and beverage all improving.

As an example, he cited how the chain would host 30,000 German tourists this year at its Bewleys hotels at Dublin Airport and Newlands Cross, up from about 25,000 last year. These are all sourced from one supplier.

The group, which is run by Tom Moran and his family, has created 78 new jobs as a result of the improved trading, including about 48 at its Irish hotels.

Like other hotels in Dublin, Moran is set to lose out from the cancellation of Garth Brooks concerts later this month. The group had secured €800,000 in room revenues for the five Brooks shows at Croke Park, much of which will have to be refunded if the gigs are pulled.

“That’s just for the rooms. It doesn’t take into account lost sales from food, drink or car parking,” Mr Power said. “It will hit us badly. That weekend will just die for the whole hotel industry in the city.”

The Moran chain comprises 10 hotels in Ireland and Britain with 2,627 rooms. It has resumed a programme of refurbishment at its hotels, put on hold while it completed a financial restructuring last year.

This resulted in the group receiving a capital injection of €125 million and its net debt being cut by €490 million to €205 million.

€15 million extension

Mr Power said it was pressing ahead with a near €15 million extension of its four-star Chiswick Moran Hotel in west London, which will add 98 bedrooms and new conferencing and banqueting facilities for 400 people.

Moran Hotels is also spending about €1.5 million upgrading the foyer of its Bewleys hotel in Ballsbridge, €800,000 on its function room facilities in the Red Cow and about €500,000 on the Silver Springs in Cork.