Dalata's aggressive bid in 2016 hopes to grow UK presence

An aggressive push into the UK market, from the latter part of 2016 onwards, will form the next phase of the Dalata Hotel Group’s ambitious expansion plans.

The group already operates one hotel in Cardiff and one in Chiswick, west London.

Speaking yesterday, chief executive Pat McCann said after the group’s current island of Ireland expansion drive, the next logical step will be to increase its presence in Britain.

Dalata has 1,600 rooms between its two UK hotels and Mr McCann said the number it may expand to could be “endless” given that it plans to grow in Britain using a leasing model, rather than an ownership structure.

Yesterday saw Dalata report a very strong set of first-half results; with pre-tax profits for the six months to the end of June jumping, year-on-year, from €900,000 to €2.7m and revenue nearly trebling to €97.7m.

The group spent nearly €524m on new hotels, during the period, mostly through its takeover of the majority of the Moran-Bewley group, with €71.4m spent elsewhere.

Management said the Moran-Bewley side of the business has outperformed initial expectations and it and the other newly acquired hotels, which contributed over €19m to first half earnings, will continue to drive growth this year.

“We are now focused on exploiting the very strong operating platform that we have created by acquiring further properties and maximising the returns from the hotels that we have acquired over the last 12 months,” he said.