Jurys Doyle reveals £17.9m hotel scheme

Jurys Doyle Hotel Group has revealed plans for a £17.9m development in Newcastle-upon-Tyne after revealing robust year-end results.

The Dublin-based hotel chain plans to build a 244-bedroom hotel in Newcastle on the back of an 11.3% increase in pre-tax profits from £30.36m to £33.8m.

Turnover was up 15% to £153m, from £132.9m.

The company said trading in the first two months of the current year is ahead of last year, and it is confident that its underlying performance will continue to be strong despite the difficult trading environment as a result of the outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease.

It said its key priority in the year ahead was to continue to expand across Europe and the US.

Chief executive Pat McCann said: "'We had a very active year and maintained our strong position in the domestic market.

"The impact of foot-and-mouth disease, although negative, was not significant due to our strategy of developing hotels and inns in geographically diverse, busy city centre locations."

The board, which announced its results in euros, proposes a final dividend of 12.7 cents per share, making a total payout for the year of 19.87 cents, an increase of 15.9%.