The Hindu Business Line : Royal Orchid to take signature restaurants, pubs across hotel brands

Pune, Jan. 17 Royal Orchid Hotels Ltd (ROHL) will take its signature restaurants across its various hotel formats, and is set to unveil a new pub that will first be set up at Pune before being launched in its properties elsewhere.

Amongst the restaurants that are set to travel across its business hotel brands are the Tiger Trail (Indian cuisine), Ginseng (Chinese), Paparazzi (roof-top restaurant) and a yet-to-be-named pub. The company, at present, has 10 properties in five categories of hotels — the top end 5-star Royal Orchid, 4-star Central, the deluxe 4-star Ramada, Resorts and Spa and Suites — and is set to double its room capacity by 2010.

Speaking at the launch of the Royal Orchid Central in Pune, Mr Chander Baljee, Managing Director, ROHL, said that the first of the new pubs would be unveiled here in a couple of months. “A restaurant serving Oriental cuisine in any of its hotels will be called Ginseng, while the Indian cuisine restaurant will be the Tiger Trail,” he added.

The company, which launched its second property in Pune and its 10th in India on Wednesday, is investing Rs 500 crore to gain a pan-India presence over the next two years. In what is seen as its first overseas venture, it has also acquired land in Tanzania and will set up a ‘Getaway’ brand hotel in Dar-es-Salaam over the next two years.

However, Mr Baljee said that expanding the brand was based on opportunity and not by design. “As a strategy we propose to stick to business hotels because of the reduced risk. Multiple formats like wholly owned properties, joint ventures, revenue sharing, management contracts and pure leases have been created to de-risk the business,” he said.

Elaborating on its plans, Mr Baljee said that the company was set to launch its first Ramada hotel at Bangalore in March, and is expected to launch nine hotels under this brand over the next four years. Central hotels are coming up at Hyderabad and Ahmedabad, while the one-hotel strong Royal Orchid brand would grow to six with hotels coming up at Jaipur, Delhi, Mumbai, Shimla and a second one at Bangalore by 2010.

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