The Hindu Business Line : EIH Ltd bets on the ‘Trident’ brand

Brand look: Mr P.R.S. Oberoi, Chairman, The Oberoi Group (right) and Mr Rattan Keswani, President, Trident Hotels, at a press conference in Mumbai on Monday. —

Shubhra Tandon

Mumbai, March 31 One of the oldest and leading Indian hospitality major EIH Ltd - the operators of The Oberoi Group is in for a change.

After terminating its strategic alliance for marketing and co-branding with Hilton International Company for the ‘Trident Hilton’ brand in India in September last year, it is now pursuing the most modern means of marketing - the Internet for the new identity. The hospitality major plans to make extensive use of Internet space and network of its trade and travel partners and would be spending a few crores on this.

Senior executives in the company told Business Line while the new brand identity ‘Trident’ is already visible on the current web site, it is in the process of being up graded with new content.

“Upgraded site would have interesting features like virtual tours, it would focus on meetings and conferences for MICE segment etc. It would take around two to three months for all this to be launched,” said Mr John Kuruvilla, Executive Vice-President-Marketing, declining to give exact figure for it. He spoke on the sidelines of a press conference organised by Oberoi group to launch new brand identity of Trident hotels.

Mr Rattan Keswani, President of Trident Hotels, told presspersons that the company spent more than $1 million for re-branding exercise. The Indian hospitality major currently has eight Trident hotels. It plans an oversees foray with both its Trident and Oberoi brands, as it eyes growth in places like Middle East (West Asia), Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, China, Philippines, Malaysia, and Singapore, said Mr P.R.S. Oberoi, Chairman and Chief Executive of EIH.

EIH is setting up a new Trident hotel in Mumbai at an investment of Rs 700 crore. This property is expected to start operations by December, Mr Oberoi said. The company is also setting up a 320-key Trident Hotel at the new Bangalore International Airport, and a similar capacity hotel in Hyderabad’s Cyber City.

EIH is also setting up a Trident in Chandigarh and is planning to form a joint venture partner for this. It is making an investment of about Rs 1 crore a key in each of the Trident hotels, and about Rs 1.5 crore in the case of an Oberoi hotel.

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