LONDON - Foot-and-mouth disease has already hit the turnover of British hotel chain Thistle, which is 46 per cent owned by Brierley Investments.
Thistle, the largest hotel operator in London by number of rooms, yesterday announced a string of solid results, with full-year profit little-changed after investments to refurbish its properties.
Net profit rose to £54.8 million ($187.41 million), or 11.4p per share, from £54.4 million, or 10.8p, a year earlier.
Revenue, including a reopened hotel in Middlesbrough, northern England, increased by 8 per cent to £324.4 million.
Chief executive Ian Burke said that in the first eight weeks of 2001, turnover was up 10 per cent on the same period last year.
Then the foot-and-mouth epidemic struck Britain, bringing with it movement restrictions on tourists.
Major events such as the Wales-Ireland rugby game, horse racing and the Crufts dog show have been cancelled. England's huge Cheltenham racing carnival is under threat.
That had hurt, Mr Burke said.
"It is hitting tourism, but it is very difficult to predict how much the impact will be, because it is so hard to determine how long the outbreak will last," he said.
The sporting cancellations had had a direct impact, and callers from overseas were questioning whether they could still visit the countryside.
Mr Burke also warned that the uncertain general outlook worldwide may have some effect on the British hotel market.
Thistle, which owns 56 hotels in Britain, has focused on its four-star properties as the industry consolidated. It has upgraded its London rooms in particular, adding new bathrooms and computer modems to woo business travellers.
Thistle, a core holding for Bermuda-based Brierley, had in September reported a 9 per cent profit fall for the first six months of 2000.
Its recovery was London-led. There, turnover increased 9.6 per cent to £211 million, with revenue per room up 9.4 per cent.
The shares rose 4.5p, or 3.2 per cent, to 144.5p on Friday.
The stock had slipped 2.4 per cent in the year to February 28, compared with a 9.5 per cent drop in the 37-member FTSE All-Share Leisure, Entertainment & Hotels Index.
Mr Burke, who joined Thistle in 1998, said he was "very pleased" to have £32 million in cashflow, but the focus was on improving revenue, then controlling costs.
"We set out to establish the Thistle brand, upgrade the hotels, invest in technology. We've been following through those initiatives and we are starting to see the impact of that in results."
- NZPA
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