Caterersearch.com 100: Matharu brothers

Overall ranking: 82

Hotelier ranking: 20

Matharu brothers - Snapshot

The Matharu brothers - Raj, Tony and Harpal - began turning empty offices into hotels in the 1980s. Grange Hotels, their collection of luxury properties in London, has 15 hotels across the capital, encompassing more than 1,600 bedrooms. Net assets at the Matharus' Globalgrange company grew from £224.4m to £267.2m in 2008-09.

Matharu brothers - Career guide

The Matharu brothers are low-key, almost to the point of invisibility, but they have quietly built up one of London's largest privately owned collections of luxury hotels. The Sunday Times 2010 Rich List estimates their wealth at £240m.

Matharu brothers - What we think

The Matharu brothers have chosen to locate their hotels in key central London and City locations - with a special penchant for the Bloomsbury area - near key attractions such as the West End, Covent Garden and the City. The exception is the Grange Bracknell hotel near Windsor.

In September 2005 the Grange City hotel made a major move into a niche market when it unveiled a women-only wing in its new-build seven-storey block.

The wing, built in response to requests from female guests, caters for businesswomen and pays particular attention to security and to specific female requirements. Each of the 68 female-only bedrooms provides a spyhole and chain on the door and offers a powerful hair-dryer with an extra-long cord, large bathroom shelving and a backlit make-up mirror.

Grange’s newest hotel, the Grange St Paul's, opened in late 2009 with 433 bedrooms. It is modern and significant, but opened without fanfare, which is fairly typical of the family.

Raj Matharu, the most outgoing of the brothers and most likely to be seen at industry events, did stick his head above the parapet in May by co-signing a hotel industry letter calling on London Mayor Boris Johnson to scrap his proposed levy on hotel development.

Matharu brothers - Further information

Grange to launch women-only rooms block at London hotel >>

Boris Johnson must scrap planned hotel tax now >>

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