Malmaison and Hotel du Vin stress it's business as usual despite MWB Group administration
Malmaison and Hotel du Vin chief executive Gary Davis has stressed that it is business as usual for Malmaison and Hotel du Vin, despite the hotel brands' owner MWB Group Holdings calling in the administrators last week.
Malmaison and Hotel du Vin said their sales and profits were ahead 14% over the last four-month period on a like-for-like basis, and that the businesses had benefited from a strategic review implemented at the start of the year under its new management team.
Davis said: "The Malmaison and Hotel du Vin businesses have great brands and we continue to invest in the estate. We have a talented team who provide consistently high standards of service, as demonstrated by the excellent customer feedback we receive.
"Both businesses have performed well this year and we continue to see improvements in trading. Occupancy continues to improve with resilient room rates and recent management initiatives continue to deliver growth and margin improvements. We look forward to the exciting Christmas season and a successful 2013."
The share suspension related to an outstanding loan of £8m - now repayable - which the group owes to its subsidiary service office company MWB Business Exchange.
Meanwhile MWB Business Exchange also owes its parent company £4.8m in contractual payments, which were due to be paid between September this year and February 2013. It had been proposed that the remaining monthly payments were offset against the inter-company loan.
However the MWB Group had relied on the regular payments from MWB Exchange to meet its liabilities.
Following a failure to resolve the issue, the group has announced today that it has appointed two insolvency practitioners at Deloitte as joint administrator.
Malmaison and Hotel du Vin not impacted by MWB's share suspension, says chief exec >>
Future of MWB Group uncertain as shares suspended >>
By Neil Gerrard
E-mail your comments to Neil Gerrard here. If you have something to say on this story or anything else join the debate at Table Talk - Caterer's new networking forum. Go to www.catererandhotelkeeper.com/tabletalk
Catererandhotelkeeper.com jobs
Looking for a new job? Find your next job here with Catererandhotelkeeper.com jobs